Position: Consultant/Senior Consultant - Urban Employment

Organization: IIIHS

Location: Bengaluru, Delhi

Apply: https://iihs.co.in/job-application/

Job Description

The Consultant/Senior Consultant – Urban Employment will join a set of IIHS researchers working on different aspects of urban employment across the proposed Schools of Economic Development and Human Development. S/he will, over the medium term, have an opportunity to build out IIHS’ research, teaching, consulting and training on urban employment, with a focus on informal work, social protection and urban employment generation.

In 2020-21, the first project that the Consultant/Senior Consultant will join and will be expected to manage and lead is a large study of paid and unpaid work within the household, including paid domestic work, in urban Indian megacities. The project involves large scale survey based research in Bengaluru and Chennai. The candidate will also be expected to begin to initiate newer work on the national labour codes, as well as anchor IIHS’ work in discussions, formulations and policy design around urban employment and social protection.

We are particularly interested in candidates whose work has focused on informality and livelihoods, who have an interest in combining research and practice, and who seek to make an impact in policy making and practice around urban employment and social protection. We seek applicants from a wide spectrum of disciplinary and methodological approaches who are interested in being situated in an inter-disciplinary environment and working with colleagues from fields such as economics, public policy, sociology, urban planning, law, finance and development economics.

The position is ideally based in Bengaluru but may be based in Delhi with travel between the two cities. It will involve additional travel and field-work as required.

Activities and Tasks

Responsibilities would include, but not be limited to, the following:

• Anchoring a large survey-based research project on paid and unpaid work within the household, including paid domestic work. This involves being part of a team and managing survey agencies, collating data, anchoring interviews, and then guiding analysis and writing;
• Developing a new pipeline of research and/or practice projects, writing research grants, pitching for projects, and/or generating new opportunities for policy advisory at the state or national levels;
• Designing research on various aspects of urban employment, and carrying out the

research as well;

• Developing teaching materials including case studies, as well as participating in ongoing IIHS teaching and training activities;
• Involvement with various ongoing IIHS projects on employment such as those focused on the informal food economy, on industrial employment, on the relationship of work to social security and health seeking practices, etc.;
• Assisting with primary and secondary work as required for these projects;
• Working on converting insights from these projects into written outputs for a variety of

audiences, such as journal articles, commentary pieces, reports, policy papers and briefs, shorter articles for popular media, etc.;

• Assisting in project management, and participating in other institutional activities of IIHS as required.

Structure and Reporting

The Consultant/Senior Consultant – Urban Employment will report to the Senior Lead – Academics & Research at IIHS and will be required to collaborate effectively with a diverse group of internal teams and external individuals/organisations, and students.

Person Specification

We are looking for a bright and enthusiastic person with relevant qualifications and work experience, and an interest in being a part of an inter-disciplinary team. The candidate

should have the following:

• A Master’s or PhD in a relevant field including but not limited to economics, public policy, development economics, sociology, anthropology;
• A strong track record in either research or practice, working on questions of urban employment;
• Experience in leading field-based and/or survey-based research projects in Indian urban contexts;
• At least 8 years of professional experience on any aspect related to urban employment (or 2-4 years of professional experience with a PhD);
• Strong analytical and writing skills;
• Familiarity with data sources such as the Census and the National Sample Surveys is an added advantage;
• Capacity to read, write and speak in Kannada or Tamil are advantages, but not preconditions.

This offer is on an exclusive basis, which implies that other professional assignments (whether

compensated or not) that bear a potential conflict of interest with IIHS cannot be undertaken.

The search will remain open until the position is filled.