Job Title: Postdoctoral Research Officer
Reports to: Director - Research, CSBC
Overview of CSBC:
The Centre for Social and Behaviour Change (CSBC), Ashoka University - India’s leading liberal arts University - is funded by a grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF). The vision of CSBC is to establish an institution, based out of India that is globally reputed for thought leadership and excellence in impactful behaviour change interventions for low-income and marginalized populations. The Centre is focused on bringing new capabilities such as behavioural science, design thinking, advanced data analytics and responsive feedback to governments, practitioners and donors to help better design and optimize behaviour change interventions. We work closely with Central and State Governments as well as other stakeholders in the areas of nutrition, sanitation, financial inclusion, maternal & newborn care, data privacy and agriculture.

Project Context:
CSBC has recently partnered with the Center for Decision Research (CDR) at University of Chicago's Booth School of Business to establish a Behavioural Research Initiative for engaging in various research-related projects and programmes. This partnership includes, but is not limited to the following kinds of collaborations:
1. Short and Long-term Faculty Exchange
2. Collaborative Research and Discovery, Learning and Teaching
3. Participant surveys to collect data
4. Co-hosted conferences, workshops and seminars
5. Generation of new knowledge and its expeditious dissemination for the public's benefit, including through academic publications.

Role and Responsibilities:
The Postdoctoral Research Officer would be responsible to oversee the full gamut of activities under this partnership from coordination with the CDR team to design, implementation and analysis of different projects under this collaboration.

1. Lead and manage the portfolio of behaviour science research-related projects and programmes under the CSBC-CDR partnership:
a. Designing lab, lab-in-the-field and field experimental protocols:
i. Consulting stakeholders on the outcomes of interest and their measurement
ii. Calculating sample requirements and identifying appropriate subjects - designing sampling strategies that might be required (cluster, strata, etc.)
iii. Developing appropriate interventions along with strategies for randomization
iv. Preparing and submitting Pre-Analysis Plans for these research projects
b. Executing lab, lab-in-the-field and field experiments:
i. Negotiating design and execution details with partner institutions and clients;
ii. Overseeing ethical review of experiments
iii. Hiring and training required staff and supervisors
iv. Managing logistics of on-the-ground interventions, data collection and subject payments

c. Managing experimental data analysis:
i. Overseeing programming necessary for the collection of outcome data (in particular for lab and online experiments)
ii. Developing of experimental data cleaning and archiving plans
iii. Carrying out statistical analysis of data using Python, R or Javascript programming based on the pre-analysis plans
iv. Overseeing the preparation of data visuals; and organising and submitting replication datasets and codebooks

2. Managing the administration of the overall CSBC-CDR partnership:
a. Managing all aspects of the design and implementation of the collaborative CSBC/CDR experiments, including scheduling and assisting with the design of the experimental projects and managing the associated administrative tasks.
b. Providing research support to researchers in CDR and CSBC
c. Facilitating the CSBC and CDR collaborative projects; staffing the implementation of collaborative CSBC/CDR experiments, and monitoring finances.
3. Facilitating Capacity-building components of CSBC-CDR partnership:
a. Undertaking occasional teaching responsibilities at Ashoka University and conducting training workshops with external clients - delivering teaching and training on topics such as experimental research methods and design in the CSBC and the CDR
b. Managing and organizing joint conferences, workshops and seminars
c. Facilitating short and long-term Faculty Exchange between CSBC and CDR
A person in this position with a completed PhD/DPhil/FPM will be expected to spend some of his/her work time on his/her own behavioral research agenda (in line with the objectives of the Centre) as well as contribute to other ongoing work at the Centre.

Desired Qualifications and Skills Required:
1. Having completed, or being close to completing, a PhD/DPhil/FPM in a relevant Social Science discipline (e.g. Economics, Public Policy, Behaviour Science), or Computer Science/ Mathematics/ Statistics or related fields
2. Familiarity with the design and implementation of lab, lab-in-the-field and field experiments
3. Extensive experience with statistical analysis software (such as R or Stata),
4. Ability and willingness to carry out independent scholarly experimental research on topics that contribute to the research agendas of CSBC and CDR
5. Ability and willingness to deliver teaching and training on topics such as experimental research methods and design
6. Excellent management and organisational skills along with strong quantitative skills
7. Experience programming surveys or virtual lab experiments in oTree, zTree, Qualtrics, SurveyMonkey, SurveyCTO, etc.
8. Flexible, self-motivated, able to manage multiple tasks efficiently, and team player
9. Ability to succeed in unstructured and changing environments
10. Some conversational-level skills in regional languages
11. Ability to give and receive constructive feedback

Venue and days of work:
This role is based in India. Hence, the candidate should have work authorization in India (preferably Indian citizenship or Overseas Citizenship of India). This is a full-time role (Monday-Friday) for a duration of 3 years. However, due to the COVID-19 situation, CSBC has switched to a work-from-home model of operations. Given these circumstances, the role would be on-boarded and executed remotely. The person would need to have their own laptop and access to a functioning internet connection. They would need to be available through regular working calls to virtually join team discussions and to
support project requests.

How to apply:
Send your application to csbc@ashoka.edu.in
In your application please include:
● A cover letter, highlighting your experience relevant to the job requirements.
● CV (not exceeding two pages).