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 marginalised 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 optimise 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 and newborn care, data privacy, and agriculture.

Overview of Role
CSBC operates across three important verticals:

• Policy and Advocacy - aimed at providing technical support on building Behavioural Insights capabilities/units within Government, State Departments, and other NGOs
• Research - aimed at developing a strong body of behaviour science research in India, and
• Visibility - aimed at encouraging the growth of the behavioural science community in India through promulgation of scientific, policy and results-oriented resources

The Associate will be working with the Centre’s new Data Analytics Team, under the Research Vertical. The role would involve:

• Assisting the design and implementation of Behavioural Science Machine Learning projects
• Supporting with data preparation, management and quality control for various CSBC projects

Responsibilities

The Data Associate would be responsible for:

Supporting Behavioural Science Machine Learning research projects:

• Assist with development of behavioral science-driven research ideas which leverage machine learning techniques.
• Work in collaboration with the Field Research Team to Identify behavioural science interventions which have potential to scale
• Build analytical solutions using proven or upcoming statistical techniques
• Preparing data visuals; and organising and submitting replication datasets and optimised codebooks
• Identify opportunities to augment data collection process beyond traditional survey methods

Build automated applications for collecting, cleaning, analysing and publishing publicly available data sources

• Identify new and trusted data sources
• Build automated codes to scrape said information
• Create documentation for new data source so it can be leveraged by the Centre

Programme behavioral games for treatment delivery as well as outcome measurement, using data-driven insights

• Simulate small-scale games to reveal field insights on various priority/target behaviours and indicators
• Providing technical support in running these games during on-field sessions

Analysing secondary and primary data to support research projects:

• Carrying out programming necessary for the collection of outcome data (in particular for lab, lab-in-the-field and field experiments)
• Carrying out statistical analysis of data using Python, R, Stata or Javascript programming based on the pre-analysis plans
• Preparing data visuals; and organising and submitting replication datasets and optimised codebooks

Supporting the development of experimental design protocols for research projects

• Assisting in literature reviews to deepen understanding of the behavioural science evidence base for identified project areas
• Supporting dissemination efforts of the findings through preparation of reports/ presentations/ papers/articles, etc.

Skills Required

• Master’s degree is preferred but not required
• Aspiring data specialist with a passion for social sciences, obsessiveness for attention to detail, and high emotional quotient
• At least 1-2 years of experience working on data analytics projects and initiatives with a strong analytical/problem solving mindset
• Intermediate quantitative skills - hands-on experience of statistical techniques such as regression, time series analysis, etc.
• Strong application knowledge of statistical analysis tools such as R/Stata/Python etc.Ability to clean, prepare and construct data efficiently and effectively
• Familiarity with randomised controlled trials/clinical trials/quasi-experiments
• Excellent management and organisational skills
• Flexible, self-motivated, able to manage multiple tasks efficiently, and be a team player
• Ability to excel in unstructured and changing environments
• Ability to give and receive constructive feedback

Additional Desired Skills and Experiences

• Experience with visualisation tools such as PowerBI
• Familiarity with software designed for recruiting and managing the subject pool
• Experience of programming online surveys and virtual lab experiments in oTree, zTree, Qualtrics, SurveyMonkey,
• SurveyCTO, etc.
• Proficiency with GitAbility to write and present research findings articulately
• Experience of managing large databases.
• Proficiency with web programming and scripting languages, such as PHP, and Python, and related web sweeping and text analysis software.
• Experience managing the cloud servers that run the virtual and online experimental sessions.

Venue and Days of Work

This role is based in India. Hence, the candidate should have work authorisation in India (preferably Indian citizenship or Overseas Citizenship of India). The selected candidate will be offered a full-time (Monday-Friday) contract for one year with the possibility for renewal based on the discretion of the Centre and its funders.
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:
Name of the position that you are applying for (full Job Title as mentioned above)
A cover letter, highlighting your experience relevant to the job requirements
CV (not exceeding two pages)
How you came across this job description
In case you are referred by or have already spoken to someone as CSBC, kindly mention their name and Email ID