Job Opportunities at Precision Agriculture for Development (PAD)

Position description 

• At PxD, Research Managers have opportunities to work closely with PxD and affiliated researchers and substantially contribute to PxD’s research programs that test new ideas and measure their impacts.

Responsibilities may include 

• Identify learning objectives and resources available for one or more individual projects and manage the implementation of research activities, ensuring that projects adhere to appropriate rigor, policies, timelines, and budgets
• Develop and implement new research ideas and projects that support PxD’s programs and partners
• Guide teams on the use of evidence-based approaches, and ensure that PxD maintains the standards for technical appropriateness and rigor
• Interpret and contextualize external and internal evidence and insights for PxD programs
• Oversee data management and analysis for research projects, and survey creation and implementation
• Oversee documentation of research activities, research results, and rationale for decisions made
• Develop and track research project budgets and staff resourcing needs
• Manage relationships with partners and stakeholders
• Responsible for developing and ensuring compliance with IRB protocols and relevant in-country research permission requirements
• Contribute to funding proposals and project reports
• Contribute to PxD’s institutional knowledge management and internal learning efforts
• Contribute to internal and external communications to disseminate research findings including briefs, blogs, reports, and presentations
• Contribute to the strategic planning and global functioning of the organization
• Provide close mentorship and guidance to Associate level staff

Qualification and experience in the following domains are likely to be important

• Master’s degree in economics, agricultural economics, public policy, or a closely related field
• Professional experience working on at least two large projects involving design and management of rigorous research and/or evidence-based program in developing countries
• Adept at consuming large amounts of academic and scientific literature as well as other technical information, synthesizing key findings, and applying takeaways to program and research design
• Deep understanding of economics and randomized evaluations
• Excellent knowledge of Stata or R or similar software for data analysis
• Strong grasp of the research & program life cycle and ability to supervise all activities on the ground
• Experience managing program and/or research staff
• Experience managing partnerships with an implementing organization
• Understanding and application of research ethics for human subjects in the social sciences
• Excellent organizational skills, detail-oriented, and ability to work both independently and collaboratively
• Fluency in English. Demonstrated strong oral and written communication skills.
• Ability to work under time pressure and solve problems creatively

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Position description

• At PxD, Research Associates have opportunities to work closely with PxD and affiliated researchers and substantially contribute to PxD’s research programs that test new ideas and measure their impacts.

Responsibilities may include 

• Support the implementation of research activities for one or more workstreams with moderate oversight
• Carry out day-to-day basic data management, including cleaning and merging datasets to prepare them for analysis
• Produce accurate and organized summaries of data including basic analysis for descriptive statistics and simple regression analysis
• Support primary data collection, including enumerator training and running high frequency data checks
• Maintain project documentation, including experiment registry entries
• Carry out literature reviews and other desk research when research questions and basic structure are provided
• Fill in frameworks provided with specific information to identify program insights
• Draft survey and focus group discussion instruments when structure and concepts are provided
• Support PxD’s institutional knowledge management and internal learning efforts
• Contribute to internal and external communications to disseminate research findings including briefs, blogs, reports, and presentations
• Support IRB protocol development
• Contribute to funding proposals and project reports
• Assist with partner relations and working with external stakeholders for implementation of field operations

Qualification and experience in the following domains are likely to be important 

• A bachelor’s degree in economics, agricultural economics, public policy, statistics, or a closely related field
• Strong understanding of economics, econometrics, and familiarity with randomized evaluations
• Excellent knowledge of Stata or R or similar software for data analysis
• Experience working on field research in economics in developing countries
• Experience in using SurveyCTO or a similar program for survey design
• Understanding of research ethics for human subjects in the social sciences
• Excellent organizational skills, detail-oriented, and ability to work both independently and collaboratively
• Fluency in English. Demonstrated strong oral and written communication skills
• Ability to work under time pressure and solve problems creatively