Research Associate, Digital Data Design Institute

Company Description

By working at Harvard University, you join a vibrant community that advances Harvard's world-changing mission in meaningful ways, inspires innovation and collaboration, and builds skills and expertise. We are dedicated to creating a diverse and welcoming environment where everyone can thrive.

Why join Harvard Business School?

Harvard Business School, located on a 40-acre campus in Boston, was founded in 1908 as part of Harvard University. It is among the world's most trusted sources of management education and thought leadership. For more than a century, the School's faculty has combined a passion for teaching with rigorous research conducted alongside practitioners at world-leading organizations to educate leaders who make a difference in the world.

Through a dynamic ecosystem of research, learning, and entrepreneurship that includes MBA, Doctoral, Executive Education, and Online programs, as well as numerous initiatives, centers, institutes, and labs, Harvard Business School fosters bold new ideas and collaborative learning networks that shape the future of business.

Harvard Business School (HBS) seeks multiple Research Associates to support faculty in our Digital Data Design Institute. The successful candidate will have a strong quantitative foundation in data management (both structured and unstructured), machine learning, and statistical modeling to generate research informed insight in support of faculty. This role also involves assisting with field and lab in field studies.

The Research Associate (RA) position reports directly to faculty supervisors and administrative manager in the Research Staff Services office. Ideal RA candidates will be comfortable in an environment that requires a high level of independence, intellectual curiosity, and the ability to use discretionary judgment.

• Build trust and collaboration by being present on-site and engaging directly with colleagues and various constituents.
• Develop and maintain scalable data pipelines for analysis, leveraging machine learning models as well as statistical modeling and causal inference analysis to inform data-driven insights.
• Manage and manipulate data using requested programming, such as R or Python.
• Synthesize research literature in marketing, management science, and organizational behavior to inform empirical work.
• Balance project requests from multiple faculty, using strong communication and prioritization skills. Must be able to structure assignments and keep faculty member informed as necessary, using own judgment.
• Independently manage all timelines and deliverables. Exercise independent decision making with regard to progression of research project and methodologies.
• Responsible for other duties as assigned.

• Bachelor’s degree with a GPA above 3.5 is required.
• Proficiency in R or Python.
• Experience with one of the following required:
  • Programming and Data Handling:
    Experience with SQL, PySpark, and cloud-based data tools such as Azure Data Lake, Synapse, or Fabric; and strong command of data wrangling, cleaning, and large-scale dataset management.
  • Machine Learning/Deep Learning:
    Experience with PyTorch, Tensor Flow, or Hugging Face; embedding models; and model validation/deployment.
  • Causal Inference/Experimentation:
    Knowledge of experimental design, randomization, and causal identification methods.

• Master’s degree in Quantitative Marketing, Management Science, Economics, Data Science, or Computer Science is a plus.
• Experience designing or analyzing field or lab-in-the-field experiments.
• Familiarity with the Microsoft Azure ecosystem, NLP, or AI assistant technologies.

• Indication of independent research experience and/or applied experience.
• Must be able to take complex research ideas, concepts, and methodologies and apply them to new projects and situations.
• Ability to use own judgement, structure assignments, and keep faculty members informed are a must.
• Excellent communication, interpersonal, organization, research, analytical, writing, and editing skills are required.
• Proven ability to handle multiple…