Manager, Project Impact Investing

Overview

Harvard University seeks to advance its world-changing mission through a diverse and welcoming environment. Harvard Business School (HBS) fosters innovation, collaboration, and skill-building across its campuses and programs.

Project on Impact Investing

Harvard Business School seeks a Manager, Project on Impact Investing to work closely with Professors Shawn Cole and Josh Lerner in advancing the HBS Project on Impact Investing. The project combines rigorous academic research with close engagement with investors, policymakers, and practitioners to deepen understanding of sustainable and impact investing and inform practice in the field.

Reporting directly to the faculty supervisors and administratively to the Research Staff Services (RSS) office, the Manager will play an integral role across all aspects of the project’s work, including designing and executing research, building and maintaining datasets, and supporting practitioner engagement and dissemination of research.

This position is suited to candidates with experience in consulting, finance, economic research, or mission-driven financial services who want to deepen their research skills while contributing to high-impact academic work. Previous individuals in this role have progressed to leading PhD programs or careers in impact investing, financial services, and social enterprise.

Research and Analysis

• Conduct quantitative and qualitative research in support of faculty research projects on sustainable and impact investing.
• Use AI-enabled research tools, large language models (LLMs), machine learning techniques, and traditional methods to collect, organize, analyze, and interpret complex datasets.
• Develop and maintain novel datasets to support ongoing academic research.
• Perform data analysis, literature reviews, and other analytical work for research published in leading journals and practitioner outlets.
• Conduct interviews and code qualitative research data.
• Draft research memoranda, presentations, reports, and other materials for academic and practitioner audiences.
• Produce case studies, teaching notes, and course materials for HBS courses.
• Identify opportunities to strengthen research methodologies and data collection processes and apply emerging analytical tools.

Project Management

• Coordinate multiple concurrent research projects, ensuring milestones, deliverables, and timelines are met.
• Manage relationships with external collaborators and practitioners, representing the faculty and the Project on Impact Investing.
• Support the collection of research documentation and data through outreach to participating organizations and stakeholders.
• Coordinate research operations, including budgets, research agreements (NDAs and DUAs), meetings, and logistics.
• Plan and support conferences, research convenings, webinars, and other events that advance the project’s research and engagement.

Research Dissemination and External Engagement

• Support dissemination of research findings through presentations, publications, digital platforms, and practitioner outreach.
• Maintain project websites and digital resources in collaboration with Marketing & Communications.
• Collaborate with colleagues across HBS to support research-related programming and communications.
• Represent the project professionally in interactions with investors, company executives, policymakers, researchers, alumni, and other external stakeholders.

Other Responsibilities

• Build trust and collaboration by being present on-site and engaging with colleagues and constituents.
• Responsible for other duties as assigned.

The Manager will have significant responsibility for advancing multiple research initiatives, requiring intellectual curiosity, analytical judgment, and the ability to translate complex questions into actionable work plans. The role offers opportunities to contribute to academic research, case development, and practitioner publications, with potential co-authorship on selected projects. It also offers opportunities to learn new research methodologies and to take advanced coursework at Harvard.

Because the project collaborates with senior…