Research Associate (General

Research Associate (General)

Harvard Business School (HBS) is seeking multiple Research Associates (General) starting in Summer 2026 to support assigned faculty members leading projects across a variety of business topics including:

• Harvard Business School AI Institute
• Julie Battilana's Research on Social Innovation & Change
• Managing the Future of Work and US Competitiveness Project

You will see this posting updated with names of additional hiring faculty listed in the coming months as more needs are identified. We ask that you please indicate the faculty you are interested in supporting in your cover letter.

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

Primary duties:

• Work under the general direction of HBS faculty on topics central to HBS research agenda. Provide subject-area knowledge, analysis and interpretation to faculty member. Identify and explore a wide range of questions related to faculty's research agenda.
• Write cases, case supplements, project reports, and policy memos from start to finish creating original writing based on subject-area expertise, research, and interviews, and write articles for applicable business audiences such as Harvard Business Review.
• Develop, design, conduct, analyze, and implement research using data science knowledge and prior knowledge of requested statistical packages. Perform statistical programming. Experience with NLP.
• Manage and manipulate data using requested packages, such as STATA, Python, R, or MATLAB.
• Ensure compliance with department, University, and federal regulations. Complete work with only general direction. Be aware of department, School, University policies and potential outside research policies.
• Under general direction of faculty member, must be able to take complex research ideas, concepts, and methodologies and apply them to new projects and situations. Must be able to structure assignments and keep faculty member informed as necessary, using own judgment.
• Build trust and collaboration by being present on-site and engaging directly with colleagues and various constituents.
• Responsible for other duties as assigned.

Qualifications:

• Ability to read academic, subject-specific information and write a reasoned and thoughtful analysis, as well as produce a creative interpretation, is a must.
• Bachelor's degree with a GPA above 3.5 is required.

Additional Information:

• Appointment End Date:
  June 30, 2027. These are term appointments starting summer 2026 through June 30, 2027, with an expectation of reappointment until June 30, 2028, based on funding and performance. All Research Associate roles at HBS are structured as one-year term appointments, but faculty strongly prefer candidates willing to commit for two years.
• Standard Hours/
  
  Schedule:
  
  40 hours per week
• Visa Sponsorship Information:
  Harvard University is unable to provide visa sponsorship for this position
• Pre-Employment Screening:
  Education, Identity
• The recruiting process is currently ongoing for the  academic year.
• This is a hybrid position which we consider to be a combination of remote and onsite work at our Boston, MA based campus. HBS expects all staff to be onsite a minimum of 3 days per week and departments provide onsite coverage Monday – Friday. Specific hours and days onsite will be determined by business needs and are subject to change with appropriate advanced notice.
• We may conduct candidate interviews virtually (phone and/or via Zoom) and/or in-person for this role.
• A cover letter is required to be considered for this opportunity. All candidates will be expected to submit a writing sample, transcript, and at times a code sample to be reviewed by an HBS statistician.