Research Associate - J-PAL North America

Research Associate - J-PAL North America

J-PAL North America, a research center within the Economics department at MIT, seeks two Research Associates to join its team and contribute to its mission to reduce poverty by ensuring that policy is informed by scientific evidence. J-PAL North America conducts randomized evaluations, builds partnerships for evidence-informed policy making, and helps partners scale up effective programs. As a regional office of the global Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab, J-PAL North America leverages research by affiliated professors from universities across the world to generate and disseminate rigorous evidence about which anti-poverty social policies work and why.

This position is based on the MIT campus in Cambridge, Massachusetts and provides a hybrid work schedule with some days in the office and some days remote.

To advance our mission, J-PAL North America seeks exceptionally talented individuals of every background whose diverse lived experiences can help us ask better questions and identify better solutions to address the complex causes and consequences of poverty. We are committed to engaging in self-reflection, learning, and dialogue to nurture understanding across differences. Together, we will build an equitable, inclusive culture where everyone feels respected, empowered, and heard.

As a member of the J-PAL North America team, our Research Associates are part of a Nobel-prize winning scientific movement that can strengthen the wider research community and transform US policy making. Our Research Associates play an important part in our work alongside a team of cutting edge researchers who are working to reduce poverty. Research Associates will support a number of randomized evaluations that are being launched across the country.

Our Research Associates help the Research team draw lessons from the implementation and analysis of evaluations and translate these lessons into generalizable best practices, protocols, or training materials. They will also support the development of resources that could contribute to the success of new academics who are beginning to work on RCTs.

For our Research Associate positions, we are looking for candidates with a bachelor's degree, strong technical skills, an understanding of impact evaluation, training in economics and statistics, strong writing and communication skills, and a commitment to evidence-based policy. We seek applicants from all backgrounds and welcome candidates with experience working on randomized evaluations in the United States or abroad. We anticipate hiring two Research Associates during this recruitment process, with one beginning in April 2026 and one beginning in July 2026.

Responsibilities

• Support the design of new randomized evaluations through literature reviews, background research, data analysis, and project management.
• Assist with obtaining access to administrative data and applying for IRB approvals.
• Write evaluation design memos describing proposed interventions or evaluation methods.
• Assist in refining the theory of change, developing an analysis plan, and identifying potential constraints and threats to the integrity of the experiment.
• Support relationship management between J-PAL North America, researchers, and external partners to foster collaboration on impact evaluations.
• Field ad hoc research assistance requests (e.g., advice on the use of administrative data, power calculations, and research resources).
• Build capacity of research staff by supporting training engagements.
• Contribute to the development, curation, and dissemination of research resources and best practices in conducting rigorous evaluation.
• Centralize information and best practices on research management, administrative data access and analysis, ethics, regulatory compliance, and other research issues.
• Support the Economics Pathways program by scheduling and taking notes in meetings, developing communications and outreach products to advertise training programs.
• Contribute to trainings on randomized evaluations for pre-doctoral and doctoral level participants by drafting, revising, and copy editing presentation slides, exercise handouts, and additional resources.
• Update and adapt existing resources so they are relevant to researchers operating in the North American context.
• Translate lessons learned from specific evaluations into general research resources.

This full-time, exempt position is classified by MIT as a Research Policy Associate I, SRS position. Please find the current pay range for this position with the job posting on MIT's career website . This is a fixed market-based salary range and the starting salary MIT offers any candidate will be based on their experience relative to others in similar roles at MIT.

J-PAL North America staff are MIT employees, which means they are eligible for a wide array of institutional benefits. Some of these MIT benefits include comprehensive health insurance, a 401(k) match up to 5% of salary plus a…