National Security Economics Researcher

Job Type: Regular

RAND's Economics, Sociology and Statistics (ESS) department is seeking a National Security Economics Researcher at all career stages to contribute to rigorous, policy-relevant research at the intersection of economics and national security. RAND researchers lead and contribute to projects that deliver objective, rigorous evidence to inform decision makers across the defense, intelligence, and foreign policy communities. Researchers working on national security economics in ESS bring quantitative analytical skills to bear on a wide range of questions, including how U.S. commercial economic power (i.e. the capacity embedded in private firms, markets, and industries) can be identified, protected, and operationalized to advance national security while sustaining domestic prosperity.

Their work spans economic statecraft, sanctions, and export controls; supply chain and critical materials dependencies; the defense industrial base and manufacturing strategy; cost- and benefit-sharing between government and commercial actors; and the strategic implications of concentrated technical expertise in frontier technologies.

• Reputation for Excellence :
  Be part of a non-profit, non-partisan organization renowned for its rigorous and objective research.
• Dynamic Opportunities :
  Collaborate in multidisciplinary teams on diverse projects that challenge and expand your skills.
• Poised for Impact :
  Your research will directly inform senior policymakers across the defense, intelligence, and foreign policy communities, and will draw on close engagement with senior practitioners across the private sector.

National Security Economics Researchers at RAND apply their analytical and substantive expertise to:

• Design and conduct rigorous economic analyses of national security problems, including how commercial capabilities such as supply chains, financial networks, and technologies can be used to achieve strategic effects, and the secondary and tertiary consequences of doing so.
• Frame priority questions for and help convene small working groups of senior private-sector practitioners; translate government and RAND requirements into workable, unclassified formats; and distill practitioner judgment into objective, evidence-based findings.
• Produce short-form analytic products for U.S. government decision makers on timelines matched to the requirement alongside longer-form research on generational challenges such as cost- and benefit-sharing in national security, human capital as a strategic good, and manufacturing as a source of commercial economic power.
• Develop reusable analytic frameworks, models, and tools, including commercially informed tabletop exercises and AI-enabled capabilities for assessing economic leverage, exposure, resilience, and private-sector incentives.
• Communicate research results to national security policymakers and the public through written products and oral presentations.
• Contribute to business development efforts, including proposal writing and cultivating relationships with sponsors in the defense and national security community, as well as with private-sector partners and supporters.
• Mentor junior researchers and contribute to a collaborative, inclusive research environment.

All research positions at RAND require:

• Demonstrated training in quantitative research methods
• Strong analytic skills and intellectual curiosity
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills in English
• The ability to work effectively as a member of inclusive, multidisciplinary teams
• A strong commitment to RAND's core values of quality and objectivity

Successful applicants will have demonstrated expertise in one or more of the following content areas:

• Economic statecraft, including sanctions, export controls, investment screening, and the national security uses of financial networks
• Industrial organization, supply chains, and the defense and broader industrial base, including manufacturing, critical minerals, energy, and logistics
• Public economics and mechanism design, including measuring and allocating private costs and benefits in public-private collaboration
• Economics of innovation and human capital in frontier technologies such as AI, semiconductors, and biotechnology
• International trade, finance, and macroeconomics as they bear on strategic competition

We welcome applications from candidates at all stages of their research careers, from recent PhD graduates to experienced senior…