The International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) seeks a qualified candidate to serve as a Research Fellow or Senior Research Fellow for a three-year, fixed term, renewable appointment in its Poverty Health and Nutrition Division (PHND). The Research Fellow or Senior Research Fellow will conduct research in applied microeconomics and impact evaluation, will help design and manage research projects and will contribute to fundraising within the Division. This position is based at IFPRI headquarters located in Washington, D.C. Grade level will be determined by demonstrated expertise and experience.
PHND's dynamic research programs combine state-of-the-art empirical work, partnerships with developed and developing country researchers and policy dialogue with senior government officials and civil society organizations. The successful candidate will join our research teams contributing to research programs on social protection; the interface between agriculture, health and nutrition; human capital development; and on how accounting for gender can improve program impact on development outcomes. Successful candidates will also have the opportunity to develop their own research projects and explore work in other areas that serve the broad research agenda of the Division and Institute, such as our work on large scale maternal and child health and nutrition programs.
Essential Duties:
Specific duties include but are not limited to:
- Conduct innovative research and write analytical papers based in part on impact evaluations related to the Division's research programs and communicate these results to diverse audiences.
- Help design research projects, including designing, implementing and analyzing household surveys as part of the Division's impact evaluations.
- Publish papers in peer-reviewed journals
Required Qualifications:
- PhD in Economics, Agricultural Economics or related field
- 5+ years of post-PhD experience relevant to the job and demonstrated fundraising experience
- Excellent publication record in peer-reviewed journals
- Major external recognition within peer professional network due to publications and other leaderships activities
- Excellent econometric skills
- Demonstrated knowledge of state-of-the-art econometric techniques used in impact evaluations (e.g., randomized assignment, matching, regression discontinuity, etc.) and panel data analysis
- Demonstrated leadership skills and strong experience building and managing teams
- Demonstrated leadership in developing global research programs for policy recommendations
- Experience in using household survey data for econometric and statistical analyses
- Ability to work with researchers from other social and biological sciences
- Excellent communication skills in written and spoken English
- Willingness to travel and work in developing countries
Additional qualifications at the Senior Research Fellow level:
- 7+ years of post-PhD experience relevant to the job and demonstrated fundraising experience
- Excellent publication record in peer-reviewed journals, including publications on topics related to IFPRI's research programs
- Evidence of success in major leadership role in managing large research projects
- Evidence of significant success at fundraising for research, including substantial awards for research grants
Preferred Qualifications:
- Experience working with complex household data sets from developing countries containing data on income, consumption, assets, health and nutrition
- Familiarity with the literature on human capital formation and evaluations, including gender and intrahousehold factors affecting these outcomes
- Field experience in collecting quantitative household data in developing countries, especially in Africa or South Asia.
