Research Analyst - Evidence Aggregation and Data Science

Research Analyst – Evidence Aggregation and Data Science

Global Poverty Research Lab, Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University

What does the Lab do?

The Global Poverty Research Lab (GPRL) is a research center based at Northwestern University that accelerates poverty reduction by generating frontier research and creating public goods in the form of data, methods, and syntheses, to enable others to design, test, and turn evidence into action. 

 

Projects at GPRL cut across the following pillars: 

• Frontier Research: Generate cutting edge research in development economics including themes of mental health, agriculture, social protection, and renewable energy; co-create and maintain long-run panels with local universities, governments, and civil society that enable longer-term insights and support layered RCTs.
• Advance Research Methods: Build and test better ways to measure and learn, from questionnaire design and enumerator recruitment to rapid-cycle experiments (A/B, factorial, micro-randomized) that implementers can run using their own administrative data to tune delivery models, incentives, and other protocols.
• Aggregate Global Evidence: Building semi-automated pipelines and AI-assisted workflows to compile and structure scattered evidence from RCTs into living knowledge bases and run rigorous meta-analyses; deliver insights via evidence syntheses, interactive dashboards, and publicly accessible data for donors, investors, and practitioners.
• Making Aid More Effective: Turn evidence into ready-to-use decision tools, “smart buys” menus, and ROI/cost-effectiveness frameworks for donors, ministries, multilaterals, impact investors, and social enterprises.

Our Team 

GPRL is co-directed by Dean Karlan, Christopher Udry, and Nancy Qian, professors at the Kellogg School of Management and the Weinberg School of Arts and Sciences’ Economics department at Northwestern University. Other actively affiliated professors include Andrew Dillon and Lori Beaman. GPRL’s research managers, research analysts, and administrative staff support our investigators’ projects, in the process working closely with colleagues at universities, NGOs, and research institutions around the world.

GPRL also works in close collaboration with research teams at Innovations for Poverty Action (IPA) to coordinate field data collection, disseminate evidence, and create shared training and research resources.

Job Summary   

GPRL is hiring 2 full-time Research Analyst – Evidence Aggregation and Data Science to support our Evidence Aggregation Initiative, a multi-institution effort to build scalable, AI-assisted infrastructure for compiling and synthesizing evidence from randomized controlled trials in development economics. The initiative spans the full pipeline from study selection and AI-assisted data extraction to microdata harmonization, meta-analysis, and public dissemination — with the goal of making the best available evidence on what works for whom more accessible to researchers, policymakers, and donors worldwide.

This position offers a rare opportunity to work at the intersection of data science, AI, and development economics research. The RA will contribute to a live, rapidly evolving pipeline at a moment when the project is scaling up from a pilot phase to broader operations. They will gain hands-on experience building and maintaining research data infrastructure, working with large language models in applied research contexts, conducting quantitative analysis, and supporting the management of a distributed network of data validators. The role suits candidates with strong technical skills who are equally motivated by the real-world impact of the work.

Core responsibilities:

• Supporting the operation and iterative improvement of the AI-assisted data extraction pipeline, including monitoring extraction accuracy, identifying fields where AI performance requires refinement, and contributing to validation workflows 
• Cleaning, organizing, and quality-checking data extracted from several published RCT papers into DEVIDENCE, GPRL's relational database of study-level metadata and treatment effects, and preparing it for use in cross-study analyses. 
• Cleaning and organizing study microdata from published RCTs and validating their replication packages to prepare them for harmonization and cross-study analyses.
• Supporting the crowdsourcing platform through which a distributed network of external validators review and adjudicate AI-extracted data, including helping to onboard new cohorts of validators, tracking coder performance, and identifying and resolving data quality issues 
• Conducting quantitative analysis using the harmonized data, including contributing to meta-analyses and evidence reviews, preparing tables and figures, and assisting with revisions to working papers and publications 
• Supervising undergraduate RAs engaged in data extraction and validation tasks, including providing training, reviewing work, and maintaining coding documentation 
• Contributing to the development and refinement of training materials, coding guides, and documentation that support both internal staff and the external validator community 
• Assisting with the design and implementation of data harmonization protocols for select outcome variables across studies, including writing and reviewing code that standardizes variables for cross-study comparability 
• Supporting project management and dissemination tasks, including tracking project milestones, preparing materials for funder and partner communications, and contributing to grant proposals and reports 
• Conducting literature reviews in support of meta-analyses, evidence syntheses, and grant proposals
• Supporting research staff with Lab-wide management tasks including mentoring new RAs, creating research and training resources, and supporting with recruitment

Minimum Competencies: 

• Strong programming skills in R, combined with a willingness to learn other statistical software.  Strong quantitative skills, including coursework in statistics, econometrics, or a related quantitative field
• Familiarity with randomized controlled trials 
• Excellent organizational skills 
• Fluency and excellent communication skills in English 
• Ability to seek resources and self-teach new statistical, analytical, and programming techniques
• Flexible, self-motivating, able to manage multiple tasks efficiently, and work in teams

Preferred Competencies:

• Familiarity with relational databases and structured data (e.g., SQL or equivalent experience working with multi-table datasets)
• Experience living or working in a developing country
• Experience with reproducible research workflows, version control (GitHub), and modern documentation tools (Quarto, R Markdown)
• Familiarity with meta-analytic methods or systematic review approaches
• Demonstrated ability to build data quality assurance systems and manage collaborative data projects
• Experience using advanced data infrastructure such as relational databases, API connections, and cloud computing
• Familiarity with Stata and/or Python preferred
• Familiarity working with a variety of machine learning models
• Familiarity with other statistical, visualization or digital data collection software like ArcGIS/Python/SurveyCTO is a strong plus

The research analyst will work in an open, collaborative environment with other GPRL staff in our common lab space at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois (bordering Chicago). The position offers the opportunity to interact with undergraduates, graduate students, and faculty from Kellogg and the department of economics at Northwestern, as well as research staff at IPA. It is well-suited for candidates interested in pursuing graduate study in economics or other social sciences in the future. It is also a great steppingstone for those wanting to explore non-academic careers in the field of development economics. The research analyst will be a full-time employee of Northwestern University with full benefits (including the ability to take classes at a highly subsidized tuition rate). 

We are looking for a minimum commitment of two years for this position.

 

Non-immigrant visa sponsorship for this role is subject to country-specific restrictions determined by the US Department of State. Since these regulations are regularly revised, we advise applicants to review the current restrictions before applying.

To apply, please fill out this form: https://forms.gle/bVbcNDQ8W6GzXgrm8