Behavioral Science Design Lead (Field Based/Frequent Field Travel)

CEGA seeks a motivated Behavioral Science Design Lead (BSDL) to manage the design, implementation and evaluation of multiple projects involving budgeting and savings interventions with partners across sub-Saharan Africa.

Start Date & Duration

Desired Start Date: Between June 15 and July 30, 2025 

Duration: 3 months as a full-time consultant, with potential to extend

Location

Location of position is flexible and will require frequent, extended travel (50-75% time) to sub-Saharan Africa including but not limited to Mozambique, Malawi, Uganda. 

Remuneration

Competitive and commensurate with experience and dependent on location.

About CEGA

The Center for Effective Global Action (CEGA) is a hub for research, training and innovation headquartered at the University of California, Berkeley. We generate insights that decision-makers can use to improve policies, programs, and people’s lives. Our best-in-class academic network includes nearly 200 faculty, 80 scholars from low- and middle-income countries (LMICs)—primarily from East and West Africa—and hundreds of graduate students from diverse academic disciplines who produce rigorous evidence about what works to expand education, health, and economic opportunities for people living in poverty. Our business model involves curating policy-relevant research agendas in collaboration with development leaders, overseeing competitive grant-making to answer critical questions, investing in research capacity, and strategically connecting research and ideas to inform decision-making by governments, NGOs, and the private sector.

CEGA values diversity and seeks to include people from under-represented groups on our team. Read our values statement.

Budgeting and Saving Portfolio Background

The BSDL will help adapt interventions that use evidence-backed and low-cost tools (the “planning intervention”) to help households budget and plan for the year ahead, effectively leveraging insights from psychology and behavioral science to address the challenge of effective consumption smoothing. By incorporating these tools into existing programs, like cash transfers and agricultural extension trainings, that serve vulnerable households, the team aims to boost households’ ability to meet their own personal savings goals.   

This work is informed by this team’s previous research on seasonal hunger, a common problem in Sub-Saharan Africa. Farmers often harvest their crops once per year, but then run out of food in the months before the next harvest—a period known as “the hungry season.” Over the past two years, the research team developed a simple, low-cost planning intervention based on principles from psychology to help farmers better smooth their maize consumption. An initial randomized control trial (RCT) with 850 households in Zambia found large effects: treated households entered the hungry season with one month more of food in savings, and had 10% higher harvest revenue due to increased farm investments. This successful intervention is now being adapted and tested at scale with One Acre Fund in Malawi. Previous projects have been funded by the Weiss Asset Management Foundation, USAID’s Development Innovation Ventures, the Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab (J-PAL), the UC Davis Feed the Future Innovation Lab Markets, Risk and Resilience Program, US National Science Foundation and the Center for Effective Global Action.

About the Position

The BSDL will work under the guidance of Professor Supreet Kaur and other team researchers, as well as locally-based implementation partners, like GiveDirectly and One Acre Fund. This work is part of CEGA’s Psychology and Economics of Poverty Initiative, which explores the psychological consequences of poverty and downstream impacts on health, economics outcomes and child development. Expected start date between June 15 and July 30, 2025. Initial commitment is for three months with possibility of extension (ideally for at least one year).

The BSDL should be capable of, and excited about, designing, adapting and piloting field-based behavioral interventions, with excellent organizational and people management skills. They should have a deep interest in the psychology of poverty, a solid understanding of behavioral science design principles, and field experience designing/implementing projects in low- and middle-income countries. This role will be responsible for coordinating work with new implementing partners in countries including but not limited to Mozambique, Malawi, and Uganda. This role will work in close collaboration with the CEGA research team, and will have team support for back-end management of project components.   

The BSDL will be tasked with adapting, implementing and evaluating new versions of the planning intervention tailored to new contexts and use-cases. The role will include four main components:

1. Adaptation of intervention: Adapt the intervention on the ground to prepare it for piloting and bringing to scale in new contexts and with new partners. This includes spending time on the ground engaged in the details of the intervention—to design and test concrete new approaches in villages or urban areas, along with qualitative focus groups and debriefs with participants—in order to help the project team arrive at a revised intervention design for scale-up. This process will happen across several different country contexts, each with different implementation partners. 
2. Piloting of intervention: Lead pilot testing of the adapted intervention. This includes piloting the intervention with groups of potential recipients/beneficiaries, including possible A/B testing of different versions of the intervention, measuring take-up and short term outcomes, identifying successes and areas for improvement, and synthesizing results for implementing partners. 
3. Intervention implementation: Oversee the rollout of the intervention in partnership with local implementers. This includes developing training protocols and conducting hands-on training for the extension workers/facilitators who will implement the intervention with local recipients. The BSDL will then oversee the launch of the intervention at scale (will vary by country context), and will be responsible for monitoring implementation fidelity. 
4. Evaluation (via randomized trial when possible): This role may also support the evaluation of rollouts, via RCTs when possible. This will involve working with the implementing partner and research team at CEGA to manage teams of local survey enumerators and project staff. This will also involve overseeing data collection across the various implementation sites to measure impact, including developing survey instruments and tools. Additionally, the RDL will ensure that rigorous data quality measures are in place, including high-frequency checks, back-checking, effective training and debriefs with field staff, and other measures as required. Depending on interest, ability and project needs, the RDL may focus primarily on components 1, 2 and 3 and secondarily on this component 4.

There is scope to scale up projects across other Sub-Saharan African countries and globally. While the minimum commitment is for three months, this is a role with a lot of room for professional growth in coming years.

Responsibilities

• Support the effective adapting and scaling of the intervention in multiple different settings 
• Oversee piloting of different scalable versions of the treatment intervention
• Coordinate research partners including UC Berkeley, local implementing organizations, government partners
• Develop intervention training protocols and lead trainings implementation extension staff
• Support local research managers in hiring and training local survey enumerators and other project staff, and set up protocols to monitor fidelity
• Manage project workflows and timelines
• Manage all aspects of project implementation across multiple country contexts
• Work closely with Principal Investigators and partners to track project progress and troubleshoot challenges that arise
• Manage partner relationships to ensure clear communication between all parties and smooth program roll-out
• Support the development of sampling plans and a field management plan for conducting surveys
• Ensure quality control for data collection and data management activities, including high-frequency data checks
• Conduct data analysis and contribute to written project material

Qualifications

• Background/interest in Psychology is highly beneficial 
• Minimum of two (2) years relevant work/research fieldwork experience
• Must be willing to travel 75% of the time or more according to project needs
• Self-directed, intrinsically motivated; proven capacity to manage work independently
• Ability to remain flexible, demonstrate resourcefulness, and adapt to change 
• Cultural sensitivity, positive can-do attitude, a sense of humor, and demonstrated ability to work diplomatically, proactively, and with integrity across diverse constituencies
• Experience cultivating relationships and interfacing with implementing, government, funding partners in LMICs 
• Experience with project management; ability to work independently and manage complex and competing priorities
• Strong written and oral communication skills in English. Additional language skills helpful 
• Experience living and working in LMICs strongly preferred
• Familiarity with randomized controlled trials preferred
• Familiarity with Microsoft and Google Suite, and data collection software like SurveyCTO and/or Qualtrics preferred

Apply

Please submit the following documents through the link above:

• Resume/CV (required)
• Cover letter (required)
• Academic transcripts (preferred)
• Recommendation letter/s (preferred)

Given the volume of applications received, only shortlisted candidates will be contacted for an interview. This is a rolling process so please apply as soon as possible.

Questions? Contact administrative contact Sabrina Spatny (cega-hr@berkeley.edu)