Operations Associate - J-PAL North America

About J-PAL North America:

J-PAL North America, an economics research center at MIT, is actively recruiting an Operations Associate (Program/Project Coordinator, SRS) to support our Executive Director in formulating and implementing J-PAL’s strategy and policies, communicating J-PAL’s mission and accomplishments to internal and external partners, and coordinating a complex and diverse range of financial, operational, administrative, and IT tasks and projects. Working at J-PAL North America means being part of a vibrant, collaborative team of professionals who are committed to translating research into innovative policy solutions that are effective in reducing poverty. As a regional office of the Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab (J-PAL), J-PAL North America is part of an affiliate network of more than a thousand affiliated professors and invited researchers at universities around the world, including some of the world’s leading economics researchers. J-PAL North America works closely with J-PAL’s global headquarters and six additional independent regional offices in Africa, Europe, Latin America, Middle East and North Africa, South Asia, and Southeast Asia to generate cutting-edge research, policy outreach, and training. 

To learn more about our work and team culture, visit www.povertyactionlab.org/na.

Opportunity Overview:

As a member of the J-PAL North America team, you’ll be part of a Nobel-prize winning scientific movement that can transform US policy making. The Operations Associate acts as a trusted partner and operational anchor for the Executive Director, ensuring that strategic priorities, schedules, and communications are managed efficiently and with discretion. This involves supporting coordination and communication across J-PAL North America’s staff, programs, operations, fundraising, academic leadership, and a range of external stakeholders. This requires a solid understanding of J-PAL North America’s work and the ability to gather the information necessary to be sure inquiries are addressed and resolved appropriately. In addition, the Operations Associate supports the Executive Director with general administrative tasks and contributes as needed to important tasks and projects, such as strategic planning, fundraising, event planning, and external communications.  

This junior-level position is an excellent opportunity for those interested in public policy and organizational strategy and management. It provides an up close view of how strategy is designed and executed at the senior-most leadership levels of a leading evidence-to-policy research center, and the opportunity to play an active role in that process. You should be passionate about connecting the dots between economics research and policy, and excited by the prospect of working with researchers, donors, implementers, and other stakeholders to form partnerships for evidence-informed policy and effectively communicate research lessons. 

The role requires the ability to manage multiple priorities in a complex, mission‑driven environment. We are looking for candidates with excellent attention to detail, critical thinking and problem solving skills, and strong organizational, time-management, and communication skills. Experience using Excel, Google Sheets, Salesforce, Asana or other project management systems is strongly preferred. 

Key Responsibilities:

Strategic Planning & Internal Knowledge Sharing:

• Supports the Executive Director in working with the academic leadership (Scientific Directors) to refine J-PAL North America’s strategy and with the Senior Leadership Team to execute the strategy. Coordinates strategic planning activities and tracks progress towards plans. Supports communications with staff at all levels to keep information flowing smoothly across the whole organization.
• Coordinates logistics for a standing weekly meetings between the Executive Director and the Scientific Directors, including scheduling, agenda preparation, and follow‑up.
• Assists in coordinating financial, fundraising, and program plans into an integrated, up‑to‑date strategic plan. Coordinates with finance, development, and senior staff to ensure alignment between planned activities, available resources, and funding timelines.  
• Helps develop, maintain, and update strategic planning documents, tracking key activities, milestones, and timelines.  
• Supports knowledge sharing amongst staff and communication between the senior leadership team and staff by helping organize staff meetings, managing agendas, and coordinating presentation materials.
• Drafts, compiles, and distributes summaries, slides, or written updates that communicate leadership priorities, decisions, and updates to staff, as directed by the Executive Director.
• Prepares summary materials that help senior leadership monitor progress and priorities.

Fundraising and External Engagement:

• Conducts desk research for policy memos, grant proposals, and sector-specific work and provides recommendations for priorities and next steps. Drafts co authored blogs and articles and activities and prepares materials for speaking engagements.
• Supports fundraising activities by scheduling donor and partner meetings and preparing briefing materials in coordination with development staff.
• Helps prepare materials for external engagements related to fundraising, partnerships, and outreach.

Administrative support: 

• Manages the Executive Director’s calendar, coordinating across time zones with senior staff, academic leadership, donors, and external partners. Schedules and prioritizes diverse and frequently competing meeting requests.
• Prepares agendas, briefing materials, and background documents.
• Coordinates domestic and international travel; processes travel and expense reimbursements.
• Tracks commitments, action items, and deadlines arising from meetings and correspondence; follows up with relevant stakeholders to ensure completion.
• Organizes and maintains confidential files, contact records, documents, and presentations.
• Anticipates support needs and proactively addresses emerging priorities.
• Handles sensitive information with the highest level of discretion and professionalism.
• Performs other duties as assigned by the Executive Director.

Compensation & Benefits:

This full-time, exempt position is classified by MIT as an Program/Project Coordinator, SRS role. 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 pension-based retirement plan, tuition assistance up to $5,250 per calendar year, commuter benefits, access to MyLifeServices , a generous vacation policy (3 weeks of paid vacation in your first year, and 4 weeks every year after that, plus an additional 12+ paid Institute-wide holidays per year and an end of year break), paid leave for sick time, maternity and parental leave, back-up child or adult care benefits and much more.

Professional Development Opportunities:

J-PAL North America supports a culture of learning, with opportunities to attend weekly seminars, engage in small-group discussions with other J-PAL staff, participate in workshops, or take classes for credit at MIT or elsewhere with our generous tuition assistance program. 

Qualifications:

• Education: This position requires a bachelor’s degree or equivalent experience.
• Experience: Minimum 2 years of administrative and/or project/program management experience required.
• Technical Skills: Effectively uses technology to synthesize and present clear information, such as pulling information from Salesforce or financial spreadsheets, tracking and illustrating strategic plans or financial information, and creating presentations. Actively demonstrates the administrative and computer skills necessary to successfully execute tasks such as scheduling meetings, or processing financial reimbursements. Ability to use Microsoft office and/or Google applications and comfort learning new applications is required. Knowledge of Salesforce and Asana (or other project management systems) is helpful. 
• Ownership of Work: Takes responsibility/is accountable for effectively completing assigned discrete tasks or projects with high attention to detail under direct supervision. Produces high quality work in the time expected; identifies and follows up with manager and other stakeholders as needed to ensure assignments are completed on time. Takes initiative and offers ideas for new ways to approach work.
• Written Communication: Accurately and succinctly communicates in writing, including the ability to draft grammatically correct, cohesive emails, memos and reports, prepare content for slides, proposals and publications, copy-edit and take detailed meeting notes. 
• Oral Communication: Demonstrates strong active listening skills and accurately and succinctly communicates information orally to staff and external partners. 
• External Stakeholder Relations: Supports development and maintenance of ongoing strategic relationships with donors, researchers and other existing stakeholders under supervision from managers.  
• Task & Project Management: Takes on a process-oriented task, plans and organizes work, coordinates with others, establishes appropriate priorities and timelines, exercises follow through, and adds overall value to the process. May manage simultaneous priorities for multiple programs or projects. Collaborates effectively with staff at all levels as needed to complete tasks and projects.
• Problem Solving/Decision Making: Demonstrates adeptness at analyzing facts, judgment, and strong decision-making ability. Responds to problems, issues, and opportunities that are identified by supervisors. Collaborates to identify a solution or response.  
• Commitment to Mission & Values: Cares personally and deeply about policy that has the potential to reduce poverty and the rigorous research that informs it. Demonstrates interest in poverty alleviation in the North American (primarily the United States) context. Demonstrates a commitment to J-PAL North America’s values.

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.  

This position is not eligible for any type of visa sponsorship and any offer is contingent on the successful completion of a background check and the ability to provide proof of U.S. work authorization without sponsorship from MIT.