Project Associate, Energy & Environment Lab at UChicago

About the Unit:

The University of Chicago Urban Labs partners with government and non-governmental organizations to identify and rigorously evaluate the policies and programs with the greatest potential to improve human lives at scale. Urban Labs’ evidence-based approach gives policymakers and practitioners the knowledge they need to effectively achieve the greatest social good per dollar spent. The University of Chicago Energy & Environment Lab (E&E Lab) partners with agencies at the federal, state and local level to identify, rigorously evaluate, and help scale programs and policies that reduce pollution and improve environmental outcomes, while ensuring access to reliable and affordable energy. The E&E Lab applies rigorous evaluation and modeling methods, including natural and field experiments, randomized controlled trials, behavioral economics, and machine learning, to help policymakers identify and generate evidence on innovative approaches and policy solutions to their most pressing environmental and energy challenges.

Job Summary

The University of Chicago Energy & Environment Lab is seeking a Project Associate (PA) with strong research, methodological, and programming skills to support environmental policy research projects. The PA will work on a portfolio of projects designed to evaluate the impact of promising energy and environmental interventions. Typical research projects involve the analysis of environmental and energy data, utilizing quasi-experimental and experimental methods to provide government partners with guidance on key policy questions.

The successful candidate will have experience with data management, econometrics, and statistical modeling. The PA will contribute to all aspects of research, including data collection, model development, and implementation. This position requires an individual who is able to work as part of small research teams, and on multiple projects concurrently, while also being self-directed and independent. The position offers the opportunity to work directly with leading policy researchers and faculty at the University of Chicago and other universities, and policymakers in state and local environmental agencies.

Responsibilities

• Works as part of faculty-led research teams to contribute to development, design and implementation of applied economics research studies. 
• Collaboratively leads data collection, study management, subject sampling, randomization, and analysis including cleaning and assembling datasets for analysis; conduct field research as needed.
• Coordinates research activities, assists in preparing human subjects protocols, manages and analyzes data across multiple projects.
• Contributes to building traditional statistical models and machine learning algorithms for a variety of research projects.
• Prepares results of analysis for research papers, policy briefs, and memos and presentations targeting both policymakers and academic audiences.
• Helps build and maintain strong relationships and effective communication with government agencies, and other research partners and organizations.
• Conducts thorough and critical reviews of relevant literature.
• Supports fundraising and reporting efforts, such as helping prepare grant proposals and progress reports to funders.
• Maintains technical and administrative support for a portfolio of research projects.
• Takes responsibility for the following non-laboratory duties: transcribing and coding data; developing data collection instruments; presenting research; and recruiting and scheduling research subjects. Acquires higher-level skills and knowledge in the process.
• Maintains technical and administrative support for a research project.
• Analyzes and maintains data and/or specimens. Conducts literature reviews. Assists with preparation of reports, manuscripts and other documents.
• Performs other related work as needed.

Minimum Qualifications

Education:

Minimum requirements include a college or university degree in related field.

Work Experience:

Minimum requirements include knowledge and skills developed through < 2 years of work experience in a related job discipline.

Preferred Qualifications

Education:

• Bachelor's degree in economics, statistics, computer science or other relevant field.
• Coursework in econometrics and/or mathematical statistics. 

Experience:

• A minimum of one year of relevant research experience. Experience gained in school counts towards requirement.
• Background working on field experiments / randomized controlled trials.

Technical Skills or Knowledge:

• Experience working with Stata, R, Python, and/or other programming languages.
• Experience cleaning and analyzing data.
• Experience building predictive models.

Preferred Competencies

• Strong interest in environmental policy.
• Extensive background in applied statistics and econometrics. 
• Effective written and verbal communication skills. 
• Work on multiple projects simultaneously and meet tight deadlines. 
• Excellent organizational skills and attention to detail. 
• Work both independently, in a self-directed manner, and as a team member.