Postdoctoral Associate

Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)

Position description

Political Science-MIT Governance Lab (MIT GOV/LAB), to lead collaborative projects with practitioner partners on governance and political behavior. Will contribute to MIT GOV/LAB applied research projects, with approximately 25% of time allotted for independent research. The position offers the opportunity to drive GOV/LAB’s mission to produce and promote engaged scholarship, a process of rigorous research that is co-created by practitioners and grounded in local problems. Responsibilities include conducting collaborative applied and policy-relevant research studies with practitioner organizations, established scholars and leaders, and global partners to define evidence-based frameworks that are practical and specific to the governance and accountability fields, ultimately delivering impact and value; carrying out all policy research study components, including conceptualization, design, implementation, data analysis, and writing of reports/policy briefs; contributing to the development of tools for engaged scholarship and wider interdisciplinary research activities; developing and executing independent research projects for eventual publication in academic journals; and additional responsibilities as determined by organizational needs.

MIT GOV/LAB focuses on innovation in citizen engagement and government responsiveness.

Job Requirements

REQUIRED: Ph.D. (with all requirements completed by the start date) in political science, social psychology, economics, public policy, or related social science field; advanced quantitative methods training with expertise in experiments, identification, and causal inference; demonstrated research experience in citizen engagement, government accountability, public trust, and other related areas; experience in the practitioner world, with expertise in developing country contexts; publications that contribute to the study of the above-noted areas; attention to detail; self-motivation; ability to work on projects independently, handle multiple projects concurrently, and meet deadlines; and demonstrated proficiency with statistical software (e.g., Stata/R).

PREFERRED: qualitative fieldwork experience.

Application instructions