Research Associate, Global eMobility

This position can be based in one of our offices in Washington, DC, India (multiple offices), Beijing, or Jakarta.

Job Summary:
In this role, you will directly contribute to assist governments in meeting their Paris Climate Agreement goals through electrification and decarbonization strategies in mobility. You will coordinate and lead research projects, stakeholder outreach, and on-the-ground support on the topic of electric mobility. Your work will include coordinating teams in multiple geographies, as well as supporting the overall program’s objective of helping transform how cities are built, managed, and used, to make them compact, connected, coordinated, and resilient.

You will help provide research, data analysis, modeling, and outreach support to the Electric Mobility workstream of the WRI Ross Center for Sustainable Cities. You will also provide project management and be responsible for serving as project leads, coordinate junior staff, and assist with fundraising efforts.

You will lead two focus areas:

1) project management and information exchange between electric mobility activities in Asia and other global regions under the NDC-TIA project and

 2) develop analytic tools and technical writing on cost-benefit information related to the electrification of transport.

In this role, you will work closely with other WRI program teams, WRI global offices, in-country collaborators, and other relevant staff to help bridge internal and external discrepancies regarding the role of electric vehicles in sustainable transportation and energy goals.

Covid work situations vary by country and are being updated regularly. We expect to return to an in-house work model once conditions allow.

Job Responsibilities:

Research & Knowledge (60%)

• Leading, participating, and/or coordinating all research related to the development of analytic tools that support cost-benefit analyses and national planning for electric mobility
• Authoring written and graphic content for publications, reports, papers, and presentations
• Conducting transport, environmental, public health, and financial data collection, verification and visualization
• Conducting qualitative and quantitative analyses
• Reviewing knowledge products written by external authors
• Leading and contributing to the production of blogs, reports, and other informational content

Project Management (30%)

• Coordinating projects with junior staff in both official and unofficial capacities
• Liaising with WRI international offices (particularly Brazil, China, India, Mexico, Indonesia, Colombia, and the United States) to ensure information sharing and project coordination

Administrative (10%)

• Creating content for proposals and concept notes, including deliverables, timelines, and budgets
• Contributing to fundraising efforts
• Attending various external functions and events, as relevant, to serve as a representative of WRI’s Electric Mobility Team
• Representing the Electric Mobility Team in WRI meetings
• Organizing internal and external meetings, workshops, conferences, and other dissemination activities

Job Qualifications:

• Master’s degree in economics, transportation studies, urban/city planning, sustainable energy, engineering/ data analytics, or a related field (or a Bachelor’s degree with two years of additional relevant work experience)
• Minimum of 3 years of relevant full-time work experience, with at least one of those years working on electric mobility topics
• Excellent research, writing, editing, and oral communication skills
• Academic or professional experience leading quantitative analyses
• Demonstrated ability to work well in multi-disciplinary and multi-cultural teams with some international project experience
• Ability to manage multiple priorities, and work under tight deadlines
• Detail-oriented, organized, and independent thinker
• Clear and effective written and oral communication skills
• Must be a citizen or have existing work authorization for the applicable country office
• Fluency in English required

Preferred Qualifications

• Cost-benefit analysis expertise and total cost of ownership calculators
• Experience managing junior staff and contractors with prior management training
• Modeling experience related to electric mobility forecasting, emissions, and energy impacts
• Experience planning, running, and moderating workshops
• Experience using Asana, Salesforce, and Microsoft Teams
• Experience leading and writing research papers for academic journals or major conferences
• Fluency in an additional language preferred (especially Vietnamese)

How to Apply:

Please submit a resume with cover letter. Resume and cover letter must be submitted in English to be considered. Applicants must apply through the WRI Careers portal to be considered. 

Program Overview:

WRI’s electric mobility works aims to decarbonize the transportation sector through a bottom-up approach. WRI has one of the largest and most qualified electric mobility teams among environmental non-profit organizations in the world. You’ll be part of an organization that has big and bold ambitions to electrify most areas of the transportation sector, starting with shared fleets, such as transit and school buses, to quickly deploy the associated environmental, economic, and health benefits more equitably among community members. This position will lead WRI’s electric mobility work on transit bus electrification, but will have opportunities to support other fleets such as rideshare, taxis, light-, medium-, and heavy-duty commercial, and others.

WRI Overview:

World Resources Institute (WRI) is an independent, nonprofit global research organization that turns big ideas into action at the nexus of environment, economic opportunity, and human well-being. We are working to address seven critical challenges that the world must overcome this decade in order to secure a sustainable future for people and the planet: climate change, energy, food, forests, water, sustainable cities, and the ocean.

We are passionate. We value our diversity of interests, skills, and backgrounds. We have a flexible work environment. And we share a common goal to catalyze change that will improve the lives of people. Our shared ideals are at the core of our approach. They include: integrity, innovation, urgency, independence, and respect.

The foundation of our work is delivering high-quality research, data, maps, and analysis to solve the world’s greatest environment and international development challenges and improve people’s lives. We work with leaders in government, business, and civil society to drive ambitious action and create change on the ground. Equally important, we bring together partners to develop breakthrough ideas and scale-up solutions for far-reaching, enduring impact.

We have been growing rapidly: our staff has doubled in size over the past 5 years, and our operating budget is now $150 million. Founded in 1982, WRI has a global staff of 1,000+ people with work spanning 60 countries. We have offices in Africa, Brazil, China, Europe, India, Indonesia, Mexico, and the United States, as well as a growing presence in other countries and regions.  

WRI is committed to advancing gender and social equity for human well-being in our mission and applies this principle to our organizational and programmatic practices.