Senior Behavioral Scientist , Sustainable Diets

This position is home based due to Covid-19, but you will be based at WRI’s office in The Hague, London, or Washington D.C  once restrictions have lifted.

Job Summary

As an expert in behavioral sciences, you will lead food-related research that tackles the challenges of promoting sustainable diets and reducing food waste. In this role, you will be responsible for developing and managing WRI’s food related behavior change science strategy and leading research programs that involve design, implementation and analysis of online and field-based experiments.

 

You will be accountable for the successful delivery of every aspects of your projects. This will include managing a small team of staff and contractors to produce high-quality published research and lead on dissemination of findings to stakeholders and other target audiences. You will also develop and manage relationships with WRI’s business and academic partners and cultivate relationships with funders, including writing proposals for research grants.

The role is best suited to a highly motivated and driven individual with strong study design and analytic skills, who has experience working with a wide range of stakeholders across the private and not for profit sectors to clearly and persuasively disseminate research findings. The role requires excellent written and verbal communication skills, including public speaking. The successful candidate will need to be comfortable facilitating workshops.

Job Responsibilities

Strategy and development

• Co-developing the behavioral research strategy for WRI Food with the Director for Sustainable Diets and Senior Fellow for Food Loss and Waste
• Working closely with WRI’s lead Behavioral Science Advisor to champion behavior science within the organization
• Supporting, and in some cases leading, fund raising proposals

Research design and implementation

• Overseeing the design and implementation of behavior research projects
• Liaising with external partners and academics on research design and implementation
• Overseeing statistical analysis of existing nutritional and behavioral datasets, including developing analysis protocols, performing analyses and interpreting results for non-technical audiences
• Co-authoring written knowledge products related to experimental findings (e.g. reports and blogs) and supporting dissemination efforts (e.g. conference presentations, media interviews)
• Managing a small team of staff and contractors. Overseeing the publication process including WRI’s peer review protocol

Job Qualifications

Technical skills

• Minimum of 5 years of full time relevant work experience
• Expertise in study design, literature reviewing and qualitative research methods
• Ability to design and conduct rigorous experiments, most notably Randomized Controlled Trials
• Experience using software packages for quantitative analysis and online testing (e.g. Qualtrics, Prolific, MTurk etc)
• Proficient inferential statistical analysis skills, for example, regression techniques and knowledge of statistical analysis packages R, Stata, SPSS or similar
• A deep understanding of the behavioral science literature and how it can be applied to help solve complex behavior change problems
• Master’s degree required; a quantitative PhD in psychology, public health, nutrition or economics is preferable but not essential:

Personal skills

• Excellent written and verbal communication; a proven ability to present complex findings in a way that is credible but also understandable for non-experts
• Strong project management skills
• Experience of working with a range of stakeholders across the private and not for profit sectors
• An appreciation of business timelines and company’s commercial needs
• An experience of working with philanthropic funders is desirable but not essential
• An excellent team player. As a part of a growing international team, you will collaborate with colleagues across WRI’s global offices, working across time zones as required 

How to Apply: Please submit a resume with cover letter. Applicants must apply through the WRI Careers portal to be considered. 

Deadline for applications 15th December 2021.

Program Overview

WRI’s Food Program develops research, partnerships, and strategies to secure a sustainable food future with a focus on advancing the adoption of healthy and sustainable diets and actions to reduce food loss and waste. Central to WRI’s Food work is supporting people to change their behavior. We work with the brightest and best minds from consumer research, behavioral economics and marketing strategy – along with companies – to research, test and scale new approaches that help consumers select more sustainable food and cut their food waste. This role is an exciting opportunity to advance our cutting-edge behavioral science research and use our results to create impact at scale. WRI has been doing behavioral research on food since 2016, through its Better Buying Lab project.

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.