Precision Agriculture for Development

UPDATE (January 2021): In the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic, we believe that helping smallholder farmers ensure their food security and livelihoods is more important than ever. Because PAD's advisory services are digital, we are able to continue and even expand most of our services while our staff work remotely from their homes. We are still actively hiring for the role below, and we encourage qualified applicants to apply.

 

Precision Development (PxD) is a global non-profit organization that harnesses technology, data science and behavioral economics to empower people living in poverty to improve their lives. By providing actionable information to the right people, in the right way and at the right time, PxD empowers poor people living in developing countries to improve their livelihoods, mitigate risks, and advance environmental sustainability. PxD, through its primary project, Precision Agriculture for Development (PAD), delivers customized agricultural advice to smallholder farmers via their mobile phones. PAD implements this pioneering model of agricultural extension in collaboration with partner organizations to maximize scale, and continuously experiments, iterates, and gathers evidence on impact to improve service delivery and demonstrate value. PAD currently works in nine countries in Africa and Asia, is launching operations in Latin America, and is rapidly expanding as governments and organizations look for innovative ways to utilize new technologies to deliver actionable information to people who need it. As of the end of the third quarter of 2020, PAD was serving 3.6 million farmers through a range of services providing tailored information on crop optimization, pest management, input utilization and environmental stewardship. PxD is piloting the use of mobile technology to deliver information in sectors beyond agriculture, including the use of SMS to facilitate math education in Kenya.

We are looking for a driven, creative and independent person to join a high-performing, flexible team as a Global Research Associate. You will work in a non-hierarchical team and have opportunities to work closely with PAD and affiliated researchers and substantially contribute to PAD's research programs that test new ideas and measure their impacts.  

Responsibilities

The Global Research Associate will be responsible for the following main tasks:

• Work with PAD Research Managers and affiliated Researchers to develop and implement a wide range of research projects, including randomized controlled trials.
• Work with and support country teams to ensure that research projects adhere to policies, procedures, and timelines.
• Conduct literature reviews and other desk research.
• Develop and update project documentation regularly.
• Manage, document, and clean project data sets and prepare them for analysis.
• Assist in conducting data analysis.
• Assist in managing partner relations and working with external stakeholders for implementation of field operations.
• Support in-country research teams in developing and submitting IRB protocols, renewals, and amendments.
• Stay up to date on the latest research ethics guidelines and handling of Personally Identifiable Information (PII) in research projects.
• Work with the project team to write project reports.
• Work with PAD Research Managers and affiliated Researchers to write research grant proposals and journal articles.
• Support PAD institutional knowledge management and internal learning efforts.

Qualifications and experience

Required

• A bachelor's degree in economics, agricultural economics, public policy, statistics, or a closely related field
• Strong understanding of economics, econometrics, and familiarity with randomized evaluations.
• Experience with Stata or R or similar software for data analysis.
• Experience working on field research in development economics.
• Understanding of research ethics for human subjects in the social sciences
• Excellent organizational skills, detail-oriented, and ability to work both independently and collaboratively.
• Fluency in English. Demonstrated strong oral and written communication skills.
• Strong interest in and commitment to PAD's mission to leverage technology to improve the lives of the poor at scale.
• Ability to work under time pressure and solve problems creatively.
• Willingness to travel to project sites and conduct field work (when the Covid-19 pandemic allows).

Desirable

• Experience working on IRB protocols for protection of human subjects in social science research.

• Good understanding of data security protocols for handling Personally Identifiable Information (PII) in research projects.

• Proficiency in using SurveyCTO or a similar program for survey design.
• Experience working on agricultural programs.
• Previous work experience in developing countries.

 Position details

• Full time
• Start date: as soon as possible
• Location: one of PAD’s country offices in India, Pakistan, Kenya, or Ethiopia
• Country nationals with work authorization in countries where PAD has active projects are strongly encouraged to apply (India, Pakistan, Kenya, Ethiopia, Uganda, Nigeria, Rwanda, Zambia)
• Due to the ongoing pandemic, PAD operations have been remote since March 2020. PAD will continue to monitor the situation in all of our countries of operation to assess safety and feasibility of our office operations. 
• Compensation: Commensurate with experience

To apply, please visit the PAD website and use the online application form. The job position will be reviewed on a rolling basis and we encourage you to apply as soon as possible.