Research Associate (Data) Nurse-Family Partnership

J-PAL North America, based at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, seeks a Research Associate to support an evaluation of the Nurse Family Partnership (NFP) program, to assist in the design and analysis of other randomization evaluations, and to contribute to the development of research resources for public use. The primary focus of this position is to lead data analysis for the NFP evaluation: working with data sets, cleaning and running checks to spot errors, and generally preparing and performing data analysis. The role also has the opportunity to contribute to managing the NFP project in the field through coordination between stakeholders and Principal Investigators (PIs) Margaret McConnelland Katherine Baicker. In addition, this role may have the opportunity to assist on other evaluations across differing stages of empirical research; to contribute to literature reviews; to complete institutional review board applications; to communicate with research partners about data requests and analysis; to prepare academic papers; and to develop research resources as public goods.

This position is based at J-PAL North America at MIT, in Cambridge, MA. The Department of Economics at MIT is an Equal Opportunity Employer. We encourage applicants from diverse backgrounds and welcome candidates with experience working on randomized evaluations in the United States or abroad.

Responsibilities
Data management, analysis, and reporting:

•  Monitor data management system: ensure data properly downloads onto a remote server, resolve any errors in Stata and Python that arise in data cleaning, and ensure automated reports remain accurate.
  
•  Prepare and run code for data cleaning and monitoring. Conduct probabilistic matches between administrative and survey data sets. 
  
•  Contribute to drafting an academic analysis plan for the NFP study, including through historical analyses of administrative data sets.
  
•  Implement regressions to measure impact estimates from the NFP program, and present results to study PIs. 
  
•  Collaborate with external stakeholders to generate and provide descriptive program information and communicate about data requests. 
  

Research support and public goods creation:

•  Develop public research resources such as template Stata code. 
  
•  Identify and build on existing resources relating to data management, such as standardized protocols for data collection/measurement, cleaning, linking/merging, and data publication; provide technical assistance to stakeholders.
  
•  Contribute to resources that centralize information and best practices on accessing administrative data for use in randomized evaluations. This includes working with external parties to understand the processes for accessing administrative data.
  

Randomized evaluation support:

•  Provide input on project reports for funders, IRB applications, and DUA applications.
  
•  Assist with study enrollment trainings and communication with NFP program staff.