Research Manager – Energy & Environment Lab (Full-Time, Benefits Eligible)

Job Title: Research Manager – Energy & Environment Lab (Full-Time, Benefits Eligible)

Location: Chicago, IL 

Expected Start Date: Flexible

About the Unit:

The University of Chicago Energy & Environment Lab (E&E Lab) partners with agencies at the local, state and federal level to identify, rigorously evaluate, and help scale programs and policies that reduce pollution and improve environmental outcomes, while ensuring access to reliable and affordable energy. The E&E Lab uses natural experiments, randomized controlled trials, behavioral economics, and machine learning to help policymakers identify and generate evidence around innovative approaches to their most pressing environmental and energy-related challenges. 

The E&E Lab is part of the University of Chicago’s new Institute for Climate and Sustainable Growth. The Lab's mission is to partner with government agencies to identify and rigorously evaluate policies with the greatest potential to improve human lives at scale; the Lab's evidence-based approach gives policymakers and practitioners the knowledge they need to effectively achieve the greatest social good per dollar spent. 

Job Summary

The University of Chicago Energy & Environment Lab is seeking a Research Manager (RM) with strong research, methodological, and management skills to support large-scale environmental policy research projects. The RM will help manage a growing portfolio of applied research projects related to environmental policy and contribute to project development, data analysis, research design and implementation. The RM will work closely with partners at government agencies, a dedicated team of research analysts and data scientists, to implement research projects led by Faculty Director Michael Greenstone and other faculty at University of Chicago and other institutions.

Responsibilities

• Manage research partnerships with government agencies and serve as project manager for research and technical assistance projects, leading communications and project deliverables.
• Meaningfully contribute to the research design, analysis and implementation of policy relevant research projects.
• Assist with setting the strategic direction of the E&E Lab by helping form new partnerships and building capacity.
• Closely collaborate with Lab leadership and faculty serving as principal investigators on projects to plan and execute research projects.
• Manage data collection, cleaning and econometric data analysis for a variety of projects.
• Build predictive analytics/machine learning models, in collaboration with other research staff.
• Prepare memos, presentations, and papers targeting both policymakers and academic audiences.
• Ensure compliance with institutional, state and federal regulatory policies and procedures as well as internal data privacy and security policies.
• Conduct thorough and critical reviews of relevant literature.
• Assist with writing grant proposals and managing grant reports.
• Prepare human subjects protocols and amendments for IRB.
• Use subject matter and best practices knowledge to perform lab and/or research-related duties and tasks. Work independently on developing study designs.
• Solve complex problems relating to the administration of projects, including planning new procedures, adapting existing procedures to the needs of the project, and making significant contributions to methodology.
• Performs other related work as needed.

Qualifications
 

Education:

• At a minimum, a Bachelor's degree in economics, data science or related field. 
• Master's degree in economics, computer science, statistics or other relevant field, is preferred.
• Coursework in econometrics, mathematical statistics, and data science.

Experience:

• A minimum of four years of relevant research experience.
• Programming in Stata or R.
• Experience working in rigorous impact evaluation, field experiments / randomized controlled trials.
• Designing econometric models, and/or predictive analytics/machine learning models.
• Work with large and complex datasets.

Preferred Competencies

• Strong background in applied statistics & econometrics.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills, and the ability to present research concepts in a simple and straightforward way for non-technical audiences.
• Strong time management skills with a proven ability to multitask and prioritize activities to successfully complete projects on tight deadlines with little supervision.
• Strong project management skills with exceptional attention to detail.
• Work both independently, in a self-directed manner, and as a team member.
• Knowledge and understanding of energy and environmental policy topics strongly.
• Topical expertise in energy and environmental economics, including familiarity with the field literature.

Required Documents

• Resume/CV (required)
• Cover Letter (required)
• Unofficial transcript (required)

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