Career in Policy Research Institute of Bangladesh (PRI)

PRI is looking for Research Associate/Senior Research Associate for a fixed/long-term appointment

Background / General description: Policy Research Institute (PRI) is a non-profit public policy think tank in Bangladesh, preparing policy briefs as well as providing timely policy advice and facilitating stakeholder dialogues, delivering analytical reports, training and capacity building in the areas of fiscal management, tax administration, macroeconomics, growth and debt, trade policy, private sector development, financial services, social protection, environment and climate proofing to support the following lines of work: (i) designing macro-fiscal frameworks that are aligned with the goals of reducing poverty and boosting inclusive growth, grounded in economic, social and environmental sustainability; (ii) fiscal and debt policy sustainability; (iii) growth analytics, and policies to start, sustain and boost growth; (iv) analysis of tariffs, protection, and trade policy implications for growth; (v) analyzing the impact of external shocks on growth and the government fiscal position; (vi) private sector development related issues, including special economic zones and PPPs; (vii) financial sector related analytics and policy adviser; (viii) social protection strategies and implementation; (ix) environmental and climate proofing related analysis linked to sustainable growth; and (x) implementation support for institutional capacity building.

General description: The Research Associate/Senior Research Associate (SRA) will be part of a team and will work in close coordination with the Directors of PRI. S/he will be expected to work with supervision of the Directors conducting background research, helping the team prepare analytical papers on economic policy issues in Bangladesh and to help strengthening economic policy related work of PRI. S/he will also be expected to work on different economic policy programs while appropriately maintaining a collegial team environment for delivering the best results to the clients. More specifically the job will include among other things:

• Working with the Directors and contributing to the preparation of different sector analytical reports, economic policy briefs, other dissemination materials that PRI is tasked to undertake;
• When required conduct background research on various economic issues for policy formulation;
• Keeping track of important global, economic and business indicators;
• When required, participate in workshops and seminars on behalf of PRI;
• When required, providing support to the editorial team of the PRI flagship quarterly, Policy Insights

The position will be fixed term contractual appointment with scope for renewal by mutual agreement.

Selection Criteria: The successful candidate for this position should have demonstrated superior technical skills, a capacity to operate successfully across sectors and with other donor agencies, civil society organizations in Bangladesh, and first-rate interpersonal skills. The incumbent must be able to interact effectively with senior officials of the government, senior officials of donor agencies.

Other selection criteria include:

1. Master's degree in economics from a well-recognized University. (Degree from North America, Europe and Australia is preferred)
2. Having good understanding of development issues facing Bangladesh as well as those facing other developing countries;
3. Translates technical knowledge into practical applications that contributes to country and sector strategies; e.g., able to translate technical analyses of macroeconomic, debt, trade, fiscal policy, and growth linkages into policy recommendations and cross-country lessons.
4. Strong communication skills, including the ability to speak persuasively which would be important for presenting ideas clearly and concisely to both internally to PRI professionals as well as when required with government officials dealing with policy;
5. Sound analytical abilities and Adept in Microsoft office package;
6. In depth knowledge of data analysis and ability of work with large dataset (Expertise in data analysis tool i.e. STATA, R/Python preferred);

Salary: Negotiable