Project Specialist

About the Role

The University of Southern California’s Center for Economic and Social Research (CESR) is seeking a full-time Project Specialist to support research in development and health economics. This is a one-year fixed-term, grant-funded position with a hybrid work arrangement.

Key Responsibilities

The Project Specialist will work directly with Dr. Zachary Wagner to:

• Manage day-to-day implementation of the research project, including coordinating across researchers, field teams, and partner organizations; tracking timelines and deliverables; organizing research meetings; and following up on action items.
• Travel to Nigeria to help oversee training of data collection teams.
• Coordinate closely with the study team in Nigeria during survey piloting and large-scale data collection and help identify and resolve implementation and data-quality issues.
• Support the development, programming, testing, and refinement of survey instruments.
• Assist with study protocols, IRB materials, pre-analysis plans, field manuals, and other research documentation.
• Help monitor incoming survey data and develop systems for regular data-quality checks and reporting.
• Help with data cleaning and econometric analyses of the intervention’s effects on diarrhea-specific and all-cause child mortality, including robustness and heterogeneity analyses.
• Produce publication-quality tables and figures and contribute to literature reviews, presentations, and academic manuscripts.
• Maintain clear and reproducible project documentation, data workflows, and analysis code.

May have opportunities to contribute to related research projects in development economics and global health, depending on interests, performance, and project needs.

Requirements & Tech Stack

• Excellent quantitative and analytical skills.
• Coursework in economics, econometrics, statistics, or related quantitative methods.
• Experience working with statistical software such as Stata, R, or Python.
• Exceptional organizational skills and attention to detail.
• The ability to manage multiple workstreams, meet deadlines, and proactively identify tasks that need attention.
• Strong written and verbal communication skills and the ability to coordinate effectively with collaborators across institutions and countries.
• Prior research assistant or project manager experience working with primary data collection.
• Experience with randomized controlled trials, survey research, field research, primary data collection in low-income settings, and project management is a plus.
• Experience working with mortality datasets, and/or direct experience collecting mortality data (including familiarity with VASA instruments) is a plus.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in economics, public policy, statistics, mathematics or another quantitatively oriented field.
• Ph.D. also welcomed.
• Directly related education and experience to be able to advise on project procedures and analysis techniques.

Benefits

Mentorship in research design, econometric analysis, project management, and academic writing.

Participation in the research community at CESR and USC.

Experience collaborating with researchers and field partners across multiple institutions.

Opportunity to take substantial ownership of a major research project.

Develop quantitative and project-management skills.

Work Arrangement

• Hybrid (2-3 days per week) on the University Park campus in Los Angeles, CA.

Compensation

• Hourly rate range: $32.99 - $36.89

Application Instructions

Applicants Should Submit:

• A resume or CV.
• A brief cover letter describing their research interests, quantitative background, and interest in the position.
• Job market paper.
• An unofficial academic transcript.
• Contact information for 2–3 references.