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Position Description
Dr. Zachary Wagner at 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. The Project Specialist will report directly to Dr. Wagner and work closely with collaborators at USC, RAND, and partner organizations in Nigeria.
The Project Specialist’s primary project will be a large-scale randomized study examining whether pre-emptive home delivery of oral rehydration salts (ORS) and zinc reduces child mortality in Bauchi State, Nigeria. The project builds on a large cluster-randomized trial that delivered ORS and zinc directly to households with children under five. The new study will conduct approximately 400k household surveys to estimate the intervention’s impact on diarrhea-specific child mortality using retrospective birth histories and verbal autopsies.
The position combines research and quantitative analysis with substantial project management responsibilities . The Project Specialist will be involved in all stages of the research process, including coordinating data collection, managing relationships with research and field partners, monitoring study progress and data quality, analyzing datasets, and contributing to academic publications.
This is a one year fixed term, grant funded position with a hybrid work arrangement.
Responsibilities
The Project Specialist will work directly with Dr. 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 team
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.
Depending on interests, performance, and project needs, the Project Specialist may also have opportunities to contribute to related research projects in development economics and global health.
Qualifications
We welcome applications from candidates with a Ph.D., bachelor’s or master’s degree in economics, public policy, statistics, mathematics or another quantitatively oriented field.
Strong candidates will have:
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.
A Prior research assistant or project manager experience working with primary data collection.
An interest in pursuing a PhD in economics, public policy, public health, epidemiology or a related quantitative social science field is a benefit.
Experience with randomized controlled…