Join Our Team
Thank you for your interest in Opportunity Insights.
Having a diverse and inclusive team is critical both for the quality of our work and for our commitment to advancing equity of opportunities, so we strongly encourage applications from those historically under-represented in economics (women, LGBTQ, Black, Indigenous, Latinx, first-generation, and low-income students, among others).
Research Team and Fellowship Programs
Our research team includes faculty members at Harvard University and other academic institutions as well as pre-doctoral fellows.
Our two-year pre-doctoral fellowship program is intended for students who have just completed a bachelor’s or Master’s degree and are planning to pursue graduate school. Working alongside faculty members, fellows develop skills that prepare them for graduate school such as analyzing data, developing statistical models, creating presentations, and writing research papers. Our team-oriented lab environment is a bridge between college and graduate school for students interested in empirical economics, and most previous fellows have gone on to top Ph.D. programs. (Visit the ‘Alumni” section of our ‘Team page to read more.)
You can find the slides from our informational session held on October 1, 2020 here.
For more general information on applying to pre-doctoral and RA positions in Economics, Predoc.org is a good resource. Their website includes information on preparing for data tasks
Post-Doctoral Fellows
We are seeking applicants for a post-doctoral fellow at Opportunity Insights at Harvard University to work on projects with Raj Chetty, Nathan Hendren, and John Friedman. Appointment to begin July 1, 2021, renewable for a second year based on mutual agreement.
The Post-Doc Fellowship is intended to be a two-year position that provides a bridge to a traditional assistant professor position, but one where we hope Post-Docs would be interested in collaborating on projects of mutual interest in addition to developing their independent research agendas on related topics.
We invite applications from candidates with a background in applied microeconomic research who would be eager to focus their efforts coauthoring projects with us studying economic opportunity and the determinants of upward mobility in the US. Applicants are expected to have strong analytical skills and also work well in team settings.
We especially encourage applications from backgrounds under-represented in economics. The position is fully funded with no teaching requirements. The salary will be competitive with other top post-doctoral positions in economics.
Applicants should send a letter of interest, their CV, and up to three research papers through the Harvard application portal. Up to three recommendation letters should be sent directly by references in the same manner.
Full consideration by December 15, 2020, and applications accepted through March 15, 2021.
Research Scientist
We are now seeking a Research Scientist who will work with the senior leadership team of OI and to conduct rigorous, high-quality public policy research on the condition and drivers of economic mobility in the US. As a member of the OI team, the Research Scientist will help us set the standard for high-quality empirical analyses using large-administrative data sets to help develop research we hope ultimately improves economic mobility.
The Research Scientist role is intended to be a long-term career position and could be a good fit for students interested in doing academic research as part of a research team focused on inequality and economic opportunity rather than pursuing a traditional assistant professor position. The candidate’s principal responsibility would be to co-author papers with Raj Chetty, John Friedman, and Nathan Hendren, focusing on empirical work related to inequality and opportunity with large datasets (e.g., Census/tax data, social network data, etc.) while helping mentor junior scholars.
For more information on the position, including how to apply, please visit the official Harvard University job posting.
Equal Employment Opportunity is the Law
We are an equal opportunity employer and all qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, national origin, disability status, protected veteran status, gender identity, sexual orientation, pregnancy, and pregnancy-related conditions, or any other characteristic protected by law.