Senior Research Associate - J-PAL South Asia

Core responsibilities:

• Conduct desk research on brick sector regulation in India with a specific focus on West Bengal's approach to air quality and brick sector regulation.
• Build relations and engage with key stakeholders in the West Bengal Pollution Control Board, Department of Environment, Land and Land Reforms Department, Department of Labour, and others.
• Conduct key informant interviews with sector stakeholders including brick owner association leaders, kiln owners, managers and workers, soil sellers, brick purchasers, government officials, NGOs.
• Supervise a survey of kiln owners to capture operational practices, market needs, regulatory challenges, and readiness to adopt Zigzag 2.0's low-cost changes.

This role supports reducing greenhouse gas emissions and air pollution from traditional brick kilns in South Asia by adapting and expanding a proven technical intervention (Zigzag 2.0) to improve efficiency and reduce pollution while benefiting kiln owners economically.

Required qualifications:

• Bachelor's/Master's in social science (Anthropology, political science, economics, sociology, or other related field).
• 2-5 years of relevant work experience, preferably with environment/development projects.
• Experience conducting qualitative research.
• Experience designing and conducting surveys, including designing survey questionnaires, running pilot exercises, refining survey instruments, recruiting, training and supervising field surveyors, and supervising data collection to ensure good data quality.
• Excellent communication skills, including the ability to liaise with government officials and local stakeholders effectively.
• Ability to work independently with minimal supervision, while also being a collaborative team member.
• Fluency in Bengali and English.

No compensation, perks, or culture highlights mentioned in the job description.

J-PAL South Asia works on reducing emissions and air pollution from traditional brick kilns through technical interventions like Zigzag 2.0, aiming to improve combustion efficiency and reduce particulate matter while lowering costs for kiln owners.