Youth Impact is an evidence-based international NGO working in education and health for young people around the world. We partner hand-in-hand with governments to scale high-impact programs through public systems — rigorously testing and refining them to maximize impact and reduce cost. Today, we have close government partnerships and on-the-ground teams in Botswana, South Africa, Namibia, India, and the Philippines, alongside partnerships in many other countries and team members working across the globe. Our diverse global team spans disciplines, backgrounds, and time zones, but we are united by shared values and a commitment to learning. We are now entering an ambitious new phase of global growth, scaling rapidly across new geographies while maintaining the quality and rigor that define our work. We’re looking for people excited to join our mission of ensuring all young people thrive.

Research Associate

Location and contract

• Location: Preference for candidates based in India. Welcome applicants from our other countries of operation — Botswana, Namibia, South Africa, and the Philippines.

• Contract type: 2-year fixed contract, with potential for extension pending performance.

• Reports to: The Research Associate will work closely with the Country Lead in India, Head of Research & Innovation and Research Specialists.

• Application deadline: Rolling basis until positions are filled. Early bird deadline: 15 May 2026, 23:59 CAT

About the role

Youth Impact’s Research and Innovation team seeks to hire skilled and motivated Research Associates who will play a critical role in producing data and evidence to support us to scale up our programs within India, Botswana, Philippines, Namibia, South Africa and with partners around the world in over ten countries, including with partner NGOs, governments, research organizations such as IPA or JPAL, and multilaterals such as the World Bank.

On any given day, we might be: discussing the latest ideas for a randomised controlled trial or A/B test to improve our programs at scale with our facilitators and programs teams; visiting schools to figure out ways to improve our monitoring tools and data collection systems; cleaning and analysing data to assess impact; clearly visualizing our data; writing up our results to share with the world; work-shopping data insights with programs teams to advise them on how to improve programs; working with government counterparts to support them to collect, use and interpret data to improve education and health of students; and meeting organizations around the world to support them to do the same! We think it’s the dream job for anyone passionate about impact, evidence, and data.

Key responsibilities

• Work on a global research team that generates evidence (using RCTs, A/B tests and high frequency monitoring) to improve youth-focused health and education programs in Botswana and around the world.

• Assist with study design, study instruments, monitoring implementation fidelity.

• Lead on paper-based and electronic data collection across our programs, including developing and programming digital surveys, training facilitators, managing data collection, and monitoring data for quality.

• Organize and maintain clean, easy-to-use code and databases for all field work, including survey data, monitoring data, and administrative data.

• Clean, manage, and analyse data in Stata (preferred) or R.

• Support production and communication of research insights for internal programs teams, as well as academic, policy, and practitioner audiences.

• Support and mentor junior colleagues to develop their technical and professional skills.

Required qualifications

• Masters degree or PhD in economics, public policy or a related discipline, with strong quantitative skills. In exceptional circumstances, those with a Bachelor’s degree and considerable relevant experience may also be considered.

• Excellent knowledge of Stata (preferred) or comparable statistical software program e.g. R or Python

• Familiarity with randomized evaluations and econometric methods

• Relevant experience including experience in monitoring and evaluation, quantitative field research, and analysis and cleaning of large datasets.

• Advanced working knowledge of Microsoft Office applications

• Demonstrated ability to manage various concurrent tasks effectively and coordinate between multiple colleagues and teams.

• Strong written and verbal communication skills, in particular, the ability to communicate complex thoughts and ideas simply and effectively and tailor communications to the audience.

• Ability to work in an international team based across different geographies.

• Willingness to travel to different regions a couple of times throughout the year for 1-2 weeks at a time to support training, tool piloting, and program and survey implementation.

Desired qualifications

• Adaptability, motivation and ability to thrive in a fast-paced environment- The role can be demanding and, at times, subject to external pressures for timely completion.

• The candidate must be adaptive, creative, organized, and highly motivated.

• Ability to create “structure out of nothing:” strong ability to turn a visual reality or imagined outcome into a codified set of steps, actions, and goals on paper, and to execute those steps.

• Self-starter: the individual should be a highly motivated and driven self-starter who can push for the delivery of activities in a fast-paced environment, seeking clarity when needed.

• Experience with programming surveys in SurveyCTO or similar software.

Who will thrive in this role

We seek candidates who excel in a team-oriented and collaborative environment that values curiosity, a passion for improving youth’s lives, and the application of rigorous evidence to complex problems. The ideal candidate has strong quantitative research skills with a technical foundation in impact evaluation methods and strong organizational and task management skills necessary for carrying out high quality quantitative data collection. The candidate will also enjoy problem-solving and applying creative thinking to challenges and building relationships with program leaders, implementers, and government partners. We are especially interested in candidates located in our global innovation hubs.

Benefits

Benefits include generous annual leave, sick leave, (including global health insurance provisions), various stipends, professional development opportunities, the ability to work remotely, access to our amazing global networks and much more.

You can read more about life in the Research and Innovation team here, and watch a video with someone in the team here.

Coding deliverables

Apply now