Senior Research Officer

Department

The University of Essex is one of the leading universities in Europe for social science research: the results of the 2021 Research Excellence Framework (REF) put it in the top 5 in the UK for social science. The Institute for Social and Economic Research (ISER) is a flagship department within the University of Essex and is internationally recognised as a centre of excellence and expertise in quantitative social science and research methodologies.

ISER houses the ESRC-funded Research Centre on Micro-Social Change (MiSoC). MiSoC is one of the longest running ESRC-funded research centres in the UK. Since its inception, MiSoC’s focus has been on analysing the behaviour and outcomes of individuals and families and how they are shaped by policy and social and economic trends. Its research programme is wide ranging and multi-disciplinary, although a key unifying theme is the use of advanced quantitative methods, usually applied to micro-data on individuals. MiSoC’s current 2024-27 research programme is described here (https://www.iser.essex.ac.uk/misoc/research).

MiSoC’s researchers are not only based in ISER, but also in the Department of Sociology and Criminology, the Department of Economics, and the Institute for Analytics and Data Science (IADS) at the University of Essex. The Project Lead and Director of MiSoC is Professor Emilia Del Bono.

We are looking for a quantitative social scientist to explore how emerging technologies like generative AI are transforming education, labour markets, or health. Alternatively, we welcome applications from data scientists who can showcase innovative empirical methods—such as large language models—and their potential to advance social science research.

Duties of the Role

The person appointed will work closely with one of MiSoC's senior researchers and will help produce research outputs for publication and dissemination, including outside academia, such as participating in relevant national and international conferences and engagement events.

You will also have the opportunity to co-author papers and contribute to the development of the MiSoC research agenda.

A full list of duties and responsibilities can be found within the job pack.

Qualifications and Skills required

The successful applicant will hold a relevant doctoral level degree in a Social Science discipline (or be close to completion of PhD) or possess equivalent professional experience or practice.

You will need to demonstrate expertise in advanced quantitative methods, including causal inference approaches, along with proven experience analysing complex micro-data from survey or administrative sources.

Programming proficiency in Stata, R, or similar packages is required, as is the ability to communicate research findings effectively to academic audiences.

A full list of applicant requirements can be found under the Person Specification section within the job pack.

This post is fully funded by MiSoC for an 18-month period. This is a research position only and there are no teaching duties associated with this post.

Please use the 'Apply' button to read further information about this role including the full job description and person specification which outlines the full duties, skills, qualifications and experience needed for this role. You will also find details of how to make your application here.

Our website http://www.essex.ac.uk contains more information about the University of Essex. If you have a disability and would like information in a different format, please email resourcing@essex.ac.uk.

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