Research Associate - System 3 - Centre For Social and Behaviour Change

Ashoka University; Bengaluru; On-site; INR 600,000 - 900,000; Full time

Job summary

Ashoka University seeks a Research Associate (System 3) in Bengaluru to join a high-impact lab. The role focuses on running experiments, recruiting participants, and handling data under guidance from a Pre-Doctoral Fellow and Principal Investigator.

You will learn rigorous behavioural science methods, contribute to study materials and figures, and help organize public lectures and discussions to engage curious audiences. Experience in research or AI is preferred.

Qualifications

• A bachelor's degree in any discipline that shows quantitative ability or strong analytical reasoning; willing to learn statistics and programming with lab support.
• At least 1 year of paid, full-time work experience; research, AI or applied behavioural science preferred.

Responsibilities

• Run studies: set up experiment sessions, run them with participants and collect data accurately.
• Recruit participants: support scheduling, keep participants engaged and returning.
• Work with data: clean, organize, and analyze data with guidance; document steps for reproducibility.

Skills

Quantitative reasoning

Data analysis

Programming basics

Education

Bachelor's degree with quantitative ability

Tools

Python

R

Stata

Matlab

Qualtrics

oTree

SurveyCTO

z-Tree

Job description

Job Summary

Job Title: Research Associate, System 3

Reports to: A Pre-Doctoral Fellow, with a System 3 Principal Investigator as overall mentor

Location: Bengaluru

Experience (in years): At least 1 year of paid, full-time work experience

Nature of work: Full-time, fixed term of 12 months, with potential for renewal

Role and Responsibilities

System 3 is hiring Research Associates to be the engine of the lab. The Associates will run studies, work with data and help bring the lab's research to life, learning how rigorous behavioural science is done from the Pre-Doctoral Fellows they work with every day. The role suits someone who is curious about research and about how people think and decide, and who wants to learn by doing it in a small, ambitious team. Reporting to a Pre-Doctoral Fellow, the Associates will be part of the lab's core team.

What the Research Associates will do

1. Run studies
   • Set up experiment sessions, run them with participants and collect data carefully and accurately.
   • Keep materials, schedules and records organised so that every study runs smoothly.
2. Bring people into the lab
   • Support the recruiting participants, scheduling sessions, and keeping participants coming back.
   • Reach out to the wider public to invite them to take part in research.
3. Work with data
   • Clean, organise and analyse data under guidance, using AI tools where useful and checking what they produce.
   • Document every step so that others can check the work and build on it.
4. Support the science
   • Search for and summarise research papers.
   • Help prepare study materials, figures and drafts for the Pre-Doc Fellows and Principal Investigators.
5. Open the lab to the curious
   • Help organise public lectures and discussions on behavioural and cognitive science.
   • Welcome anyone who is curious, whether or not they have a science background.

Qualifications

• A bachelor's degree in any discipline that shows quantitative ability or strong analytical reasoning, for example philosophy, a pure science, computer science, economics or engineering. Candidates without a quantitative background should be willing to learn basic statistics and programming, with support from the lab.
• At least 1 year of paid, full-time work experience in any field is required. Experience in research, AI or an applied behavioural science field is preferred.

Technical Skills

Required

• Data analysis in Python, R, Stata or Matlab, or the ability to pick it up quickly.
• Using agentic AI tools for research (coding, analysis, literature work), and protecting the team from hallucinations.

Desirable

• Associates work with different Principal Investigators and projects, so we do not expect any one person to have every skill below. Strong candidates will have the Required skills plus some of the Desirable skills for social sciences or cognitive sciences or AI.

Any area

• Data collection through Qualtrics, SurveyCTO, oTree, z-Tree or similar.
• Familiarity with regression and basic statistics.
• Adapting tasks and measures across languages and populations (translation, back-translation).

Disclaimer: This job posting has been aggregated from external source. Role details, content, and availability are subject to change. Applicants are advised to confirm the latest information directly on the company website before applying.