Technology Specialist - System 3 - Centre for Social and Behaviour Change

Ashoka; Bengaluru; Presencial; INR 900.000 - 1.400.000; Jornada completa

Descripción de la vacante

Ashoka University’s Centre for Social and Behaviour Change seeks a Technology Specialist, System 3, to design and build AI-enabled research systems in a small startup-like team in Bengaluru.

You will create instrumented environments, data pipelines, and prototypes to study how AI affects human thinking and decision making, reporting to the System 3 PI. Renewal depends on project progress and funding.

Formación

• 4 to 5 years of professional software or data engineering experience.
• Experience with Python and web applications.
• Familiarity with LLMs, AI research tools, and data privacy.

Responsabilidades

• Build AI-interaction testbeds and instrumented environments for AI agents and chatbots.
• Set up secure data collection, storage and de-identification; maintain data pipelines and version control.
• Keep the lab’s public repository of code, instruments and replication packages; write reproducible documentation.
• Develop prototypes in the Behavioural Design and Prototyping Garage; demonstrate builds and bring in outside experts as needed.

Conocimientos

Python

LLM APIs

Web applications

Logging & telemetry

Documentation

Data privacy

Research lab experience

Offline-first/mobile apps

Open-source contributions

Herramientas

jsPsych

oTree

lab.js

Git

Descripción del empleo

Technology Specialist - System 3 - Centre for Social and Behaviour Change Centre for Social and Behaviour Change Bangalore, Bangalore, Bangalore, India 4 - 5 Years

Job Description

Job Title: Technology Specialist, System 3, CSBC

Reports to: Dr Pavan Mamidi, Principal Investigator, System 3

Location: Bengaluru

Experience (in years): 4 to 5 years of professional software or data engineering experience

Nature of work: Full-time, one-year contract, renewable

About the Centre for Social and Behaviour Change

At the Centre for Social and Behaviour Change (CSBC), we bring together behavioural scientists, policy experts, and researchers to develop novel insights and catalyse action. We partner with governments, non-profits, and corporations to embed behavioural science in programme design, creating solutions that work in practice and at scale. Established by Ashoka University with Gates Foundation support, we make development more people-centric through real-world applications of behavioural science. In recent years, CSBC researchers have contributed 25 peer-reviewed articles to top journals, advancing the nation’s behavioural evidence base and catalysing collaborations with leading institutions such as the University of Chicago, Yale School of Management, the University of Michigan, the Collegio Carlo Alberto, and Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. For more information, please visit https://csbc.org.in/.

About System 3

System 3 is a new research lab under the Centre for Social and Behaviour Change (CSBC). It will rest on two pillars.

Basic science, from India: Most of what the world knows about how people think, trust and decide comes from a few narrow populations. India, with its range of languages, identities and institutions, is where those claims can be properly tested. We will run foundational, curiosity-driven research on cognition, judgement and behaviour, to learn which findings travel and which were only ever local. We take inspiration from the MIT Media Lab: open, accessible and joyful in the pursuit of credible science.

AI and Behaviour: System 1 and System 2 describe the fast and slow thinking of the human mind, both shaped by the social and institutional worlds around us. System 3 will ask what happens to that mind in the age of AI. How do we learn, judge, trust and decide when intelligent machines are part of everyday life? What do we gain, and what do we quietly give away? This will be a major focus of our research agenda.

The two pillars will reinforce each other. Understanding the human mind in all its diversity will let us study how AI changes it.

We are a small team, early in our journey, based in Bengaluru. We are looking for people who like building something from scratch, who take ownership without waiting to be asked, and who are as comfortable rolling up their sleeves as thinking big.

Role and Responsibilities

System 3 is hiring a Technology Specialist to build the technical foundations of its research on human behaviour and AI. The Technology Specialist will design and build the systems where people work with AI, so that we can measure how it changes the way they think, trust and decide. The role suits an engineer who wants their work to answer scientific questions, and who enjoys building something new in a small, ambitious team. Reporting to Dr Pavan Mamidi, the Technology Specialist will work directly with the Principal Investigators who lead our AI research and will see their work used in studies as soon as they start.

What the Technology Specialist will do:

• Build AI-interaction testbeds
  • Build instrumented environments where people work with AI agents and chatbots, capturing interaction traces, timing and behaviour.
  • Link these systems to other measures, such as eye-tracking and pupillometry.
  • Work with the Principal Investigators to turn research questions into systems that can run studies.
• Run the research data infrastructure
  • Set up secure data collection, storage and de-identification.
  • Build and maintain data pipelines, automation and version control.
  • Set up and look after the lab’s computing equipment.
  • Keep the lab open
    • Maintain the lab’s public repository of code, instruments and replication packages.
    • Write documentation that lets other researchers reproduce our work.
  • Build prototypes in the Garage
    • Build software tools and interfaces in our Behavioural Design and Prototyping Garage, our workshop for making research instruments and tools. Examples include deepfake-detection training and scenario engines for low-literacy, multilingual users.
    • Show working builds at regular demo days.
    • Bring in outside specialists when a build needs hardware.

Qualifications

4 to 5 years of professional software or data engineering experience.

Technical Skills

Required

• Building and deploying software in a professional setting, with Python and web applications.
• Working with LLM and agent APIs, including logging their inputs and outputs.
• Databases, and secure handling of sensitive data.
• Version control, testing and documentation.
• Online experiment tools such as jsPsych, oTree or lab.js.
• Instrumenting user interaction (logging and telemetry).
• Research or academic lab experience.
• Offline-first or mobile applications.
• Open-source contributions.
• Data privacy and compliance.

Professional Skills

• Enjoys turning a scientist’s question into a working system, and explaining technical choices to non-engineers.
• Takes ownership and works independently.
• Curiosity about how people think and decide, and about how AI changes it.
• A preference for flat teams, where a good idea counts for more than a title.
• Clear writing and good documentation habits.
• Willingness to do whatever a research start-up needs, from fixing a study at short notice to setting up equipment for a public talk.

ABOUT ASHOKA UNIVERSITY Ashoka University is India's premier interdisciplinary higher education and research-focused institution, offering world-class opportunities in the natural sciences, social sciences, and humanities. Established in 2014 by leaders, thinkers, academics, and philanthropists from diverse fields, it operates on a unique model of collective philanthropy, integrating exemplary governance standards with cutting-edge pedagogy and a faculty body of international acclaim. Today, the University has a community of 3000+ students and operates seven Schools imparting industry-oriented education, professional skills, and values-based learning to prepare students for global careers. The University espouses principles of inclusivity and diversity, having more than 57% women, 4% international scholars, 100+ students with disabilities, and over 47% students on scholarships. Since its inception, Rs 723 crores have been awarded in scholarships with over 2,000 students receiving full-tuition fee waivers cumulatively and 5400+ students being supported through scholarships. In addition, nearly 5500 of Ashoka's alumni are pursuing careers of their choice in reputed organisations and leading universities across the world. Ashoka University continues to reaffirm its commitment to building an inclusive institution of excellence in teaching and research, nurturing responsible leaders for India and the world. In 2025, Ashoka University was honoured with the 'University of the Year (Emerging)' award at the 20th FICCI Higher Education Summit 2025 - one of India's notable industry platforms celebrating excellence in academia and innovation. The University also secured the first position in the Indian Institutional Ranking Framework (IIRF) 2025 in two prestigious categories. The Ashoka advantage will continue to equip its students with the skills to see the big picture - to critically analyse, question, interpret, craft compelling arguments, and find sustainable solutions. It is a collective effort towards nation‑building. This is where tomorrow's leaders are born. Check out the Ashoka Website to know more : https://www.ashoka.edu.in/