Research Assistant (Senior) or Research Associate (CARE/AC)

National University of Singapore; Singapore; Hybrid; SGD 67,000 - 106,000; Full time

Job summary

Duke-NUS Medical School's CARE centre seeks a Research Assistant (Senior) or Research Associate to lead qualitative components of an RCT evaluating frail older adults post-discharge.

Role requires designing interviews, conducting in-depth talks in English (and Mandarin/Malay as needed), and coding qualitative data. You will work with a multidisciplinary team to inform policy-relevant health and social care strategies.

Qualifications

• Master's degree preferred in a relevant field.
• Experience in implementation research or health services research is advantageous.
• Proficiency in English; ability to conduct interviews with older adults and caregivers.

Responsibilities

• Lead qualitative component of evaluation study, including design, fieldwork, analysis, and dissemination.
• Develop semi-structured interview guides informed by frameworks.
• Manage purposive sampling across participant groups.
• Conduct in-depth interviews in English and Mandarin/Malay as appropriate.
• Maintain data preparation, transcription review, anonymisation and secure storage.
• Develop and maintain qualitative coding framework; lead analysis and reporting.
• Collaborate with study team to integrate qualitative findings with outcomes and reports.
• Support ethics/governance submissions and study documentation.

Skills

Qualitative research

Interviews (semi-structured)

NVivo

Data analysis

Academic writing

Team collaboration

Ethical considerations

Education

Master's degree in social science/public health/health services research

Tools

NVivo

Job description

Research Assistant (Senior) or Research Associate (CARE/AC)

Job Title: Research Assistant (Senior) or Research Associate (CARE/AC) University-Level Unit: Duke-NUS Medical School Faculty/Department-Level Unit: Office of Research Employee Category: Research Staff Location_ONB: Outram Campus Posting Start Date: 15/09/2026

The Centre for Ageing Research and Education (CARE) is a vibrant, multidisciplinary academic research centre in Duke-NUS Medical School, Singapore. Our mission is to conduct research that policy makers can use to achieve health, social inclusion, and a high quality of life for older adults in Singapore and globally. CARE's research is situated in eight broad thematic areas: Population Health, Social and Psychological Aspects of Ageing, Family Caregiving, Productive Ageing, Falls Prevention, Community-Based Health and Social Care Services, Ageing and the Environment, and Health Communication.

We are currently seeking a full-time Research Assistant (Senior) or Research Associate who excels at qualitative research to join our team at CARE. This role offers an excellent opportunity to gain hands-on experience working on a randomized-clinical control trial aimed at optimizing health and social outcomes for frail older persons post hospital discharge.

The successful candidate will:

• Lead the qualitative component of an evaluation study, including qualitative study design, fieldwork, analysis, interpretation and dissemination.


• Develop and refine semi-structured interview guides informed by relevant theoretical and implementation frameworks.


• Develop and manage purposive sampling strategies across multiple participant groups.


• Conduct in-depth interviews with older adults, caregivers and healthcare professionals in English and Mandarin/Malay as appropriate.


• Manage qualitative data preparation, including transcription review, translation checks, anonymisation, fieldnotes, secure storage and data quality assurance.


• Develop and maintain the qualitative coding framework using deductive and inductive approaches; lead coding, framework/thematic analysis, double-coding and analytic discussions.


• Maintain an audit trail, analytic memos and documentation of methodological and analytical decisions.


• Work with the wider study team to integrate qualitative findings with study implementation and outcome findings, and contribute substantially to reports, presentations, manuscripts and other dissemination outputs.


• Liaise with study stakeholders regarding recruitment, fieldwork, interpretation and study procedures.


• Support ethics/governance submissions, protocol amendments and study documentation relating to the qualitative component.


• Train or support other research staff involved in qualitative data collection and analysis.


• Assist with CARE's other initiatives where required.


• Perform other related duties as assigned by the Principal Investigator.

Job Requirements

• Possess a Master's degree in a relevant social science, public health, health services research or related discipline is strongly preferred


• Experience in implementation research, process evaluation, health services research, programme evaluation or related applied research would be advantageous.


• Familiarity with implementation science or theory-/framework-informed qualitative research would be advantageous.


• Demonstrated spoken proficiency in the language(s) required to independently conduct qualitative interviews with older adults and caregivers, including English, Mandarin and/or Malay, as applicable to the study population.


• Demonstrate an understanding of local ageing, policy and/or health contexts.


• At least 2 years of experience in conducting semi-structured or in-depth interviews and independently analysing qualitative data.


• Experience developing coding frameworks and conducting thematic, framework or other systematic qualitative analysis.


• Have interest in conducting both evaluation and exploratory research that impact policies and programmes relevant to population ageing.


• Understand the importance of enhancing qualitative research capabilities in the age/healthcare sector.


• Possess strong interpersonal communications skills, with the ability to interact comfortably with older adults.


• Demonstrate ethical considerations, sensitivities and competencies working with older adults and/or vulnerable populations.


• Collaborative personality with strong people-skills to manage the research team, and interact with administrators, clinicians, and Principal Investigators.


• Possess strong organisational and time-management skills with the ability to manage project-related tasks and meet deadlines.


• Motivated, detail-oriented, and capable of working collaboratively in a multidisciplinary setting.


• Proficient in English with excellent writing and analytical skills.


• Experience in using NVivo qualitative analysis software or any other equivalent qualitative data software.

We regret that only shortlisted candidates will be notified.