Senior Behavioral Scientist

Job Purpose

Support the Behavioral Economics (BE) unit within the organization Retail and Business Banking to apply behavioral science to the design and execution of better money management solutions for clients across the bank. The senior behavioral scientist will be responsible for undertaking research, designing behavioral interventions, facilitating trainings, and undertaking business experiments to measure the impact of proposed solutions on client behaviors.

Job Responsibilities

• Work with business units to define target behaviors
• Scope advisory projects and develop workplans
• Conduct literature reviews to contextualize target behaviors and proposed behavioral interventions
• Guide data exploration to contextualize and quantify target behaviors
• Undertake qualitative research to effectively diagnose the context and psychological barriers to target behavior
• Effectively package and communicate the findings of primary and secondary research to business units
• Design and propose behavioral interventions
• Support business units to test behavioral interventions (RCTs or A/B tests)
• Provide training to business units on behavioral insights relevant to their business units
• Support the effective knowledge management and curation of behavioral science research through brown bag sessions
• Establish relationships with clients through constant engagement
• Assist in positioning the BE Unit as a valued business partner through proactive engagement and networking with internal and external stakeholders
• Monitor performance by aligning own contribution to delivery of departmental plan against expected outcomes
• Share knowledge and industry trends with team and stakeholders during formal and informal interactions
• Resolve work obstacles by managing on a case-by-case basis and early escalation where required

• Grade 12 / Matric / National Senior Certificate
• Honors Degree in economics, psychology, or social sciences

• More than 5 years’ experience consulting in financial services or working in a financial institution
• Demonstrated experience applying behavioral science within large corporates
• Ability to produce quality work under pressurized circumstances

• Conducting root cause analysis using a behavioral lens
• Developing business plans
• Challenging the status quo with a view to improving the environment or people's understanding
• Analyzing situations or data that require an in-depth evaluation of multiple factors
• Drafting reports (mostly PPT)
• Influencing stakeholders to obtain buy-in for concepts and ideas
• Sharing information in different ways to increase stakeholders' understanding
• Brainstorming ways of improving a product
• Conducting a needs analysis

Desired Skills:

• Consulting
• Financial Services
• Psychology
• Relationship Building
• Stakeholder Management