Senior Associate/ Associate - Research (Data Analyst)

About ISDM

The Indian School of Development Management pioneers a transformative approach to management, envisioning a world that is just, equitable, and sustainable. Established in 2016, it serves as a foundational hub for cultivating a robust ecosystem and a cadre of skilled professionals dedicated to advancing social change globally.

Driven by the conviction that the social sector plays a pivotal role in addressing humanity's most pressing challenges, the school operates on the premise that effective management is essential for achieving significant impact. By nurturing talent in Development Management tailored to the unique needs of the social sector, the school aims to catalyze sustainable socio-economic and ecological progress on a large scale.

Recognizing the power of institutions to shape professional ecosystems, the school aims to establish itself as a beacon of excellence in higher education. Through this, it seeks to lay the groundwork for a thriving community of practitioners dedicated to driving positive change in society.

Over the years, Indian School of Development Management (ISDM) has garnered validation, support, and funding from esteemed individuals and organizations. While numerous programs worldwide aim to cultivate management capabilities for the social sector, they often reside within larger university ecosystems or business schools, where they may receive lesser attention compared to mainstream programs. ISDM stands out as the sole institution globally dedicated to fostering a comprehensive ecosystem for Development Management, focusing on pioneering work in critical areas.

ISDM's initiatives encompass:

• Knowledge Creation: Establishing a Global Knowledge Hub to create, disseminate, and institutionalize contextual knowledge on building, leading, and managing social purpose organizations, networks, and platforms.
• Talent Nurturing: Offering the Post Graduate Program in Development Management (PGP-DM) to attract and develop top-tier talent capable of addressing management challenges within the sector.
• Capacity Building: Providing Strategic Capacity Building programs to enhance individual and institutional capacities in development management, thereby fostering sustainable and scalable social impact.

About the Role:

The Data & AI Analyst will join the Global Knowledge Hub (GKH) at ISDM, working across the complete data lifecycle, from data acquisition and integration to advanced analytics, AI-assisted analysis, visualisation, and knowledge generation. The position will initially support the Responsible AI (RAI) project by transforming diverse public- and social-sector datasets into actionable insights that enable ethical, transparent, and evidence-based decision-making.

The successful candidate will contribute to the development of SDG knowledge graphs and AI-ready datasets, evaluate data quality, support responsible AI implementation, and generate evidence for policymakers, researchers, and Social Purpose Organisations. The role requires strong analytical skills, programming expertise, and the ability to communicate complex findings to both technical and non-technical audiences.

Key Responsibilities

• Data Management: Build and manage high-quality, AI-ready datasets, ETL pipelines, and data documentation.
• Analytics & AI: Apply statistical analysis, AI, and machine learning to develop insights, models, and decision-support tools.
• Responsible AI: Implement Responsible AI practices, including fairness, explainability, governance, risk assessment, and responsible data use.
• Knowledge Products: Develop analytical products, reusable data assets, and knowledge resources for research, policy, and practice.
• Collaboration: Collaborate across GKH, government, academia, and civil society to deliver analytics, pilots, and capacity-building initiatives. Share emerging practices in AI, data science, and analytics through internal knowledge-sharing forums.

Education Qualifications & Experience

• Master's/Bachelor's degree in Statistics, Economics, Computer Science, Data Science, Artificial Intelligence, Public Policy, Information Systems, or another relevant quantitative discipline.
• 2-4 years of experience in data analytics, AI/ML, econometrics, public policy analytics, or research.
• Experience working with large administrative datasets, survey datasets, or government databases is desirable.
• Experience in social sector research, digital public infrastructure, or governance projects is an added advantage.
• Experience with LLMs and Generative AI applications.
• Knowledge of Prompt Engineering.
• Experience with Neo4j or Knowledge Graphs, vector databases and semantic search.
• Experience with MCP servers, APIs, or data interoperability standards.
• Understanding of SDG indicators and government administrative datasets.
• Publications or contributions to research papers, technical reports, or open-source projects.

Responsible AI & Governance

• Understanding of Responsible AI principles, including fairness, accountability, transparency, explainability, and human oversight.
• Basic understanding of the Digital Personal Data Protection (DPDP) Act and GDPR.
• Familiarity with data governance frameworks, metadata standards, and data quality assessment.