Available Openings
DFI Faculty Director
Staff Associate
Columbia Business School is seeking to hire a Staff Associate of research for the Decision, Risk, and Operations (DRO) Division. The work will include quantitative and qualitative research and analysis involving the collection, coordination, and management of information and data, development and implementation of computer models and simulations, development of research materials (figures, presentations, papers, etc.) and work on special projects relating to pertinent fields of research within the division.
Project Specific: The staff associate will work on topics that advance the frontier of AI-driven sequential decision-making, including development of new ML methodologies or models from an engineering perspective, including but not limited to LLMs, agentic systems, multi-agent problems, trustworthy AI, and persona generation.
Duties, Qualifications, and Application Instructions
This position provides an opportunity to gain experience in academic business research, with a special focuses on fields such as operations research, operations management, statistics, and economics; and it would be ideal preparation for a PhD program or other graduate study.
The Staff Associate duties involve work in one or more of the following areas of research: Economics and Statistics.
Specific duties include:
- Collect, clean, and maintain datasets and databases. Extract and link data from multiple databases for analysis. Prepare detailed documentation.
- Develop models and implement program code (STATA, Python, SQL, R, SAS, Matlab, etc.).
- Perform statistical analysis, including regression analysis and machine learning techniques.
- Assist with data analysis and dissemination of findings through the preparation of reports, journal articles, presentations, websites, and other research outlets.
- Perform case-based research, including work with detailed primary documents.
Qualifications
- Bachelor's degree in Economics or Finance or in a quantitative discipline such as Mathematics, Statistics, Engineering, Computer Science, Data Science, etc.
- At least 6 months of experience in a research role or as a research assistant.
- Programming experience in STATA is required. Strong preference for those who also know Python or R.
- Additional programming experience in one or more of the following languages: SQL, SAS, Matlab, and/or C is preferred.
- Familiarity with statistical tooks such as linear regression is required.
- Demonstrated exceptional written and oral communications skills needed - a writing sample is required.
- Expertise in processing large volumes of data and algorithm design expertise.
- Experience in market design applications preferred.
- Familiarity with text parsing and analysis (natural language processing) and/or machine learning techniques is preferred.
- Candidate must be able to work on multiple projects simultaneously.
Application Instructions
Applications should submit:
- CV
- Cover letter
- Transcripts
- Writing sample
- Three letters of reference