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 past 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.
ISDM has successfully completed its Proof of Concept Phase and is now set for expansion over the next five years. Key achievements include high placement rates for its PGP-DM graduates and plans for increased batch sizes, a new campus, international partnerships, and accreditation. The institute is also conducting research and establishing Centers of Excellence in various areas of social impact. Additionally, it offers programs for professionals and resources for grassroots organizations. Know More at
www.isdm.org.in .
ISDM invites individuals who share its vision to join in creating a dynamic, catalytic ecosystem and positioning India as a thought leader in Development Management, ultimately enabling sustainable social impact at scale.
Global Knowledge Hub (GKH)
The Centres of Excellence are housed within the Global Knowledge Hub, whose role is to strengthen, from end-to-end, the knowledge and practice of Development Management. GKH does this by collating and curating global experiences and knowledge, conducting in-depth research and producing knowledge assets and resources, collaborating to design products and programs for a wide range of target segments that impact the practice of development management and disseminating knowledge as a public good through like-minded individuals and institutions globally.
The Role
We are searching for a passionate data science Senior Research Associate, with experience in applied research on data science and experience or interest in the social sector, to provide technical and management support for the research agenda for the ISDM Centre of Data Science for Social Impact, a Centre of Excellence within ISDM.
Centres of Excellence:
- They are independent units, carrying out research studies, engagement, and other activities in specific domains of development management.
- Their aim is to impact the practice of development management in the Social Purpose ecosystem and significantly scale up the positive impact on the lives of people in sustained ways.
- They will drive cutting edge thinking and become a global authority in that domain.
Centre of Data Sciences for Social Impact:
- Aims to build stronger Social Purpose Organisations (SPOs) through better, more effective organisational decision making, by ensuring that the SPO ecosystem benefits from the data and knowledge it produces as well as open data that should be easily accessible, to create sustained impact at scale from the vast financial, social, and intellectual capital that is poured into it every year.
- Over time, become a leading voice and a platform in the ecosystem for a rational, objective view on data sciences for social impact, connecting relevant stakeholders and driving the thinking on innovation and the future of these areas.
- Create a shared vision, vocabulary, and metrics for data sciences for social impact and empower the SPO ecosystem with access to evidence-backed knowledge base and cutting-edge common access, open knowledge infrastructure.
- Crucially, along with producing and disseminating knowledge, aim to create ready solutions for or consult with SPOs on their data and data sciences requirements.
- If you unequivocally believe in the universal human values of justice, courage, compassion & equity, are passionate about doing your part to make the world a better place, excited about creating something new, and eager to be part of the journey of building a first-of-its-kind institution in the world, then ISDM is the place for you. In addition, you will experience working in a dynamic environment, with room for experimentation & high sense of ownership & accountability.
Key Responsibilities:
- Provide technical and management support in application of data science to create social impact, through the use of big data and descriptive-predictive-prescriptive analytics (e.g. data mining, machine learning, predictive modelling), building dashboards and data storytelling.
- Contribute to the development and testing of novel methods to improve the rigor and/or efficiency of the analysis.
- Build relationships with SPOs, have empathy to understand their pains and needs and work with them to identify solutions through partnerships. Identify and connect with academia, corporate, volunteers who can contribute in solving problems. Bridge the demand of data and technology needs with supply of resources and ideas.
- Lead & support the design, implementation, review, oversight and quality assurance of social sector data.
- Applying data science methods to social sector data, including data wrangling, exploratory analysis of large-scale datasets, modelling, statistical analysis, advanced data visualization, predictive analytics and knowledge of social sector programming.
- Develop and guide data strategies for particular sectors or a group of SPOs.
- Evangelise Employing AI/ML and deep learning to create social impact.
- Maintaining research transparency practices and work on open data.
- Write Technical proposals across one or more development sectors.
- Work with other Centres, teams and partners of ISDM for building synergies.
You must have:
- Ability to simplify the research outcomes and explain data/findings through storytelling to serve a diverse set of audience.
- Bachelors or Masters in Data Science, Statistics, economics, computer engineering or other relevant social science with a significant quantitative analysis component.
- 2-7 years of experience in applying data science methods in social sector.
- Knowledge or experience in Natural Language Processing (NLP), image and video recognition or similar cutting-edge technologies.
- Experience in using Python/R for data analytics
- Experience in using data visualization tools like Power BI and Tableau
- Experience or good knowledge of ETL (Extract, Transform, Load) pipeline for data.
- Experience or good knowledge of developing Dashboards and plan & manage the entire data lifecycle.
- Excellent written communication skills as well as presentation skills.
- Ability to work with data teams, have critical and structured thinking.
- Experience of working in complex projects involving multiple stakeholders, partners etc and navigate in ambiguous and uncertain environments.
- Be passionate about the social sector with data driven approaches for strategy and operations.
- Have some experience and knowledge in project management.
- Knowledge of or experience working on UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
Remuneration for this role will be commensurate with qualifications & experience. To learn more about us and apply, check out
isdm.org.in/careers.
ISDM is an equal-opportunity organization with a particular emphasis on affirmative action. The culture of the organization is one of professionalism while also one that greatly values relationships.
