Research Associate
Location: India based (Delhi preferred, or remote within India with ability to travel to field locations and work across time zones)
About the Role
We are seeking an exceptional Research Associate based in India to support research, analysis, and programme development across climate, agriculture, and carbon removal. The role will focus on generating high quality evidence, synthesising complex technical information, and supporting the design of field and policy programmes that link soil restoration, agricultural productivity, and durable carbon removal.
The successful candidate will contribute to technical analysis, research publications, grant and concept note development, country risk analysis, and internal strategy work.
The role is best suited to candidates who combine strong academic training with practical experience working on real world climate, agriculture, or development programmes.
Key Responsibilities
Research and Evidence Generation
- Lead structured literature reviews across soil science, agronomy, carbon removal, climate policy, and rural development
- Translate academic and technical evidence into clear decision ready outputs for internal and external stakeholders
- Support development of research frameworks for field trials and evidence generation programmes
- Analyse and interpret data from field trials and pilot deployments
- Contribute to technical reports, white papers, and peer reviewed publications
Country and Market Risk Assessment
- Contribute to development of country risk assessments across priority geographies
- Analyse political economy, regulatory stability, and policy direction relevant to agriculture and climate deployment
- Assess operational risks including logistics, infrastructure, and supply chain constraints
- Support evaluation of carbon market, Article 6, and voluntary carbon market enabling conditions
- Contribute to country prioritisation frameworks and deployment readiness scoring
Programme and Strategy Support
- Contribute to development of concept notes, grant applications, and technical proposals
- Support analysis of India specific and international policy, regulatory, and market environments
- Support partner mapping across academia, government, multilaterals, and corporates
Carbon Removal and Climate Analytics
- Support modelling of cost curves, farmer economics, and deployment scenarios
Stakeholder and Knowledge Management
- Prepare high quality briefing materials for senior leadership and external partners
- Support workshop and roundtable preparation including background research and synthesis
- Maintain structured research repositories and knowledge management systems
Required Qualifications and Experience
- Masters degree from a university outside India in a relevant field (for example environmental science, soil science, climate policy, development economics, geography, or agricultural systems)
- Minimum 3 years professional experience in climate, agriculture, development, sustainability, or applied research roles
- Demonstrated experience contributing to technical reports, policy papers, or research publications
- Demonstrated experience working with complex datasets, field evidence, or multi source research inputs
Required Skills
- Excellent written English with ability to translate complex technical material into clear, structured outputs
- Strong analytical and structured thinking capability
- High attention to detail and source accuracy
- Ability to work across disciplines and with international teams
- Strong organisational and time management capability
Strongly Preferred
- Experience working on climate or agricultural programmes in Global South contexts
- Experience conducting country risk, political economy, or market enabling environment analysis
- Familiarity with carbon markets, carbon accounting, or MRV frameworks
- Experience working with smallholder farming systems in India
- Quantitative capability including Excel modelling, or statistical or geospatial tools
Personal Attributes
- Highly intellectually curious and evidence driven
- Comfortable operating in ambiguity and fast-moving programme environments
- Mission aligned with climate mitigation, adaptation, and rural development
- Able to communicate effectively with both technical and non-technical audiences
What We Offer
- Opportunity to work on frontier climate and agriculture challenges in India and other Global South contexts
- Exposure to global policy, science, and finance stakeholders
- Fast learning environment with strong mentorship and responsibility from day one
- Potential pathway to programme leadership or specialist technical roles
Application Process
Please submit:
- CV
- One writing sample (for example research summary, policy brief, or technical note). Shortlisted candidates may be asked to complete a short synthesis exercise.
Additional Capability Expectation: Digital and AI Literacy
Candidates are expected to demonstrate strong practical capability using modern AI enabled research and productivity tools to improve the speed, depth, and quality of analysis and synthesis. Equally important is a clear understanding of the limitations, risks, and appropriate use cases of these tools, including issues related to accuracy, bias, hallucination risk, data provenance, confidentiality, and reproducibility. The successful candidate should be able to apply AI tools as part of a rigorous research workflow, using them to augment rather than replace critical thinking, domain expertise, and source validation.
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