Research Professional – Oeindrila Dube - AI and Machine Learning for Social Impact (Full-Time, Benefits Eligible)

Job Title: Research Professional – Oeindrila Dube - AI and Machine Learning for Social Impact  (Full-Time, Benefits Eligible)

Location: Chicago, IL 

Salary Ranges: $55,000–62,000 annual salary, additional $2,000 professional development fund. The included pay rate or range represents the University’s good faith estimate of the possible compensation offer for this role at the time of posting.

Terms: Seeking a Research Professional for a period of at least one but ideally two years 

Expected Start Date: July 1, 2026 

Department: Becker Friedman Institute  

Benefits Eligible: Yes. The University of Chicago offers a wide range of benefits programs and resources for eligible employees, including health, retirement, and paid time off. Information about the benefit offerings can be found in the Benefits Guidebook.

About the program

 

The Becker Friedman Institute for Economics (BFI) is seeking to hire a full-time Research Professional to work with Professor Oeindrila Dube. Applicants must have completed a Bachelors degree by June 2026 and available to begin work in summer 2026. The Research Professional’s responsibilities will span all stages of research, including collecting data of in both tabular and spatial formats, developing algorithms that clean and organize data, conducting statistical analyses, running simulations, and preparing manuscripts and presentations. 

The program is intended to serve as a bridge between college and graduate school for students interested in empirical economics. Applicants must have strong quantitative and programming skills. Candidates with research experience are strongly preferred, especially those with experience in Stata, R, Python or Matlab. The ideal candidate would work for BFI for one or two years before applying to graduate school in Economics or another quantitative social science. BFI offers competitive salary and employee benefits. 

Job Summary 

Can cutting-edge AI make policing more equitable?  Can we infer what is in a police officer’s mind from observing their behavior? These are the kinds of question driving our research program, and we're looking for someone to help answer them. 

The Becker Friedman Institute for Economics (BFI) is seeking a full-time Research Professional to work with Oeindrila Dube, Philip K. Pearson Professor at the University of Chicago's Harris School of Public Policy. This is a hands-on research role at the frontier of computer science and economics, with real stakes: the projects you'll work on aim to change how police interact with the public.  

We are applying NLP and machine learning to terabytes of body-worn camera footage to build tools that improve policing outcomes. We will evaluate the effectiveness of these tools using experimental methods. This work builds on "A Cognitive View of Policing" (QJE 2025). You will be working at real scale, using data that matters.  

The ideal candidate has strong training in computer science and economics or a related social science field. While you don’t need to have majored in economics, you should be excited to learn how economists think about leveraging NLP/AI tools and generate causal evidence. 

Why this, instead of a software job? 

If you're a CS student weighing this against a position in industry: the work here is harder in different ways, more collaborative, and the output is knowledge that gets published and used to inform real policy decisions. Pre-doctoral research positions like this one are a well-established pathway into PhD programs in economics, computer science, public policy, and related fields — and a growing number of CS researchers have found that combining their technical skills with training in causal inference opens up research questions that neither field can tackle alone. 

Unit-preferred Competencies

• Strong programming skills in Python, including experience with at least some machine learning libraries (e.g., scikit-learn, PyTorch, Hugging Face) 
• Has experience working with large structured/unstructured datasets in a research or internship setting
• Ability to work independently and manage multiple projects simultaneously 
• Excellent organizational skills 
• Attention to detail 
• Strong academic writing/communication skills

Minimum Qualifications:

Education

• Bachelor's degree in CS, economics, statistics, math, or a related quantitative discipline

Experience

• At least one year of relevant research experience (coursework and school projects count)

Technical Knowledge/Skills

• Knowledge of R and/or Python preferred 
• Knowledge of STATA preferred 

Preferred Qualifications:

• Has experience in NLP, speech/ASR, or computer vision. 
• Has experience with R and Stata are a plus (as Stata is used in the field experiment work) 
• Has had exposure to causal inference or program evaluation — or is eager to develop these skills quickly.  

Application Documents

• Resume/CV (required)
• Cover Letter (required)
• Writing Sample (required)
• Transcripts (unofficial is acceptable) (required)
• Two Professional References (required)

About the Department  

The Becker Friedman Institute for Economics aims to foster frontier research and apply those findings to achieve global impact. BFI brings together researchers from the Booth School of Business, the Kenneth C. Griffin Department of Economics, the Harris School of Public Policy, the Law School, and the entire University of Chicago Economics Community to leverage robust data, apply cutting-edge analytical tools, and uncover novel insights on the world’s most difficult economic problems. BFI then bridges the divide between academic researchers and relevant policy makers by translating and packaging rigorous research into accessible formats and proactively sharing those findings with decision-makers and thought leaders in business, government and nonprofit institutions. In this way, BFI has the potential to play a significant role in meeting the most difficult challenges facing the global community. 

The University of Chicago is an equal opportunity employer and does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender, gender identity, or expression, national or ethnic origin, shared ancestry, age, status as an individual with a disability, military or veteran status, genetic information, or other protected classes under the law. For additional information please see the University’s Notice of Nondiscrimination.

Job seekers in need of a reasonable accommodation to complete the application process should call 773-702-5800 or submit a request via Applicant Inquiry Form.

All offers of employment are contingent upon a background check that includes a review of conviction history.  A conviction does not automatically preclude University employment.  Rather, the University considers conviction information on a case-by-case basis and assesses the nature of the offense, the circumstances surrounding it, the proximity in time of the conviction, and its relevance to the position.

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