Senior Researcher, AI Economic Preparedness

Windfall Trust • ,

7d • $105,000 - $160,000 • Remote

About The Position

Windfall Trust is hiring a full-time Senior Researcher to provide research support across several national-government AI economic preparedness programs. The programs examine how advanced AI could affect countries’ development models, including job automation exposure, labor-intensive manufacturing, traded services, remittances, commodity exports and public finances, and help governments decide what to monitor and how to respond.

The Senior Researcher will analyze countries’ economic exposure to AI, help design and run scenario workshops with senior officials, and support governments moving from diagnosis to monitoring, policy and institutional change. The role will also contribute to developing Windfall’s country preparedness methods and tools with international and local partners. The position is remote, with regular overlap with European and US working hours, and includes approximately 10–20% travel, including international travel. The expected start date is January 2027.

Requirements

• Typically 3 or more years of relevant experience in economic or policy research, international development, government advisory or a related field.
• Knowledge of development economics, such as labor markets, informality, structural transformation, trade or public finance, and public policy.
• Comfort working with country-level economic data and building a clear argument from it.
• Clear, rigorous writing for senior government and multilateral audiences.
• Experience working with governments, think tanks or international organizations, ideally in low- and middle-income countries.
• Strong organization skills and ability to manage several country workstreams and deadlines at once with light supervision.
• A collaborative, reliable working style suited to a small team spread across time zones.
• A serious interest in how advanced AI could reshape economies, jobs and public finances.

Nice To Haves

• Experience with a multilateral or development organization, or in strategy consulting.
• A background in foresight or scenario planning.
• Working knowledge of Python, R or Stata and AI coding tools such as Claude Code.
• Experience convening expert networks or working groups.
• Experience in, or a working language of, one or more of the regions where Windfall works.

Responsibilities

• Develop initial hypotheses about how advanced AI could affect each country’s economy, labor market and public finances, and identify early indicators that could show these effects.
• Help source and analyze international and national economic data, including data from the World Bank, IMF, ILO and national statistical offices, while relying on Windfall’s Observatory.
• Adapt Windfall’s reference scenarios to country contexts and prepare and run workshops with senior government officials, local experts and international partners.
• Draft country briefs, workshop materials, scenario designs and workshop summary reports, and help turn findings into concise explainers for officials, partners and funders.
• Apply Windfall’s research tools to country engagements, including AI-exposure data dashboards, public opinion surveys, scenario reports and maps of policy options, in collaboration with Windfall’s research team.
• Advise and support governments and local partners in establishing early-warning indicators, designing policy responses and developing national preparedness plans.
• Set a baseline for each country and track changes in what its government monitors, decides and funds.
• Contribute to comparative findings across countries.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Senior
• Education Level: No Education Listed