Research Assistant / Research Associate (1-year contract), LKCSB

COMPANY DESCRIPTION

Singapore Management University is a place where high-level professionalism blends together with a healthy informality. The family-like atmosphere among the SMU community fosters a culture where employees work, plan, organise and play together - building a strong collegiality and morale within the university.

Our commitment to attract and retain talent is ongoing. We offer attractive benefits and welfare, competitive compensation packages, and generous professional development opportunities - all to meet the work-life needs of our staff. No wonder, then, that SMU continues to be given numerous awards and recognition for its human resource excellence.

RESPONSIBILITIES

• This position is for Lee Kong Chian School of Business (LKCSB).
• Research design and preparation. Conduct literature reviews and prepare evidence summaries for each workstream. Develop and pretest study materials, including survey instruments, experimental stimuli, interview protocols, and intervention materials. Program experiments and surveys in Qualtrics. Run pretests and power analyses to inform sample sizes. Prepare IRB applications, amendments, and renewals, and maintain ethics documentation.
• Data collection and fieldwork. Recruit, screen, and schedule participants through the SMU subject pool, on line panels in Singapore and the US, community and senior activity centers, and hospital partner sites. Administer laboratory and in-person sessions. Support semi-structured interviews with adults aged 65 and above, covering consent, audio capture, and transcription. Coordinate the longitudinal field experiment, including participant tracking across waves, follow-up communications at I, 3, and 6 months, and voucher redemption. Administer participant incentives in line with SMU finance policy. Act as the day-to-day contact for field partner sites.
• Data management and analysis. Clean, merge, code, and document datasets, and maintain the shared project repository. Conduct preliminary analyses under investigator supervision, including descriptive statistics, t-tests, ANOV A, regression, and mediation and moderation analysis, with support for multilevel modeling of longitudinal data. Prepare tables, figures, and results summaries, and assist with manuscript preparation, reference management, and submission logistics. Handle participant data in line with POPA and SMU data governance requirements.
• Liaising with and supervising student assistants. Recruit, onboard, and train part-time undergraduate Student Assistants. Allocate tasks, review session quality and timesheets, and maintain training materials and standard operating procedures so that protocols are delivered consistently.
• Project officer duties. Track progress against the grant's research milestones and KPls and maintain a status overview for the investigator team. Prepare inputs for annual progress reports to the post-award committee and for MOE and ORe reporting. Monitor budget utilization across manpower, subject payments, software, professional fees, travel, and publications, and prepare documentation for variations where required. Coordinate procurement, subscriptions, and external vendors as needed. Organize fortnightly virtual and six-weekly in-person team meetings, circulate agendas, and follow up on action items. Coordinate visits by international collaborators, including study logistics and travel administration. Support conference submissions, open-access publication processing, and dissemination.
• Working arrangements. The role involves some work at off-campus field sites in Singapore and occasional evening and weekend sessions to suit older participants and student assistant schedules.
• Other duties as assigned.

QUALIFICATIONS

• A bachelor's degree in psychology, marketing, behavioral science, public health, or a related social science discipline, with strong academic standing.
• At least six months of hands-on empirical research experience involving primary data collection with human participants, through a research thesis, course project(s), research assistantship, or comparable professional experience.
• A completed empirical research project (e.g., honors thesis, course project, co-authored paper, or conference presentation) that the candidate can discuss in depth.
• Survey and experiment programming in Qualtrics.
• Quantitative analysis in SPSS, ST AT A, or R: descriptive statistics, t-tests, ANOV A, regression, and mediation and moderation analysis, with the capacity to learn multilevel modeling.
• Working knowledge of experimental design: random assignment, power analysis, pretesting, manipulation and attention checks, and control conditions.
• Sound data management practice, including cleaning, merging, documenting, and versioning datasets.
• Familiarity with research ethics requirements and experience preparing IRB or equivalent submissions.
• Proficiency in Microsoft Office, particularly Excel and Powerpoint Excellent writing and interpersonal skills.
• Ability to communicate in Mandarin as the field studies will require engaging with senior individuals (age 60+ years) in Mandarin in Singapore.
• Patience and cultural sensitivity in working with senior individuals (age 60+ years) on topics touching on identity and independence.
• Ability to coordinate and supervise junior team members and maintain quality standards .
• Comfort working with three faculty investigators, international collaborators across time zones, and external community and healthcare partners.
• Attention to detail and accuracy in data handling, with strong research integrity . Organizational and project management ability able to run several concurrent studies to deadline with minimal supervision.

OTHER INFORMATION

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Please note that your application will be sent to and reviewed by the direct employer - Singapore Management University