Harvard Business School (HBS) is seeking multiple Predoctoral Research Associates starting in Summer 2026 to support an assigned faculty member in one of the following academic units.
Please note the faculty currently hiring include:
You will see this posting updated with names of additional hiring faculty listed in the coming months as more needs are identified. We ask that you please indicate the faculty you are interested in supporting in your cover letter.
More information on career outcomes, including PhD programs recent Predoctoral Research Associates attended, can be seen here.
Overview: The Predoctoral Research Associate position reports directly to faculty supervisors and administrative manager in the Research Staff Services office. Ideal candidates will be comfortable in an environment that requires a high level of independence, intellectual curiosity, and the ability to use discretionary judgment.
Primary duties:
- Work under the general direction of HBS faculty on topics central to HBS research agenda. Provide subject-area knowledge, analysis and interpretation to faculty member. Identify and explore a wide-range of questions related to faculty’s research agenda.
- Develop, design, conduct, analyze, and implement research using data science knowledge and prior knowledge of requested statistical packages. Perform statistical programming. Experience with NLP.
- Manage and manipulate data using requested packages, such as STATA, Python, R, or MATLAB.
- Ensure compliance with department, University, and federal regulations. Complete work with only general direction. Be aware of department, School, University policies and potential outside research policies.
- Under general direction of faculty member, must be able to take complex research ideas, concepts, and methodologies and apply them to new projects and situations. Must be able to structure assignments and keep faculty member informed as necessary, using own judgment.
- Build trust and collaboration by being present on-site and engaging directly with colleagues and various constituents.
- Responsible for other duties as assigned.