Deputy Director/Assistant Director (Behavioural Sciences) (2-Year Contract)

As Deputy Director/Assistant Director (Behavioural Sciences), you will drive the use and adoption of behavioural insights research and approaches in MAS.

He/she will work closely with line departments to apply behavioural sciences research, and design effective policy and service delivery interventions. Specifically, he/she will execute:

• Internal-facing initiatives to better understand employees’ sentiments and behaviours, while also building internal Behavioural Insights capability among officers. This will help to drive organisational change and transformation within MAS;
• External-facing projects to better understand general public, consumers and financial institutions’ needs, motivations and cognitive biases; with a view to nudge, influence and/or shape desired behavioural change and responses to drive better policy and service delivery outcomes.

Key responsibilities include:

• Define the behavioural challenge in question, using data science methods and literature review.
• Understand the current context of issues by uncovering sentiments and/or opinions of users and the system they operate in (e.g. through surveys, focus groups, interviews, field observations). Utilise these insights to gain a better understanding of the motivators and barriers of their behaviours, and pinpoint and diagnose where behavioural insights can be applied to achieve the biggest impact.
• Propose, design and deploy behavioural interventions to solve the behavioural problem statement (e.g. through randomised controlled trials), evaluate impact of interventions (using data analytics), and propose effective recommendations for adoption and scaling.
• Communicate and present the project methodology, findings, and recommendations in the form of reports and presentations to stakeholders; and publish cutting edge research in academic journals.
• Build a behaviourally-informed organisation where we raise awareness, knowledge and skill levels (workshops, articles, resources, community) to challenge assumptions, measure impact and understand behaviour of our stakeholders, so that they can drive better policy and service delivery outcomes with an expanded policy toolkit.
• Manage projects involving line departments and external research firms to ensure that studies are executed effectively and in alignment with internal objectives and timelines. This includes coordinating, monitoring progress, ensuring validity of findings, and adjusting to changes or issues that may arise, while meeting project deadlines and expectations.

[What we are looking for]

• Bachelor’s/Masters in relevant multidisciplinary behavioural science fields, including but not limited to: Psychology (social, organisational or cognitive), Behavioural Economics/Science, Economics, Sociology, Neuroscience or Statistics.
• A good grasp of behavioural science concepts and hunger to learn across multidisciplinary fields of behavioural science.
• Skillsets in qualitative and quantitative research techniques, including but not limited to interviews, focus groups discussions, surveys, randomised controlled trials and other quasi-experimental methods.
• Strong analytical skills, comfortable with performing statistical analysis (e.g. regression, power analyses) using tools like R, Python or STATA.
• Ability to manage multiple projects concurrently.
• Strong communication and stakeholder engagement skills.
• Proactive, driven and self-directed.
• As part of the shortlisting process for this role, you may be required to complete a medical declaration and/or undergo further assessment.
• All applicants will be notified on whether they are shortlisted or not within 4 weeks of the closing date of this job posting.