Assistant Scientist - Agricultural and Development Economics

Job ID:

HQ01915

Location

Philippines

Closing Date

26-Jul-2026

About IRRI

The International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) is dedicated to reducing poverty and hunger through rice science; improving the health and welfare of rice farmers and consumers; and protecting the rice-growing environment for future generations. IRRI is an independent, nonprofit, research and educational institute, founded in 1960 by the Ford and Rockefeller foundations with support from the Philippine government. The institute, headquartered in Los Baños, Philippines, has offices in 17 rice-growing countries in Asia and Africa, and over 1,000 staff.

Working with in-country partners, IRRI develops advanced rice varieties that yield more grain and better withstand pests and disease as well as flooding, drought, and other harmful effects of climate change.

Job Purpose

Under the general supervision of the Postdoctoral Fellow, the Assistant Scientist for Agricultural and Development Economics will provide advanced analytics and economic interpretation across the five impact areas, help maintain and expand the Global Market Intelligence Platform (GloMIP), and conduct field work (e.g., consumer surveys). The role focuses on bridging the gap between raw data science and agricultural and food economics, utilising automated pipelines and AI-driven literature synthesis to support decision-making in global food systems.

This position will be based at the IRRI Headquarters, Los Baños, Philippines, and may only be filled by permanent citizens of the Philippines.

Roles and Responsibilities
  • Maintain and continuously improve robust numeric data pipelines for global impact areas (Nutrition, Poverty, Gender, Climate, and Environment), including supporting data pre-processing, automation, and data-sharing protocols.
  • Support the development, calibration, and validation of numerical scoring systems aligned with published research.
  • Support research on biofortifying and health-enhancing staples through data analysis and interpretation.
  • Conduct advanced ex-ante modelling and foresight analyses for global impact areas.
  • Develop and optimize AI-enabled research automation tools, utilizing tools like NotebookLM to transform literature reviews into structured, searchable knowledge bases.
  • Leverage tools like Gemini and ChatGPT Deep-research to support analytics and interpretation while ensuring rigorous cross-validation between AI outputs and empirical literature.
  • Collaborate with multi-disciplinary teams and international partners to support research activities and project implementation.
  • Conduct fieldwork by directly collecting data from value chain and food system stakeholders (seed suppliers, farmers, processors, traders, food companies, and consumers) through interviews, surveys, and on-site observations.
  • Facilitate user adoption of new data platforms and analytical tools by developing navigation guidelines and instructional materials (WebP/GIF/Video).
  • Support the technical maintenance and enhancement of online tools (e.g., Impact Opportunities) hosted on AWS and maintain GitHub repositories within Linux environments.
  • Assist in preparing scientific briefings, bulletin articles, evidence briefs, technical syntheses, and aid in writing journal articles for senior decision-makers and the international research community, as well as surveys aimed at consumers.
  • Conduct frontend and backend audits for the GloMIP platform, ensuring that complex data visualisations are accessible and bug-free.
  • Summarize, validate, and analyze survey data using appropriate advanced statistical tools and relevant economic theory
Qualifications
  • Bachelor's degree in Agricultural Economics, Environmental Economics, Environmental Science, Econometrics, Data Science, or a related field.
  • At least five (5) years of relevant experience in agricultural and environmental economics research.
Skills Required

Mandatory

  • Strong educational background in agricultural and development

economics.

  • Up to date with published knowledge on climate change, nutrients, and

health, forecasting/foresight, and labour dynamics

  • Strong knowledge in the field of food and nutrition, specifically in Non-Communicable Diseases (NCDs) and biofortification.
  • Familiarity with the production specifics of rice and other key global commodities, including cassava, wheat, maize, and beans.
  • Experience in the conduct of agricultural surveys using structured questionnaires.

Preferred

  • Proficiency in using R (packages tidyverse, shiny) and Python.
  • Excellent interpersonal and organisational skills
  • Proficiency in written and spoken English

IRRI offers a highly extensive employee benefits package inclusive of globally-covered medical insurance, retirement plan, life and accident insurance and other allowances.

Join our team and be part of our story!

Please note only shortlisted candidates will be contacted.

This position will remain open until filled.

At Impactpool we do our best to provide you the most accurate info, but closing dates may be wrong on our site. Please check on the recruiting organization's page for the exact info. Candidates are responsible for complying with deadlines and are encouraged to submit applications well ahead.
Before applying, please make sure that you have read the requirements for the position and that you qualify. Applications from non-qualifying applicants will most likely be discarded by the recruiting manager.