Junior Specialist/Assistant Specialist - O'Donnell Center for Behavioral Economics

Position overview

Position title: Junior Specialist or Assistant Specialist

Salary range: The UC academic salary scales set the minimum pay at appointment. See the following table for the current salary: Table 24B. Final salary will be commensurate with level of experience. The current full-time salary range for Junior Specialist positions is $55,000 to $58,600. The current full-time salary for Assistant Specialist positions is $63,500 to $70,700.

Percent time: 100%

Anticipated start: July 1, 2026

Position duration: 1 Year with possible extension for a second year.

Application Window

Open date: March 25, 2026

Most recent review date: Thursday, Apr 23, 2026 at 11:59pm (Pacific Time)

Final date: Friday, Jul 31, 2026 at 11:59pm (Pacific Time)

Position description

The Haas School of Business at the University of California, Berkeley is seeking highly motivated individuals for the position of Junior or Assistant Specialist. The position assists in research in behavioral economics and finance, intersecting with topics in applied microeconomics, macro-finance, labor, and health.

The mission of the O'Donnell Center for Behavioral Economics is to support scholarship combining the highest standards of economic research with insights drawn from psychology and across the sciences—including cognitive science, neuroscience, biology, medicine, epidemiology, and genetics. The candidate would work at the Haas School of Business O'Donnell Center for Behavioral Economics under the supervision of Professor Ulrike Malmendier.

General Duties:

• Develop and Execute Data Workflows: Clean complex datasets, identify and resolve technical coding issues, and monitor statistical deliverables to ensure rigorous quality assurance. (20% time)
• Implement Econometric Analyses: Write efficient, collaborative, and replicable code to maintain datasets and execute analyses using reduced-form (DiD, RD, IV) and structural econometrics (MLE, GMM, dynamic programming). (20% time)
• Support Research Design: Assist in the design and interpretation of causal inference models, collaborating with the research team and external experts to refine ongoing project analyses. (20% time)
• Manage Project Documentation: Maintain accurate, transparent documentation of all data processing and analytical steps to ensure research replicability. (20% time)
• Contribute to Scholarly Output: Prepare research manuscripts and project reports, including the generation of publication-quality tables and graphical visualizations of results. (20% time)