Principal Researcher, AI Economic Preparedness
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- Online 15 days, within the typical 45 days
About this role
KEY DETAILS
Compensation: $150,000–$190,000
Location: Remote, with regular overlap with European and US working hours
Start date: January 2027
Travel: ~10–20%, including international travel
ABOUT WINDFALL
Windfall Trust https://windfalltrust.org/ is a policy research organization preparing governments and institutions for AI-driven economic disruption. We bring together researchers, economists, and decision-makers to map out impacts and surface workable options.
Windfall's mission is to ensure that the economic benefits of advanced AI are broadly shared, rather than captured by a few. We advise countries on their economic preparedness for transformative AI (TAI), drawing on our wider research, scenario workshops with economists, policymakers and civil society leaders, and the Policy Atlas https://windfalltrust.org/policy-atlas, an evolving repository of policy options available to governments. We also have an internal database of AI economic indicators called the Windfall Observatory.
ABOUT THE ROLE
Windfall is running AI economic preparedness programs with national governments across Africa, South and Southeast Asia, Central Asia, Eastern Europe, and Latin America and the Caribbean. Each program examines how advanced AI could affect a country’s development model (e.g., job automation exposure, labor-intensive manufacturing, traded services, remittances or commodity exports, fiscal situation), and helps its government decide what to monitor and how to respond.
Windfall is hiring a Principal Researcher to anchor the research behind these programs. You will own the analytical core of our country work: the methods we use to assess a country’s economic exposure to AI, the quality of the evidence that reaches governments, and the tools, such as the Observatory and the Policy Atlas, that our regional teams rely on. You will work directly with the Director of Research and the Regional Principals, and you will help shape how Windfall’s research agenda develops as the program grows to fifteen or more countries in 2027.
We are looking for an experienced researcher who wants to build something, not only contribute to it. We will also consider candidates with a shorter track record who can show the analytical depth and judgment the role demands.
What you'll do
Your work will span six areas: