Research Analyst for Strategic Thinking (Job Vacancy)

Swiss Learning Exchange (SLX) is a global sustainability education company. Our vision is to create a world where organizations, governments and individuals embrace sustainability at all levels, by making sustainability accessible, understandable, and actionable for all. Organizations around the world are going through a mindset change. Guided by the UN’s Sustainable Development goals, companies, individuals, and the world at large are moving towards a more sustainable future. However, to reach that future, there is a growing need for more knowledge, skills, and awareness of sustainability.

For this role, the successful candidate will work as a Research Analyst for SLX’s Research Team and its client IMD (International Institute for Management Development, based in Lausanne, Switzerland). The Research Associate will work under the supervision of IMD professor Arnaud Chevallier to help with his research on problem solving, strategic thinking, and decision making.

To apply for the role, send us an email with the subject “SLX-Research Analyst” with your CV and Cover Letter as a PDF file (writing quality will be reviewed) to the email address jobs@slxlearning.com.

Core Responsibility

• Conduct in-depth literature reviews on various topics around organizational problem solving, strategic thinking, and decision making (e.g., conducting literature review on how decision makers can reduce the negative impact of cognitive biases on their decisions, optimal stakeholder engagement in group decisions, appropriate risk appetite for managers).
• Assemble vignettes and short cases. The professor uses several vignettes in his research and will need help assembling and/or fact-checking them.
• Scout for news stories on particular themes. For the professor’s research themes, he will need help monitoring breaking stories so that they can be integrated into his research publications and other materials.

Skills and expertise required:

• Expertise in problem solving, strategy, or decision making is not required. In fact, the successful candidate will be able to learn in these areas.
• However, the successful candidate will demonstrate outstanding abilities to:
• Appraise the credibility of evidence – which sources are credible, and which are not.
• Use probabilistic thinking to make sense of ambiguous bodies of evidence with strong case in favor and opposing a given viewpoint.
• Synthesize large bodies of evidence to their essence – extracting tangible “so what” out of conflicting information.
• Engage exemplary critical thinking – can see arguments from various perspectives and can synthesize these into tangible ideas for practitioners.

Additional IMD Responsibilities

• Conduct different types of research—e.g., data gathering, library searches, literature reviews, and field research.
• Write draft cases, teaching notes, and articles—creating original writing grounded on the research performed.
• Provide analysis, editing, and ad-hoc drafts for academic articles, IMD cases and teaching notes.
• Deliver high-quality output, often within tight deadlines, that is in line with Professor Chevallier’s research agenda and IMD’s standards.
• Provide ideas and suggestions that could lead to innovative ways of thinking or new ways of presenting research material.
• Show the ability to (a) exercise independent decision making to enable the timely progression of the projects assigned and (b) work under pressure.
• Build excellent working relationships with internal and external stakeholders.
• Other responsibilities may be assigned.

Qualifications And Skills

• Bachelors and masters degrees are both required
• Ideally, the bachelor’s and/or master’s will be in one of the following domains: Business administration – Business management – General management – Strategy – Statistical analysis and data analytics – industrial and organizational psychology.
• Other Degrees – Psychology, Social Science, or any other Science Related Field
• Excellent writing, editing, and communication skills in English
• Strong research and analytics skills
• Strong abilities to use Apple’s main software (Pages, Numbers, Keynote) or, if not possible, Microsoft Office suite
• Ability to work independently and proactively with minimum supervision
• At least basic training in statistical or probabilistic analysis
• Strong project management and organizational skills (as multiple projects will be running concurrently)
• Excellent interpersonal skills
• Previous relevant work experience a plus