Job Description

Job Title: Senior Technical Advisor (post-doctoral position)

Department: Social Impact Bond Technical Assistance Lab
Reports to: Professor Jeffrey Liebman
Position summary:
The Harvard Kennedy School Social Impact Bond Technical Assistance Lab (SIB Lab) seeks a senior
technical advisor to work alongside Professor Liebman to provide technical advice to state and local
governments implementing pay for success contracts using social impact bonds.

General purpose:

To provide technical advice to state and local governments implementing social impact bonds.

Position responsibilities:
The senior technical advisor will work alongside Professor Liebman in providing technical advice to
multiple social impact bond projects and will provide additional supervision of the government
innovation fellows, who are embedded in government teams implementing social impact bonds. Some
travel for in-person meetings with city and state officials will be required.

The senior technical advisor will provide technical assistance, particularly in regard to creating a
rigorous evaluation methodology for assessing the impact of pay for success projects. In addition, he/she
will be responsible for working with interagency teams to identify promising areas for applying pay-for-
success contracts; performing outreach to the provider community to explain the pay-for-success concept
and solicit ideas for how the state can most effectively partner with the provider community in achieving
improved results; analyzing existing evaluation studies to inform decisions about what service mix is
most likely to produce the desired results; working closely with the government agencies chosen to
implement these initiatives to design implementation plans; helping the government agencies match data
across agencies so as to measure baseline outcomes and target populations to be served; constructing
models to estimate the budget savings and social benefits that are likely to accrue from achieving
different outcomes levels, and drafting contract terms for incentive-based contracts.

Basic qualifications:
PhD in economics, public policy, or related field. Candidates must have strong organizational and
communication skills and be adept at navigating complex organizations. An understanding of program
evaluation concepts is also essential.

Additional requirements:
Applicants should have a passion for improving government performance and for ameliorating social
problems. The successful candidate will also have strong relationship management skills; ability to work
with senior government leaders; excellent writing skills; the ability to work productively under time
pressure; the capacity to work well independently; interest in and ability to further develop the pay for
success model.

To apply:
Please submit a cover letter and a current CV to hks-siblab@hks.harvard.edu.