Research Assistant/Associate

Research Assistant / Associate – Quantitative Urban Data Analysis and Visualisation

The Lee Kuan Yew Centre for Innovative Cities (LKYCIC) at Singapore University of Technology and Design invites applications for a full-time Research Assistant / Associate position with a strong focus on quantitative urban data analysis, large-scale datasets, and interactive data visualisation. The successful candidate will join the LKYCIC Urban Innovation Research Programme and support a multidisciplinary research team in conducting international comparative research on urban innovation, sustainable development, and city transformation.

The successful candidate will work with structured and unstructured urban datasets, develop indicators and benchmarks, conduct statistical and spatial analysis, and translate findings into clear visual outputs, interactive dashboards, reports, and presentations. This role offers a unique opportunity to apply data-driven methods to global urban development questions and contribute to policy-relevant, translational research for policymakers, practitioners, and researchers.

For more information about the Urban Innovation Research Programme, see https://www.sutd.edu.sg/lkycic/research/urban-innovation.

Key Responsibilities

The candidate will be expected to:

• Collect, organise, and analyse qualitative and quantitative data from primary sources as well as international city reports, policy documents, academic publications, and secondary data sources.
• Compile, clean, harmonise, and manage large-scale quantitative datasets from city reports, open data portals, policy documents, administrative datasets, geospatial sources, and other primary and secondary data sources.
• Conduct descriptive, comparative, statistical, and spatial analysis to identify urban trends, patterns, benchmarks, and relationships across cities and themes.
• Assist in the development of city profiles, thematic reports, presentations, research publications, and other knowledge products for policy, professional practice, and academic audiences.
• Design, build, and update interactive dashboards, data visualisations, maps, and analytical tools for internal research use and external policy or practitioner audiences.
• Support automated or reproducible workflows for data cleaning, analysis, documentation, and visualisation using appropriate analytical tools and coding languages.
• Provide project administration and coordination support, including preparing research ethics applications, organising meetings, workshops, and stakeholder engagement activities.

The Centre may, at its discretion, assign additional responsibilities from time to time, such as teaching or other duties aligned with the Centre’s needs.

Qualification and Skills:

• Master’s degree in 1 of these fields: data science, statistics, economics, urban analytics, geography, urban planning, public policy, computational social science, or a related quantitative field.
• Strong quantitative research skills, including experience with data cleaning, wrangling, statistical analysis, indicator development, and interpretation of complex datasets.
• Demonstrated experience working with large-scale datasets, open data, administrative data, geospatial data, or other structured and semi-structured data sources.
• Proficiency in analytical and visualisation tools such as Python, R, SQL, GIS, Power BI, Tableau, or equivalent platforms.
• Experience designing interactive dashboards, data visualisations, maps, or digital analytical tools for research, policy, or practitioner audiences.
• Ability to communicate quantitative findings clearly through concise writing, charts, tables, dashboards, presentations, and policy-relevant narratives.
• Strong interest in urban innovation, smart sustainable development, social inclusion, climate resilience, and international comparative research.
• Strong organisational skills, attention to detail, and ability to manage datasets, documentation, deadlines, and multiple workstreams independently.
• Ability to work independently and collaboratively within a multidisciplinary research team.
• Experience with machine learning, web scraping, API-based data collection, reproducible research workflows, or mixed-methods research is an advantage.

How to Apply: Application with subject heading – Urban Data Analysis RA application – should be sent via email to Dr Xin Yang at [email protected]. The application must include:

• A cover letter (1-2 pages)
• A curriculum vitae
• A writing sample
• A sample of relevant quantitative work, such as a dashboard, data visualisation, code repository, analytical report, or portfolio link, if available
• Three referees who may be contacted for a reference

Only shortlisted candidates will be contacted. This position remains open until filled.

The Lee Kuan Yew Centre for Innovative Cities (LKYCIC) offers an exciting and intellectually stimulating environment in which appointees can make a significant contribution and develop profe