Postdoctoral Fellow in Business and Entrepreneurship AnalyticsNew!

• Design and conduct quantitative, qualitative and mixed-methods studies on the five research areas above.
• Build and maintain a venture-tracking dataset for Kepler’s incubation, acceleration and scaling programs (e.g., survival, revenue, jobs, investment raised).
• Analyze secondary data on businesses in Rwanda, such as national establishment censuses, labour force and enterprise surveys, and partner data.
• Evaluate the impact of entrepreneurship and business-support programs, using experimental or quasi-experimental designs where appropriate.
• Apply strong analytics, including econometrics, data visualization and, where useful, machine-learning methods.
• Ensure all research follows high ethical standards, including informed consent, data protection and business confidentiality, and obtain the required ethics approvals.
• Publication, business insights and dissemination.
• Write and publish research articles in peer-reviewed (refereed) journals in entrepreneurship, small business, management, finance and development economics, with a target of at least two journal submissions per year.
• Produce regular evidence-based business insight briefs and reports, and contribute to a flagship publication on the state of youth ventures and SMEs in Rwanda.
• Present findings at conferences, policy dialogues, investor forums and business events in Rwanda, across Africa and internationally.
• Turn data into accessible outputs, such as dashboards, case studies, blog posts, webinars and social media.
• Proposal writing and resource mobilization.
• Identify research funding opportunities from foundations, development partners, research councils, government and the private sector.
• Lead or co-lead the writing of competitive research proposals and grant applications, including research design, work plans, budgets and evaluation plans.

Qualifications & Experience:

• A PhD in Business Administration, Entrepreneurship, Economics or Development Economics, Management, Finance, Business Analytics, Statistics or a closely related field, awarded within the last five years. Candidates who will complete their PhD before the start date may be considered.
• Training in qualitative and mixed-methods research.
• A record of peer-reviewed publications (published or under review) appropriate to career stage.
• Research interest or experience in one or more of the following: entrepreneurship, SMEs, incubation and acceleration, access to finance, private sector development, or youth employment.
• Experience writing research proposals or grant applications; a record of securing research funding is a strong advantage.
• Experience working with businesses, incubators, investors, development partners or government on data and evidence is an advantage.
• Experience advising, mentoring or supervising students in research.
• Commitment to ethical research practice, responsible data management and business confidentiality.

Skills & Competencies:

• Strong quantitative skills, including econometrics and impact evaluation, using tools such as R, Stata or Python; experience with data visualization tools (e.g., Power BI or Tableau) is an advantage.
• Knowledge of the business environment in Rwanda or Sub-Saharan Africa is an advantage.
• Excellent academic writing and presentation skills in English, and the ability to turn data into clear insights for non-academic audiences; Kinyarwanda is an advantage.
• Curious, self-driven and collaborative, with the ability to manage several projects and meet deadlines.