IMF WHD Research Analyst (Regional Studies)

Immediate opening is for the Regional Studies Division.

The Western Hemisphere Department (WHD) of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) seeks a dynamic and highly motivated Research Analyst (RA) with strong quantitative and analytical skills. Our RAs support teams of economists monitoring political and economic developments in the countries of the Latin America and Caribbean region, as well as the United States and Canada. RAs assigned in the Regional Studies Division assist with the production of the Regional Economic Outlook (REO) report (published annually during the IMF’s Annual Meetings in October), which is one of the flagship publications of the IMF.

Common responsibilities include:

• Collection and maintenance of data reported by national authorities.
• Production of charts and tables for the REO, staff reports, internal memos, and various research projects.
• Organization of data for research projects including the collection, compilation, and transformation of panel data into proper form for econometric analysis.
• Collaboration with economists and RA colleagues to address practical and conceptual challenges to developing macroeconomic policy advice for member countries.

In addition to the duties listed above, the candidate should possess the following minimum qualifications:

• Bachelor's degree in Economics, Finance, Statistics, Mathematics, Computer Science or other related quantitative field. More competitive candidates would have a Master’s degree in a relevant field.
• One to two years of relevant work experience in a similar role.
• Proficiency in MS Excel, including advanced functions and formula.
• Ability to use a range of visual presentation tools such as MS Excel, MS PowerPoint, Tableau, and other similar tools.
• Proficiency in the use of analytical, statistical, and econometric software packages such as STATA, EViews, Matlab, R, and Python.
• Experience working with macroeconomic data.

Candidates should enjoy working in a team environment, solving problems, and possess a strong attention to detail and creativity in checking calculations for errors and inconsistencies. Some experience with Spanish language skills preferred, but not required.

Candidates should possess an understanding of International Macroeconomics and Econometrics with exposure to a wide variety of techniques such as OLS, instrumental variables, Vector Auto-Regressions (VAR), or non-stationary methods. This is a very data intensive position. It is impossible for supervisors to review code and data methods, therefore great attention to detail, ability to design repeatable, updatable data flow systems are essential.

Deadlines can sometimes be tight so candidates should be communicative and responsive to delivery pressures within a team environment. You will enjoy this position tremendously if you are a patient and creative problem solver that is comfortable wrestling with large data sets prone to hiding intermittent data quality challenges.

This is a contractual appointment for one year, renewable for up to four years of cumulative contractual service, depending on the business need and performance of the incumbent. 

Only candidates physically residing in the Metropolitan Washington, DC area (DC/MD/VA) will be considered for this position.