[Hiring] Economist, Scenarios & Modeling @Windfall Trust

Role Description

As an Scenarios & Modeling Economist, you will build and own Windfall Trust's quantitative modeling capability. You will be the technical authority behind everything the organization publishes:

• Choose the methods
• Assemble the data
• Write or direct the code
• Defend the results to external economists, peer reviewers, and government analysts

The immediate priority is a scenario modeling platform that:

• Translates narrative AI futures into quantified economic parameters
• Propagates those shocks through household microdata
• Produces distributional results policymakers can act on

Over time, you may be:

• Designing cross-country composite indices
• Building reduced-form macro shock generators
• Evaluating fiscal tax outcomes
• Stress-testing welfare systems
• Evaluating which modeling approach fits which question

This is a build role rather than a maintenance one. Windfall has no existing modeling infrastructure, so you will be making foundational methodological choices.

Qualifications

• Senior economist with demonstrated range
• Built or substantially contributed to multiple kinds of quantitative models of economic outcomes
• Comfortable being the most technical person in the room
• Ability to explain modeling choices and assumptions
• Pragmatic about data and able to extract defensible conclusions
• Strong writing skills for communicating with policymakers and economists
• Ability to engage critically with AI exposure and adoption literature

Requirements

• Advanced degree in economics or a closely related quantitative field (PhD valuable but not required if compensated by applied modeling experience)
• 5+ years of applied quantitative modeling of economic outcomes
• Hands-on experience across multiple modeling approaches
• Publication or public-analysis record where methodology survived external scrutiny
• Experience with distributional analysis of labor market shocks, technology adoption, or structural economic transitions
• Familiarity with AI-and-labor literature is an advantage
• Comfort working in a fast-moving, remote, international team
• Experience presenting technical work to non-technical policy audiences is a strong advantage

Benefits

• Compensation: $50 - $100 per hour based on experience
• Contract: Part-time, potentially transitioning to full-time
• Location: Fully remote
• Reports to: Director of Research
• Start date: ASAP

Process

• Application review on a rolling basis, prioritizing applications submitted before August 15th
• Screening interview (30 minutes)
• Technical exercise interview (approximately 30 minutes)
• Final interview (approximately 45 minutes)
• Reference check

The starting date will be determined together with the successful applicant.

Not sure if you’re qualified? Apply anyway. We actively encourage applications from candidates with diverse backgrounds and experiences.