Full-time Developer-Researcher

The position: Full-time developer-researcher, working on the www.beamm.brussels project at the Center for Applied Public Economics (CAPE) of the UCLouvain Saint-Louis - Bruxelles.

The project: The candidate will help us develop a highly innovative online and open-access platform that enables policy makers, stakeholders and citizens to simulate the impact of fiscal and social policies in the Brussels Capital Region, and to visualize & analyze the impact from a variety of viewpoints (purchasing power, employment, wages, firm competitiveness, poverty, inequality, congestion, environment, etc.). The platform employs custom-built AI algorithms to generate entirely fictitious yet highly realistic micro-data. It allows users to simulate the impact of detailed fiscal and social policies at the level of each (fictitious) individual citizen/household in our data, takes into account a number of behavioral responses to policy reforms, and provides extensive analysis and visualization in its online interface. We also use the platform to assist policy makers, civil society or other stakeholders in evaluating public policy reforms. We work on very diverse societal problems, including public finance, labor markets, mobility, environment or climate, socioeconomic inequalities or poverty, fiscal federalism, etc.

The team: The candidate will work at CAPE at the UCLouvain Saint-Louis Bruxelles. He or she will be part of, and intensively collaborate with, a dynamic multi-disciplinary research team (statistics, economics, data science, fiscal law) of about 25 researchers that work in close collaboration on the development of the www.beamm.brussels platform and on questions of public policy evaluation.

Qualifications required: A good command of English, and preferably also a good knowledge of either Dutch or French. The candidate has a master’s or PhD degree in any of the following fields: statistics or data science, engineering, mathematics, computer science, economics, econometrics, with a strong focus on data science. Programming skills in R (package development, Shiny, tidyverse) and in software development in general are essential qualities. The ideal candidate is a proactive developer who communicates effectively and collaborates closely with the team, ensuring cohesion across the project's diverse facets.

We offer: Intellectual and scientific challenges, societal impact, being part of and learning from a highly competent and motivated multidisciplinary team, and a nice social environment. The salary depends on the candidate's qualifications and individual situation, but starts at +/- 2400€ net per month for a master’s degree without recognized seniority.

Start date: Flexible, but preferable in September 2024.

Deadlines: Applications (CV + cover letter) should be sent by email to cape-saintlouis@uclouvain.be by July 1st 2024 at the latest.

For more information or questions, please contact:

Prof. Tom Truyts : tom.truyts@uclouvain.be