Senior Researcher

Role Overview

The Institute of Leadership and Organisation Development (ILOD) serves as the Civil Service College’s specialist centre for leadership and organisational development. Its research team studies talent assessment, leadership and leadership development, and organisation development and effectiveness, with the aim of producing work that is practical, relevant, and useful for the needs of ILOD and CSC in shaping talent, teams, leaders, and organisations across the Public Service.

In this senior role, you will take ownership of research work from start to finish, including planning, resourcing, and delivery against timelines and objectives. You will collaborate with internal and external stakeholders throughout the research cycle, and also create outreach initiatives for different public service audiences. A key part of the job is turning research into clear, usable insights that can support practice and policy within ILOD and beyond. Your work will help build CSC’s and ILOD’s reputation for thought leadership in talent assessment, leadership development, and organisation development.

Key Work Areas

• Partner with internal teams, external stakeholders, clients, practitioners, business users, and research sponsors to define, shape, and carry out relevant research projects.
• Develop research plans with focused questions that respond to current and emerging Public Service priorities, using practical and rigorous methods for data gathering.
• Review and interpret quantitative and qualitative information using suitable classical and modern statistical approaches, then draw conclusions relevant to the Singapore Public Service context.
• Present research outcomes and practical recommendations through reports, presentations, and sharing sessions, adapting the message for both technical and non-technical audiences, including public officers and leaders.
• Convert research insights into learning resources that strengthen the capability of public officers.

Candidate Profile

Applicants should have at least 3 to 5 years of relevant experience in applied research related to talent assessment, leadership development, or organisation development. Exposure to learning design, or prior involvement in leadership development or organisation-wide work involving change, employee engagement, or organisation development, will be considered an advantage.

Core Strengths and Expectations

• Ability to frame research around real problems, gaps, and needs, and to recommend solid research designs for data collection, analysis, and hypothesis testing.
• Capability to apply qualitative and/or quantitative techniques to identify patterns, challenge assumptions, and produce practical recommendations.
• Skill in communicating findings clearly through reports, presentations, and other written formats tailored to different audiences and channels.
• Ability to translate research outputs into digital and physical materials that are easy to use and relevant for stakeholders.
• Drive to improve existing practices, test new ideas, and pursue better outcomes through thoughtful experimentation and innovation.
• Strong ownership and curiosity, with the ability to deliver work on time while managing risk appropriately.
• Ability to connect research work to stakeholder needs, CSC priorities, and wider whole-of-government outcomes.
• Comfort working across teams, institutes, and agencies in a collaborative public service environment.

Additional Traits

• Self-driven and resourceful.
• Able to work independently as well as in a team.
• Strong analytical, communication, and facilitation capabilities.
• Solid grounding in research methods and experience with classical and modern statistical analysis, data analytics, and data visualisation tools, preferably R, SPSS, and Tableau.