Senior Research Associate for Sustainable Buildings and Habitat Programme

CSE is looking for a Senior Research Associate to work towards enabling climate resilience and resource efficiency in the built environment. Focus of the work will be on urban analytics with thematic dissect of environmental issues such as urban heat island effect, resource efficiency, C&D waste and dust management among others. 

CSE’s Sustainable Habitat Programme is working towards mainstreaming climate resilience and decarbonization in urban planning and practices. With a focus on urban heat mitigation, the aim of this work is to safeguard cities and also reduce their carbon footprint through promotion of optimal urban form and clustering, improving wind flow with better layouts, optimizing green and blue spaces, increasing shading, choice of better materials, passive design, low-carbon cooling systems, and reducing and repurposing waste heat as part of advanced solutions. Under the circular economy initiative, the programme works on scientific management of C&D waste and reducing the fugitive dust load and carbon emissions from the construction sector. These strategies now need to be integrated with urban planning and design as part of climate proofing.

Other than research, the work profile includes advocacy, outreach and capacity building of the relevant public institutions and the larger built environment community to influence mandates and practice.This will require contributing to programme’s written papers and reports, designing training modules and handholding and liaison with individuals and organisations.

Skills pertaining to remote sensing and geo-spatial mapping will have an advantage.The selected candidate will be a part of Sustainable Habitat, which aims at reducing the resource footprint of and improving the quality and liveability of our urban habitat.

Competencies

Essential

• Skills to analyze/interpret data related to a city’s physical form, socio-spatial characteristics, land use planning, zoning and building codes, etc.
• Skills to conductthematic analyses such as urban heat island effect, energy efficiency, C&D waste ecosystem and value trade chain mapping, etc.
• Proficiency with spatial mapping tools such as GIS. 

Desirable 

• Familiarity with low-carbon urban planning and other passive techniques such as water sensitive urban design and planning.
• Sound understanding/ research experience on city cooling strategies and urban heat island effect and its mitigation.
• Familiarity with city heat action plans, cool roof programmes among other cooling efforts in India.
• Broad understanding of C&D waste and dust management processes in Indian cities. 

Qualification and Experience

• A Master’s degree in Urban Planning/Environment Planning/Engineering.
• Upto 2 years of experience in non-profit/academia/consultingsector in the field of urban planning, environmental sustainability and/or energy efficiency. 

Given details above are flexible if the candidate is able to demonstrate a deep interest and capability in working on the issues of sustainability in buildings and habitat. 

Essential Soft Skills

• Fluency in written and spoken English
• Ability to perform under pressure
• Ready and willing to travel as and when required
• Good interpersonal skills
• Ability to be self-organized about their work
• Discipline to work independently with little or remote supervision 

CSE pays a competitive salary that will be commensurate with qualification and experience. 

Location: New Delhi

Application Deadline: June 21, 2025. 

How to apply:

Candidates can apply online (preferable) or through post.

For online submission: Please visit http://jobs.cseindia.org and choose ‘SRA – SBHP’.

Or Post it to:

Ms. Jagdeep Gupta
Executive Director- Planning & Operations
Centre for Science and Environment
41, Tughlakabad Institutional Area,
New Delhi – 110062
Tel: 29956394/6339/5124, Fax: 29955879

PS:  Only short listed candidates will be contacted for an interview and written test.