Research Fellow (Mobility Capital / Mobility Capital Index)

We invite applications for a full-time Research Fellow to join the Mobility Capital programme in Tokyo from 1 April 2027 or by agreement. The appointment is for three years, with the possibility of extension. The Fellow will report to the Head of Research and will be the first dedicated social-science appointment in the programme.

Your tasks

• Lead the design of the Mobility Capital Index: theoretical framework, indicator selection, data collection protocol, normalisation, weighting, aggregation and sensitivity analysis, documented to the standard of the OECD–JRC Handbook on Constructing Composite Indicators.
• Build and maintain the Index database for the first edition, covering an initial set of eight to ten jurisdictions (including the United States, United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, Japan, Singapore and Hong Kong), from primary legal and programme sources.
• Conduct and publish research on mobility capital in peer-reviewed journals (for example Journal of Global Mobility, Journal of World Business, Technology in Society, International Migration Review), independently and with the Head of Research.
• Design the empirical studies that follow from the programme's conceptual work, including survey and experimental designs on problem framing and reliance on AI among internationally mobile professionals.
• Supervise the programme's Research Interns and coordinate their data-collection work.
• Represent the programme at academic conferences and in exchanges with universities and policy institutions in Japan, Europe and North America.
• Contribute to the open-data infrastructure of the Index together with MTRI's engineering team.

Your profile

• A doctorate (completed or to be completed by the start date) in sociology, economics, political science, geography, management, public policy, demography or a related discipline, with a focus on migration, mobility, labour markets, inequality or comparative institutions.
• Demonstrated competence in quantitative methods; experience in constructing or critically evaluating composite indicators, indices or cross-national datasets is a strong advantage.
• Familiarity with at least one of the following literatures: skilled migration and credential recognition, career capital and expatriation, digital divides, or human–AI collaboration.
• Proficiency in R or Python and in reproducible research practices.
• Excellent written and spoken English. Reading knowledge of a second language relevant to the Index jurisdictions is an advantage.
• Ability to work with legal and policy source documents and to collaborate with practitioners and engineers.

What we offer

• A three-year full-time contract under Japanese employment law, with salary commensurate with qualifications and experience and benchmarked against academic positions in Tokyo; social insurance and commuting allowance in accordance with Japanese regulations.
• Visa sponsorship, including support for the Highly Skilled Professional (高度専門職) category where applicable, and relocation assistance.
• Research independence and the right to publish; the Index methodology and data are open by design.
• A research budget for conference travel, data acquisition and open-access publication fees.
• Access to MTRI's AI engineering team, to the group's practitioners in seven jurisdictions as domain informants, and to anonymised case data where ethically and legally permissible.
• An international, English-speaking working environment in central Tokyo, with the option of partial remote work.

Selection

Selection will be based on scholarly excellence, a research statement of up to three pages, and an interview. The research statement should set out how you would conceptualise and measure mobility capital at the level of national talent programmes, and which existing indices you would build on or depart from. Shortlisted candidates will be invited to an online interview in late January 2027 and asked to present their statement to the research team.

Application

Please submit the following documents in English as a single PDF through yuyi.jin@mtri.co.jp or LinkedIn Easy Apply: (1) a letter of motivation (one page); (2) a curriculum vitae with list of publications; (3) a research statement of up to three pages on the measurement of mobility capital; (4) one writing sample; (5) names and contact details of two referees.

The deadline is 15 January 2027, 23:59 JST (UTC+9).