(2027 PhD/ABD graduates) Economic Consulting Senior Associate

Charles River Associates is a leading global consulting firm that provides economic, financial, and business management expertise to major law firms, corporations, and governments worldwide. CRA advises clients on economic and financial matters in litigation and regulatory proceedings and guides corporations through critical business strategy and performance-related issues.

About the role

Senior Associates work closely with senior consultants on project teams. Successful candidates have a strong knowledge of economic concepts and a range of research and quantitative skills.

• Conduct research in a team-oriented environment alongside respected academics, industry experts, and regulators.
• Identify and conceptualize issues, design complex economic models to analyze data, and manage the research process.
• Supervise, train, and mentor junior analysts.
• Assist in developing and presenting client deliverables, including expert reports and white papers summarizing opinions, conclusions, and recommendations using market, industry, or client-proprietary data.
• Act as a primary point of contact for attorneys and other industry or government clients on practice-relevant issues.
• Program, build models, and/or perform regression analyses in statistical analysis programs (such as Stata, SAS, Python, R, Matlab, or Mathematica).
• Ensure the integrity and accuracy of analyses and opinions.
• Participate in practice-building activities (training, recruiting, publication, expertise sharing, etc.).

Practice Areas

• Antitrust & Competition Economics (Boston, Chicago, Oakland, Washington DC): Economists provide analysis and testimony in matters involving mergers and acquisitions, antitrust litigation, and global competition policy.
• Energy (Boston, New York, Washington DC): Researches, publishes, teaches, and consults on energy matters for clients including electric and gas utilities, investors, power asset owners, developers, power agencies, large industrial firms, and clean energy technology leaders.
• Finance (Boston): Experts work on valuation issues (shareholder class actions and corporate valuation disputes) and matters focused on financial markets and institutions (alleged market manipulation and insider trading).
• Labor & Employment (College Station, Los Angeles, Tallahassee, Washington DC): Provides in-depth analysis, expert reports, testimony, and advisory services for complex labor and employment issues such as wage and hour litigation and pay equity disputes.

Requirements

• PhD degree in economics with a completion date of December 2026/Summer 2027 and an academic focus on quantitative research, with specializations like industrial organization, applied microeconomics, econometrics, labor, health, intellectual property, corporate finance, financial accounting, or other quantitative areas.
• Curious and analytical thinkers who bring creative approaches to non-standard problems.
• Effective written and oral communication skills.
• Eagerness to learn new skills and programming languages.
• Demonstrated high level of initiative and leadership.
• Strong teamwork and collaboration capabilities.
• Excellent time management and task prioritization skills.
• Clear and demonstrated interest in consulting through coursework, work experience, activities, or attendance at CRA recruiting events.
• Demonstrated understanding of, and ability to explain, economic, financial, and/or accounting concepts, and quantitative and qualitative analysis methods.
• Experience in Excel, Stata, Python, R, SQL, SAS, ArcGIS/ArcPy, or Cloud computing (Databricks/Spark, Google Cloud, Azure, AWS).

As much of our work occurs in our offices, minimal travel is required.

Benefits

• Comprehensive total rewards program including a superior benefits package, wellness programming, and in-house immigration support.
• Medical, dental, and vision insurance.
• 401(k) retirement plan with employer match.
• Life and disability insurance.
• Paid time off (vacation, sick leave, holidays).
• Paid parental leave.
• Wellness programs and employee assistance resources.
• Commuter benefits.

CRA’s robust skills development programs encourage career growth through project management training, team management/development, client presentation skills, internal seminars, and mentoring/performance coaching. Additional leadership and collaboration opportunities exist through internal firm development activities.

Pay

A good-faith estimate of the annual base salary range for this position is $170,000 – $235,000. Starting pay within this range may vary based on factors such as education level, experience, skills, geographic location, market conditions, and other qualifications. This position is also eligible for additional bonus incentive compensation.

Schedule

CRA asks that individuals spend 3 to 4 days a week on average working in the office (which may include traveling to another CRA office or to a client's location), with specific days determined in coordination with your practice or team.