Sovereign Debt Forum Research Assistant

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Requirements

Job Overview

The Sovereign Debt Forum’s #PublicDebtIsPublic initiative (#PDIP) is dedicated to the principle that public debt must be robustly accountable to the public. This means that information on government borrowing and lending—including sovereign debt contracts, legal and institutional frameworks—and capacity development tools should all be readily available and free to the public. To advance this principle, the #PDIP initiative aims to shift debt transparency norms and practices to create a presumption in favor of public disclosure of both legal and financial terms of public debt in a format that is publicly accessible, intelligible, and comparable.

The #PDIP project is the creation of the first centrally collated data repository where three types of sovereign debt data and documentation will be open-sourced: (i) full-text sovereign debt contracts, fully searchable and tagged on a term-by-term basis, (ii) domestic laws and regulations governing borrowing and authorization procedures and debt disclosure, and (iii) an interactive capacity-building platform, including web-based courses, short and long-form tutorials produced by Sovereign Debt Forum participants and affiliates as well as legal analysis and guidance materials to complement existing public debt management capacity-building programs from official, private, and civil-society sources.

This data repository will provide governments in countries with limited resources, civil society in borrowing and lending countries, and official and private creditors a shared source of current and authoritative information on sovereign borrowing, lending and restructuring terms. The #PDIP platform was officially launched in Oct 2025, developed jointly by the Sovereign Debt Forum and Georgetown University’s Massive Data Institute, and generously supported by a grant from the Gates Foundation.

The Sovereign Debt Forum is a collaboration between the Institute of International Economic Law at Georgetown and the Centre for Commercial Law Studies (CCLS) at Queen Mary University of London, established in 2019 to advance interdisciplinary legal research in sovereign debt, to serve as a platform for convening public debt stakeholders from government, market, civil society, and academic institutions around the world, and to support capacity building in public debt management, especially in low- and middle-income countries, countries facing debt distress, and those new to international borrowing and lending. Sovereign Debt Forum affiliates include leading academics and practitioners in the field of sovereign debt.

The Sovereign Debt Forum is looking for a research assistant to assist in gathering full-text sovereign debt contracts, tagging key clauses in these contracts, and gathering information about the domestic borrowing framework of different jurisdictions. Research assistants should have experience with contract analysis and familiarity with the legal system of a non-US jurisdiction.

Work Interactions

This position will report directly to the SDF Co-Director, Head of Research and SDF Fellow at the Law Center. The research assistants will work with a team of 2-5 other research assistants implementing the subsequent phases of PDIP in a remote capacity.

Requirements and Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree required; JD, LLM and/or other graduate training, law practice and/or management experience strongly preferred

• Requires analytical, written and verbal communication, and organizational skills; a collaborative attitude, and an ability to adapt to the challenges of an ambitious start-up.

• Understanding research process and knowledge of appropriate research protocols

• Experience in planning and delivery of work allocation, to agreed timescales and quality standards

• Experience in a research environment

• Experience working with a collaborative team to achieve a common goal/objective

• Experience in maintaining accurate and up to date records

• Experience in collating, maintaining and deploying datasets to produce, interpret and present data reports and analysis.

• Effective verbal communication skills

• Experience using Microsoft Office packages (Word and Excel)

• Advanced IT, numeracy and analytical skills with a high level of accuracy and attention to detail

• Willingness to work flexibly to achieve the demands of the research program

• Self-motivated and able to work without close supervision

Work Mode Designation

This position has been designated as Telework. Please note that work mode designations are regularly reviewed in order to meet the evolving needs of the University. Such review may necessitate a change to a position’s mode of work designation. Complete details about Georgetown University’s mode of work designations for staff and AAP positions can be found on the Department of Human Resources website:

Pay Range:

The projected salary or hourly pay range for this position which represents the full range of anticipated compensation is:

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Benefits:

Georgetown University offers a comprehensive and competitive benefit package that includes medical, dental, vision, disability and life insurance, retirement savings, tuition assistance, work-life balance benefits, employee discounts and an array of voluntary insurance options. You can learn more about benefits and eligibility on the Department of Human Resources website.