I heard that the shortlisting for the first interview is very competitive. The whole process takes about two to three weeks.There are two rounds of interview, both panel. The first interview is led by a senior research fellow, and the second is led by a director. After both, there is an HR interview to negotiate pay and discuss logistics. Most of the questions are about explaining past research. There's a sizable amount of time to ask questions, so prepare for conversational back-and-forth and be curious.

I've applied to three jobs at Urban over three years, including most recently a position that is more junior and lower paid than my prior position. None of them led to them contacting me at any point, not even an automated rejection email. I wouldn't bother applying through their portal if you don't already know the hiring manager (I even had a former employee referral and it did me no good). Honestly, in the future I would hesitate to consider working with people who obviously have such little respect for others even if given the opportunity.