Christian is Director of the Oxford Martin Programme on the Future of Development at the University of Oxford, a research group that studies labor markets and livelihoods in low- and middle-income countries. He is also Co-Director of the Oxford Digital Public Infrastructure Research Lab.

At the university, he is affiliated with the Department of Economics, Nuffield College, and the Centre for the Study of African Economies. Before his current role, he was a Postdoctoral Prize Research Fellow at Nuffield College and the Department of Economics. Before entering academia, he worked at the World Bank and the Center for Global Development.

His research sits at the intersection of development, labor, and behavioral economics. Most of his work combines laboratory and field experiments, carried out in close cooperation with partner organizations, with original data collection.