Pros
I oversaw far more than I was qualified for, which has its benefits and drawbacks. I was HR manager, finance manager, operations manager, IT manager, econometrician. You learn a lot about yourself and management, although surprisingly little about economics or statistics. Good for snowflake millennials: enables you to toughen up and experiment with things. After all, if the project explodes it's just silly academic preoccupations and tenure timelines damaged, nothing serious. It's a playground with padded floor. I am still not sure if this job is prestigious - people come to IPA from prestigious places, but I'm not sure if they go ON to prestigious places after IPA. IPA seems to often end people's PhD aspirations, which is almost certainly a benefit to them.
Kontras
If things are going okish, management is mostly nonexistent, and only pop their heads in to offer an occasional passive criticism. If things are going bad, I assume then life is suffering. High risk: the project could explode through no fault (or complete fault) of your own, and the blame will land on you. You could get unlucky and end up with sociopathic PIs, who are fickle demigods capable of casting down lightening bolts on your dreams and on the project. Avoid abduction by gorillas or guerrillas. Pay sucks, hours are long, and promotions within org are rare. Endless diarrhea can get tiresome. I doubt we actually achieve much more than good intentions.