Associate Director of Research

Associate Director of Research

Requirements

• Advanced degree + 9-12 years of relevant experience. In lieu of degree requirement, relevant work or life experience may be considered.
• Ability to design and supervise sophisticated quantitative analyses
• Experience supervising and working with mixed methods research and/or researchers
• Experience conducting applied policy research; subject matter expertise including understanding of current criminal legal and immigration systems and policy in the state of California
• Ability to support and build advocacy efforts and external stakeholder relationships
• Advanced technical, methodological, analytic, and project leadership skills
• Commitment to race equity is required

Responsibilities

• Develop and lead Vera California’s research strategies and budgets
• Develop, manage, and oversee all aspects of Vera California research, coordinating with the initiative director and institute’s director of research
• Work with Vera California director and associate director on annual planning and program development, staffing plans, and fundraising
• Serve as a member of the Vera Research Leadership Team, along with other associate directors of research, collaborating on cross-cutting research priorities and policy and ensuring that researchers across the organization receive appropriate support
• Supervise, support, and mentor Vera California research team staff
• Cultivate relationships with organizations in the field, including acting as a primary point of contact for peer research organizations
• Support internal collaboration by partnering with Advocacy, Communications and Monitoring, Evaluation & Learning staff to develop coordinated strategies that leverage research and working with Vera’s Insights team, Data Science team and other departments to produce research products
• Serve as Principal Investigator on research projects, developing and presenting IRB applications and ensuring that research is conducted to the highest ethical standards
• Lead/train/supervise on data collection and analysis, overseeing all aspects of mixed methods research and data management and analysis for Vera California
• Participate in hands-on data collection and analysis
• Conduct team and cross-team peer review in areas of methodological and subject matter expertise;
• Coordinate with central data science support team to ensure appropriate data analytics workflow
• Sign off on evidence-based messaging and research for Vera California; oversee development, writing, and editing of research publications and evidence-based messaging and products in support of Vera California’s goals, including rapid response work
• Act as an internal and external spokesperson/representative of Vera California’s work to a range of audiences
• Partner with the Vera California director and Vera research leadership to develop staffing plans and lead recruitment and hiring for research staff
• Manage research and/or data science teams, including hiring and recruiting through the principal associate level, coordinating with the research director to ensure internal consistency and collaboration
• Provide training, mentoring, and technical assistance to researchers within and across teams as needed, supporting earlier career researchers in their professional development goals

Preferred Qualifications

• Direct experience with and/or impact by the criminal legal or immigration system