Research Assistant for Consultant to Mission-Driven Organizations

About Public Profit

Public Profit helps mission-driven organizations measure and manage what matters. Our clients include cities, schools, museums, health care organizations, philanthropies, nonprofits, and policy advocates. We provide program evaluation, evaluation capacity building, strategic program design, and data visualization services.

About the Position

We are searching for a full-time Research Assistant. The Research Assistant will lead data collection, management, and analysis tasks for their project teams, conduct literature reviews, co-create client-facing deliverables, and provide project administration support, including scheduling, client communication, co-facilitation of client presentations, and preparing materials for meetings and trainings. Nearly all of our studies incorporate mixed methods; the Research Assistant will collect, analyze and report on both quantitative and qualitative data. 

Successful team members value helping mission-driven organizations succeed. They bring exceptional productivity, a sense of humor, attention to detail, a passion for learning, the ability to work in multiple teams and on multiple tasks, and a strong commitment to providing high quality service to our clients. We value diversity in all its forms and encourage applications from bilingual and bicultural candidates.

Primary activities include:

• Conducting primary data collection, such as by conducting structured site visits, key informant interviews, focus groups, and surveys.
• Leading participant survey development, distribution, fielding protocols, collection, tracking, and processing.
• Quantitative data tasks using a combination of MS Excel, SPSS, and R. Includes cleaning data files, checking for completeness, creating new variables, matching data sets, running descriptive statistics, conducting inferential analysis in line with analysis plan.
• Qualitative data tasks (using MS Office Suite primarily) including note-taking and transcribing, qualitative coding.
• Contributing to joint understanding and meaning-making with project teams, conducting literature reviews, writing up findings, and visualizing data.
• Contributing to the creation of a variety of deliverables, including written reports, presentations, and data dashboards.
• Coordinate with project teams to prioritize, delegate, and complete project administrative tasks, such as arranging meetings, maintaining files, taking meeting notes, and providing on-site support at meetings and trainings.
• Corresponding with clients, primarily through email.

The ideal candidate will have:

• Two years’ experience in a similar professional capacity, ideally in a position focused on program evaluation or social science research.
• A passion for helping mission-driven organizations use data to measure and improve the quality of their work.
• Hands-on experience troubleshooting messy data sets of any size.
• Hands-on experience managing large data sets (1,000+ cases) in Excel; experience with R, SPSS, or STATA a plus.
• Experience collecting and cleaning quantitative data, such as surveys and academic assessments.
• Experience collecting and cleaning qualitative data, such as interviews and focus groups.
• Prior training in quantitative data analysis.
• Prior training in qualitative data analysis.
• Superlative attention to detail; flawless follow-through on assigned tasks.
• Demonstrated ability to manage multiple projects simultaneously and to meet established deadlines.
• Strong familiarity with Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and the ability to work for extended periods while sitting at a computer.

What the Research Assistant will gain from this position:

• Extensive contact with a variety of public and nonprofit agencies throughout California and nationally.
• Opportunity to build skills in data management, data analysis, evaluation design and implementation, data visualization and innovative reporting, and facilitation.
• Chance to be part of a hard-working, fun-filled, woman-owned, collaborative consulting firm.

Compensation and benefits:

• This is a full-time, exempt position. Working hours can include off-site visits in the late afternoon/early evening and periodic travel (<10%).
• Starting salary from $50-55K, DOE, plus annual bonus.
• Public Profit pays employee's health insurance premiums. Employees may elect to enroll in the company's dental plan, premiums are not covered. Employees are enrolled in the company's life insurance and long-term disability insurance at no cost.
• 401(k) plan with employer match, up to 4% of total salary.
• Generous professional development budget.
• 10 company holidays, 15 days paid time off to start.
• Research Assistant will work at Public Profit’s offices in downtown Oakland.

To apply:

• Applications reviewed on a rolling basis; this search closes at 5pm on Monday, May 13, 2019.
• Email a cover letter and resume, with candidate’s name in the document title (e.g. Amirah Shah Resume) to jobs@publicprofit.net.
• Only applicants selected for an interview will be contacted.