Senior Research Specialist, BDI
US-NJ-Princeton
Job ID: 2023-17118
Type: Full-Time
# of Openings: 1
Category: Research and Laboratory
Princeton University
Overview
About
BDI
The Bridging
Divides Initiative (BDI) is a non-partisan research initiative that
tracks and mitigates political violence in the United States. BDI
supports efforts to grow and build local community resilience
through elections and other periods of heightened risk, laying the
groundwork for longer-term to bridge the divides we face as a
nation.
We do this by 1)
producing action-oriented and responsive research to fill existing
gaps and empower local leaders; 2) enabling cross-sector
collaboration, so individuals and organizations are better prepared
to mitigate risk and respond to crisis when it does arise; and 3)
helping to drive the policy and community response. Over the past
three years, BDI played an essential role in supporting a wide
range of actors preparing for and responding to political violence
and democratic crisis. Our data, analysis, and tools continue to
help a diverse coalition of national and local decision-makers
better target their interventions. BDI is based at the
Princeton School of Public and International Affairs
(SPIA), co-hosted by the
Empirical Studies of Conflict
(ESOC).
For more
information, please visit our website:
https://bridgingdivides.princeton.edu/.
Position
Overview
BDI seeks two
full-time Senior Research Specialists (SRS). The SRS will work
closely with other members of BDI’s core team to review and analyze
project data, create customized visuals, briefings, memos, and
public-facing reports, and provide real-time, custom analysis to
local leaders working to address political violence, including in
both short-term response and long-term research and community
support work.
This is a
full-time, fully remote position, with an option to be based on
Princeton’s campus. The role is envisioned as a one-year minimum
engagement, with opportunities for renewal.
Responsibilities
Key
Responsibilities
Work closely with other members of BDI’s core team
to support a broad range of data-driven research programming,
including tracking political violence trends and actors, threats
and harassment to local officials, understanding regional and local
geographic dynamics, and ensuring holistic high-quality data
design, analysis, and communication.
Oversee data collection, coding, cleaning,
visualization, and analysis for a variety of long and short-term
research projects, focused on making data and analysis accessible
and actionable for community partners and the general public.
Provide support to BDI leadership in targeted
outreach to data partners, civil society, or others key to advance
BDI’s objectives and communicate tools/resources to communities
broadly.
Provide research, writing, and editing for BDI’s
bi-weekly reporting on trends and events and other written analytic
briefs, occasionally written in partnership with other
organizations.
Provide real-time support to BDI’s research and
collaboration teams to deliver custom analysis and quick, accurate
answers to pressing questions and concerns from community partners,
drawing on BDI’s growing library of quantitative and qualitative
data sources
Qualifications
Qualifications
Required
Bachelor’s degree or higher in a related field.
Interest in and commitment to supporting civil
society efforts to address political violence in the US, including
work with partner organizations across diverse political
affiliations, geographies, and sectors.
Demonstrated rigorous statistical analysis
experience, especially using R, RStudio’s Shiny apps, Leaflet
interactive maps, geospatial analysis libraries, and/or other
related analysis tools..
Facility with and interest in producing timely data,
including gathering data, constructing and managing databases,
conducting data analyses, and improving data quality.
Ability to think strategically and creatively around
data, including identifying new/emerging trends, gaps, and
alternative analysis methods.
Demonstrated ability to work collaboratively on a
fast-paced team.
Outstanding interpersonal skills, and the ability to
engage with a multidisciplinary team and collaborators, including a
wide array of partners from diverse backgrounds and in a remote
work setting.
Detail-oriented, self-directed, and able to
independently work on multiple small projects at the same
time.
Demonstrated ability to write clearly and concisely
using a variety of quantitative and qualitative inputs.
2-3+ years of experience in research, policy,
community engagement, or related role.
Preferred
Master’s degree in relevant fields.
Past experience writing policy-focused memos,
recommendation, or reports.
Interest and ability to translate research findings
to policy and practitioner audiences.
Experience with spatial analysis, including
aggregation of demographic and point data to spatial units
alongside data visualization/cartography.
Experience developing datasets and subsets from
various sources, including creating and maintaining documentation
for all data and tools and ensuring data integrity.
Experience with HTML/CSS, Python, or other
programming languages or interest in developing greater
fluency.
Experience with time series and event data, building
analytical outputs for description and predictions, such as
forecasting models, indices, and multiple linear regressions.
No matter who you are, BDI is a place
you can call home. We know that our unique perspectives make us
stronger, smarter, and well-positioned for success. We value and
rely on the collective voices of our team to help guide our work on
challenging issues.
Princeton University is an
Equal
Opportunity/Affirmative Action Employer and all qualified
applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard
to age, race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender
identity or expression, national origin, disability status,
protected veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by
law.
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