Director of Research/Research Manager

Description

About Voices for Virginia’s Children
Voices for Virginia’s Children champions public policies and legislation that achieve positive and equitable outcomes for young people. We envision a Virginia in which our systems center young people, ensuring their ability to realize their brightest potential is no longer predictable by race, socioeconomic status, or geography. Voices’ current strategic plan can be found at https://vakids.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/VFVC_StrategicPlan24_Booklet_FINAL-1.pdf.

For more information about Voices work, visit www.vakids.org

About the Position:
Voices is hiring for a Director of Research or a Research Manager. The title and compensation will be commensurate with experience. The duties and expectations will coincide with the level of hire.

Director of Research
The Director of Research is an integral part of the Policy & Programs team, and leads Voices’ efforts to collect data, identify trends, and conduct research to model possibilities and inform policy pertaining to the well-being of young people. The Research Director is a go-to expert on youth well-being data and provides data analysis and research expertise and support for the Voices staff and external partners, including interpreting and translating data for diverse audiences and representing Voices on state-level committees and work groups. The Research Director plans and executes research studies on issues of youth well-being using a variety of data sets, including Census and state agency data. The position manages the KIDS COUNT Data Center for Virginia and serves as a key liaison to the national KIDS COUNT network. Through data analysis and visualization, the position helps to build evidence and support for public policies and legislation that achieve positive and equitable outcomes for young people.

Research Manager
The Research Manager is an integral part of the Policy & Programs team, and leads Voices’ efforts to collect data, identify trends, and conduct research to model possibilities and inform policy pertaining to the well-being of young people. The Research Manager is skillful at providing youth well-being data and data analysis and research expertise to support Voices staff and external partners, including interpreting and translating data for diverse audiences. The Research Manager may attend or present at state-level committees and work groups. The Research Manager executes research studies on issues of youth well-being using a variety of data sets, including Census and state agency data. The position manages the KIDS COUNT Data Center for Virginia and serves as a liaison to the national KIDS COUNT network. Through data analysis and visualization, the position helps to build evidence and support for public policies and legislation that achieve positive and equitable outcomes for young people.

Job Duties

Director Job Duties:
• Research Leadership: You will support Voices’ policy goals in family economic security, early childhood care and education, health equity, youth mental health, and child welfare by interpreting, analyzing, and visualizing data on child, youth, and family well-being. You will research emerging policy issues and identify gaps in data among the policy priorities at Voices. You will conduct original, credible, and accurate analysis to identify trends in youth well-being.
• Data Center Management: You will oversee the Virginia KIDS COUNT Data Center, which includes maintaining and updating the current list of indicators and keeping all documentation up to date and accurate. You will also identify, clean, and add new indicators as new data sets become available. You will be responsible for requesting this data from state agencies serving children and families as well as staying abreast of U.S. Census data releases.
• Relationship Building: You will respond to requests for content development, research, specialized data requests, and presentations tailored to diverse and varying audiences. You will partner with advocates in Virginia’s Youth in Action (VAYA) to identify emerging trends and explore qualitative and participatory measurements of youth well-being. You will also represent Voices on statewide committees, coalitions, task forces and workgroups.
• Strategic Communications: You will lead the creation and release of informative and well-designed reports, research briefs, and graphics that make critical data and summaries available in a digestible manner for key partners, advocates and stakeholders through blogs, media, infographics, maps, etc.
• Racial Equity: You will promote racial equity across all dimensions of your work, ensuring that policies put forward are assessed for their impact on all races.

Manager Job Duties:
• Research Leadership: You will support Voices’ policy goals in family economic security, early childhood care and education, health equity, youth mental health, and child welfare by interpreting, analyzing, and visualizing data on child, youth, and family well-being. You will research emerging policy issues and identify gaps in data among the policy priorities at Voices. You will conduct original, credible, and accurate analysis to identify trends in youth well-being.
• Data Center Management: You will oversee the Virginia KIDS COUNT Data Center, which includes maintaining and updating the current list of indicators and keeping all documentation up to date and accurate. You will also identify, clean, and add new indicators as new data sets become available. You will be responsible for requesting this data from state agencies serving children and families as well as staying abreast of U.S. Census data releases.
• Relationship Building: You will respond to requests for content development, research, specialized data requests, and presentations tailored to diverse and varying audiences. You will partner with advocates in Virginia’s Youth in Action (VAYA) to identify emerging trends and explore qualitative and participatory measurements of youth well-being.
• Strategic Communications: You will work with the Director of Communications to release informative and well-designed reports, research briefs, and graphics that make critical data and summaries available in a digestible manner for key partners, advocates and stakeholders through blogs, media, infographics, maps, etc.
• Racial Equity: You will promote racial equity across all dimensions of your work, ensuring that policies put forward are assessed for their impact on all races.

Skills Required

Director Required Qualifications:
• Experienced Analyst: Proven ability to take data and research findings and translate into easily-understood information for non-technical audiences. 5+ years of experience in research or relevant field, especially research as applied to public policy advocacy.
• Exceptional verbal and written communication: Strong ability to effectively communicate complex ideas. Confident and persuasive in public speaking.
• Strong qualitative and analytical skills, including statistical analysis methods in the social sciences, familiarity working with large databases and familiarity with disaggregating data, advanced proficiency with Excel, and familiarity with any data analysis and/or data visualization tools, e.g. SAS, SPSS, R, Tableau, Datawrapper.
• Effective Collaborator: Ability to work collaboratively with others with different backgrounds, beliefs, and values. Engages in conflict productively.
• Strong commitment to social, economic, and racial justice. Actively centers equity and inclusion and promotes equitable practice and solutions.

Director Preferred Qualifications:
• Proven experience working in high-performing teams in a fast-paced environment.
• Highly organized, motivated, and detail-oriented.
• Interest/experience in using AI for data and research applications.
• Experience with community engagement across diverse identities.
• Experience with media/public relations.

Manager Required Qualifications:
• Experienced Analyst: Proven ability to take data and research findings and translate into easily-understood information for non-technical audiences. 2+ years of experience in research or relevant field, especially research as applied to public policy advocacy.
• Excellent verbal and written communication: Strong ability to effectively communicate complex ideas. Confident and persuasive in public speaking.
• Possesses qualitative and analytical skills, including statistical analysis methods in the social sciences, and familiarity working with large databases and familiarity with disaggregating data, proficiency in Excel, and familiarity with any data analysis and/or data visualization tools, e.g. SAS, SPSS, R, Tableau, Datawrapper.
• Effective Collaborator: Ability to work collaboratively with others with different backgrounds, beliefs, and values. Engages in conflict productively.
• Strong commitment to social, economic, and racial justice. Actively centers equity and inclusion and promotes equitable practice and solutions.

Manager Preferred Qualifications:
• Proven experience working in high-performing teams in a fast-paced environment.
• Highly organized, motivated, and detail-oriented.
• Interest/experience in using AI for data and research applications.
• Experience with community engagement across diverse identities.
• Experience with media/public relations.

A Note to Potential Candidates: Research shows that women, LGBTQ+ identified people, Black, Indigenous, and other people of color (BIPOC) tend to apply to jobs only if they meet every single requirement listed. We are committed to building a diverse and inclusive organization, and we strongly encourage you to apply, even if you don’t believe you meet every one of the qualifications described.

Additional Info

Location: This role will be based in Richmond, VA. Voices has a hybrid work schedule with an in-office day on Wednesdays in Richmond required. Additional in-person days in Richmond are required during the General Assembly session and necessary meetings year round.

Benefits: We are a talented team motivated by the significance and impact of our work. Voices values its employees and their lives beyond work, and we maintain a flexible and supportive workplace. We aspire to create an environment where our team can thrive as it works to support a thriving Virginia. For example, we provide:

• Excellent health insurance with fully covered health, dental, and vision employee premiums
• Access to health and dependent care Flexible Spending Accounts
• 30 days of PTO and 12 paid holidays; paid parental leave
• A retirement plan with 3% contributions from employer (no required match)
• Professional development stipend
• Monthly remote work stipend; and a flexible, hybrid work environment

Application Review Date: We’ll start reviewing applications after February 28, 2025 when the application closes. While our review process can take some time, this doesn’t mean you’re not being considered; please be patient as we carefully evaluate each candidate.

Application Instructions: Complete the required application questions at https://forms.office.com/r/FdqBy4RvBw then submit your resume and a list of three references in an email to megan@vakids.org with “Director of Research Application” or “Research Manager Application” in the subject line.

Voices for Virginia’s Children is an equal opportunity employer, committed to inclusive hiring and dedicated to diversity in our work and staff. We strongly encourage candidates of all identities, experiences, and communities to apply. We recognize that the children and families of Virginia are unique in their backgrounds, beliefs, opportunities, and challenges. We strive to embody and embrace that in our work, believing that our unique identities allow us to create a brighter future for Virginia’s children. Through our efforts, we engage diverse perspectives and inform equitable and just policy solutions that transform children’s lives and may dismantle systems of oppression. All applicants must be committed to sustaining and furthering these efforts.