Data and Strategic Impact Lead

About the New Practice Lab

The New Practice Lab is a force multiplier for social and economic policies that uplift American families. We make the American safety net simpler, easier to access, and more responsive to the lives of real people.

The big idea behind the Lab is simple: when we make policy away from the people it impacts most, or rely on the tools of past eras to administer it, it tends to fail in delivery. The only way to improve delivery is to bring users back into the process through the use of more modern and participatory design tools. This approach can and does improve delivery, and what we learn along the way offers powerful insights that reshape the way the next generation of policymakers does its work.

With this cycle in mind, our work rests on two critical pillars of activity:

• We run “delivery sprints,” or focused intense projects with clear scope of work that engages families and government partners to identify changes the government can make to improve delivery and/or uptake of key services within the public benefits system.
• We carry the insights of real families into the policymaking process to center delivery in policy design.

Role Description

To meaningfully change how policy is designed and delivered, members of the Lab work closely together across two disciplines of policy and product delivery. The Data and Strategic Impact Lead will be a critical member of the Lab’s product delivery team who will work as a close partner to the Lab’s Senior Design Lead, Director of Product, and Senior Policy Manager to ensure the ultimate success and impact of the Lab. The Data and Strategic Impact Lead will be energized by joining a startup team while navigating the nuances of working inside a larger established think tank.

At a high level we see this person working alongside the Lab’s delivery sprint and policy teams to:

• Measure, monitor, shape, and narrate the social and economic impact of the Lab’s delivery sprints and policy work using quantitative analysis
• Serve as a key member of the Lab’s delivery and policy teams, supporting both pillars of work with strategic insights into potential outcomes as well as social and economic “returns on investment”
• Ensure that project designs and methods will produce measurable results consistent with the Lab’s mission
• Back up policy delivery, policy design, and qualitative efforts with data and quantitative research
• Support ongoing research with families through quantitative research and analytics in collaboration with qualitative researchers and policy analysts

The Ideal Candidate

The ideal candidate has a passion for harnessing the power of better public policy design and delivery to create a nation where all families and young children thrive. The Data and Strategic Impact Lead supports the Lab’s mission with quantitative data and analysis to inform, measure, and monitor the Lab’s delivery and design work. They also understand the limitations and ethical considerations of data collection and analysis and how to accurately communicate findings. The ideal candidate has experience working in many areas of data and impact analysis and feels comfortable shifting responsibilities as projects evolve. They are a highly competent leader with interest in building strategic direction amid ambiguity, willing to contribute across a range of functional and substantive areas, and able to evolve and scale their leadership capabilities as the Lab grows. We seek candidates who are excited to improve the way policy is made for American families by rolling up their sleeves, implementing a “new practice,” and learning in collaboration with families, communities, private, nonprofit, and public sector partners.

Responsibilities

• Lead quantitative research and analysis efforts supporting the Lab’s delivery sprint projects, including examining, cleaning, and analyzing data from primary and secondary sources, executing deliverables properly and on time, and capturing key learnings.
• Cooperatively create products – including data visualizations, memos, reports, briefs, op-eds, blogs, etc – to communicate project design, methodologies, and findings to project partners, related stakeholders, and the public.
• Identify and pursue opportunities to disseminate and scale findings from sprints, collaborating with other members of the Lab’s senior leadership team to translate insights into broader recommendations for action by policymakers and public sector agencies.
• Support the Directors of Policy and Product with scoping projects towards high-impact areas of work and drawing out actionable insights with partners, and seize opportunities to implement high-priority recommendations or predict the effects of new or updated policies.
• Providing quantitative research support for the Lab’s signature multi-year mixed-methods research with economically vulnerable families with young children.
• Apply ethical research principles to the collection, generation, analysis and dissemination of data as the Lab applies quantitative analysis to projects, reports, and recommendations.
• Play a leading role in the design and implementation of data collection instruments (e.g. surveys, forms) and procuring/acquiring appropriate secondary data sets when applicable.

What Success Looks Like in Year 1

• Execute 2-3 policy delivery sprints with families and government partners to improve economic security outcomes for American families.
• Grow a reliable and sustainable practice of collecting and reporting quantitative data with community partners and families to drive the Lab’s research with low-income families with kids under the age of 6.
• Iteratively improve and codify how data is collected and analyzed throughout delivery sprint processes to enable more reliable repetition and scalability of results over time.

Qualifications

• Minimum 5 years work experience
• Experience conducting data analysis using open source programs and tools (ex. R)
• Experience creating meaningful, on-message data visualizations for a variety of audiences
• Experience evaluating, collecting, analyzing, and documenting data from primary and secondary sources
• Understanding of statistical concepts to ethically inference, clean, and visualize data
• Expertise in quantitative social science research methods and analysis
• Experience in design and implementation of data collection instruments
• Demonstrated ability to work collaboratively on the design and implementation of projects with people from more than one discipline

Compensation and Benefits

This position is a full-time role with benefits. The annual salary will be between $140,000 – $160,000 depending on experience. New America offers a highly competitive benefits package that includes health care, dental, and vision coverage; a generous retirement plan; paid time off; observes all federal holidays; and an office-wide closure between Christmas and New Year’s Day.

Location: The position is remote and is open to candidates regardless of location.

Application Process

Applications will be reviewed on a rolling basis. Along with your resume, please submit a cover letter that describes your qualifications to apply.

No phone calls or emails will be answered

New America is an equal-opportunity employer committed to hiring a diverse workforce at all levels of the organization thereby creating a culture that allows us to better serve our clientele, our employees, and our communities. We value and encourage the contributions of our employees and strive to create an environment where everyone can reach their full potential and drive outstanding results. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, national origin, age, sex, religion, disability, sexual orientation, marital status, veteran status, gender identity or expression, or any other basis protected by local, state, or federal law. This policy applies with regard to all aspects of one’s employment, including hiring, transfer, promotion, compensation, eligibility for benefits, and termination. This is a bargaining unit position.

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