Research Analyst

at  Research Foundation of The City University of New York

Job Description

GENERAL DESCRIPTION

The CUNY Institute for State and Local Governance has a mission to improve the financing, delivery, and measurement of critical public services through research, technical assistance, and education. We lead projects aimed at reforming the criminal legal system, measuring urban inequality, expanding the reach of social service providers, and more. Each project has a dedicated team of research and policy experts who collaborate closely with internal and external organizations. Our staff have the opportunity to work with colleagues and supervisors across projects and with different types of expertise. We are seeking new team members with enthusiasm to shape the future of state and local policy.

WHO WE ARE LOOKING FOR

We are hiring a Research Analyst to work on multiple projects, with key responsibilities in supporting the collection, management, and/or analysis of quantitative and qualitative data, and providing administrative support as needed. This is an excellent opportunity for a civic-minded professional interested in a public policy environment. ISLG’s research projects span government policymaking in New York City and nationally, and cover a number of areas including criminal justice, racial equity, infrastructure and transportation, government operations, and finance. Broadly, our criminal legal research projects involve assessing implementation of reform efforts, tracking progress and impacts related to criminal legal system reform through performance metrics, project development, and grants management.
While the exact mix of projects will be determined based on need and candidate skills at the time of hiring, some examples of projects that the Research Associate might be tasked with supporting are the following:
Safety and Justice Challenge (SJC): Launched in 2015 by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, the SJC is a multi-year, nationwide effort to inspire local criminal justice reform and change the way communities think about and use jails. Since its inception, the SJC has relied heavily on data to develop reform strategies and assess progress toward initiative goals. This wealth of data presents a unique opportunity to understand the factors, circumstances, and practices that drive jail populations and the disparities that exist across the criminal legal system. CUNY ISLG serves as the primary data and analytic partner for the SJC initiative. In this capacity, CUNY ISLG collects and manages administrative data submitted at regular intervals by partner agencies, collaborates with and provides data to other research partners, produces performance metrics, and conducts analyses to assess SJC objectives such as reductions to jail populations and racial/ethnic disparities.
Comprehensive Opioid, Stimulant, and Substance Use Program (COSSUP): CUNY ISLG is the research and evaluation partner for an initiative funded under the Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA) through which five Pennsylvania counties are receiving funding and technical assistance to implement programs aimed at addressing substance use disorders (SUDs) and opioid use disorders (OUDs) and reducing overdose deaths among people under probation supervision and individuals recently released from incarceration. CUNY ISLG’s work consists of three interconnected workstreams: (1) a high-level process assessment of implementation efforts across the sites and the site-specific strategies within and across sites; (2) a performance measurement framework to track both cross-site and site-specific metrics over time; and (3) a quasi-experimental outcome evaluation to assess the impact of site strategies.
Building Data-Informed Decision-Making Towards Decarceration in Fulton County: Through Microsoft’s Justice Reform Initiative, CUNY ISLG is conducting a foundational data capacity-building initiative centered around the development and opening of the Center for Diversion and Services (CDS), an alternative drop-off option for law enforcement officers to use in lieu of the county and city jail for individuals experiencing behavioral health concerns. This initiative is comprised of three overlapping components: (1) a landscape review of pathways into and out of jail and associated data resources; (2) development of a performance measurement framework to set key performance indicators that can be tracked to better understand the jail population and impact of the Diversion Center; and (3) support for an accompanying data tool.
For the above projects and others, the Research Analyst will report to a Senior Research Associate or Program Director on a range of tasks depending on the project, which may include but are not limited to:

Research and analysis

• Carrying out literature, policy, and practice reviews;
• Developing, tracking, and interpreting performance metrics, including their policy and practice implications;
• Conducting descriptive quantitative analysis and potentially supporting higher-level multivariate analysis;
• Drafting interview, focus group, and/or survey questionnaires; assisting in the facilitation of interviews and focus groups; drafting and/or helping administer surveys; coding and analyzing qualitative data;
• Synthesizing and interpreting findings;
• Supporting the design and creation of reports, presentations, and dashboards or other types of data visualization for practitioner and policy audiences

Research development

• Conducting literature reviews and analysis to identify areas of opportunity in criminal justice research;
• Supporting the development of criminal justice research projects;
• Drafting portions of Requests for Proposals (RFPs) and supporting application and scoring processes

Grants management and administration

• Monitoring grantee progress in meeting research goals and objectives;
• Developing processes to ensure that grantees are meeting project milestones and deliverables;
• Reviewing budgets;
• Troubleshooting issues as they arise;
• Providing administrative support for projects as needed

Data management

• Developing data requests and data collection protocols for criminal justice agencies, community-based service providers, and other relevant organizations;
• Cleaning, coding, merging, and preparing administrative data files for analysis or transcribing and coding qualitative interview and focus group data;
• Developing codebooks, coding schemes, file specifications, and other resource documents

This position is hybrid and based in New York City. CUNY ISLG staff work out of the Midtown office two days a week of their choosing and the remaining three days a week remotely.

QUALIFICATIONS

We would love to hear from you if you have:

• Bachelor’s Degree in criminal justice/criminology, psychology, sociology, public policy, or other related field;
• Experience in collecting and working with administrative data, particularly data from government agencies (experience with criminal justice data a plus);
• You are familiar with at least one quantitative statistical software package or language (e.g., Python, R, SAS, SPSS, STATA);
• Excellent time management skills and experience working in a deadline-driven environment;
• Ability to prioritize and work on a number of tasks simultaneously;
• An exceptional commitment to accuracy and attention to detail;
• Ability to work on a team, as well as independently;
• Flexibility and adaptability;
• Background/experience in any of the following is a plus, but not a requirement:
• Information technology
• NVivo or other qualitative software
• Tableau or other data visualization software