"Research Associate- CJARS"

Posted: 15-Jan-26

Location: Ann Arbor, Michigan

Categories: Staff/Administrative

Internal Number: 272719

Applicants are required to submit a (1) cover letter, (2) resume, and (3) example code via the UM Careers website as one combined electronic document. The cover letter should explain how your skills and experience align with the job requirements and why you are applying for the position. Please include all relevant experience and education in your resume. Example code should not exceed 5 pages in length and should showcase your skills in cleaning, merging, and analyzing databases, or be an example of another relevant exercise.

The Criminal Justice Administrative Records System (CJARS) is a next-generation criminal justice data platform designed to improve policy-relevant research on the U.S. justice system. To date, the project has amassed a substantial amount of criminal justice data, including 3 billion lines of raw data, which come from 38 states and cover over 200 million criminal justice events. CJARS was recently awarded a $6 million grant from Arnold Ventures to expand project operations over the course of the next three years. We are seeking applications for a Research Associate to join our expanding team and contribute to ongoing and planning research projects. As a Research Associate, you will be involved in conducting literature reviews, cleaning and analyzing data, creating data visualizations and other statistical output, and supporting the dissemination of research findings.

The Research Associate will engage in a number of activities that support ongoing and planning research activities, including:

• Conduct literature reviews and develop annotated bibliographies that summarize key elements of published research.
• Collect, code, clean, and link various data resources in preparation for statistical analyses.
• Contribute to the development of data analysis plans and carry out analyses on large data resources.
• Assist with the creation of tables and figures for presentations, statistical reports, manuscripts, and/or grant proposals.
• Assist with research dissemination efforts, such as developing brief research summaries and preparing materials to be posted online.
• Prepare other materials in support of CJARS project operations as needed, such as data visualizations for promotional materials.

Required Qualifications:

• Bachelor's degree in economics, criminology, public policy, or another relevant field. A combination of education and professional experience may be considered in lieu of a bachelor's degree.
• Ability to code using common statistical software programs, such as: Stata, R, SAS, Python, etc.
• Ability to pass a federal background investigation to secure Special Sworn Status with the U.S. Census Bureau.

Preferred Qualifications:

• Prior experience working in a research environment wrangling large datasets.
• Knowledge and understanding of data science, probabilistic matching methods, or U.S. criminal justice research literature.

The salary range for this position is $46,900 to $58,600, please note a higher salary may be offered for highly qualified candidates.

This position is two-year term-limited.