"Senior Research Scientist and Project Director (Full-Time)"

Reporting to the Principal Investigators, Hirokazu Yoshikawa and Sophia Rodriguez, the Senior Research Scientist and Project Director will play a critical leadership role in all activities of the 1 in 4 Project and serve as a member of the project's leadership team.

The 1 in 4 Project is a new, exciting, and important national initiative linking researchers with a range of advocates, organizers, and litigators to respond to critical advocacy and policy needs in the area of immigrant children and families in the United States (1 in 4 children in our country is from an immigrant family). The 1 in 4 initiative represents a partnership between funders and national advocacy coalitions. NYU will serve as the coordinating base for a new national network of research-advocacy partnerships. This is a new position and the originator of the role will have a critical hand in shaping and guiding the project's development, implementation, and evolution.

Position Responsibilities

• Steering & Strategic Leadership (15%): Participating in biweekly Steering Committee meetings of the 1 in 4 Project, which includes representatives from PIF, CTAN, the Foundation for Child Development, and co-PIs. Contributing to ongoing strategy development for 1 in 4. Co-organizing and co-directing in-person and virtual national convenings, working with PIs and the steering committee of 1 in 4.
• Research-Advocate Network Management and Coordination (35%): Growing and maintaining a national database of researchers experienced in research-advocacy partnerships related to immigrant children and families; multiple areas of immigration policy response (enforcement, detention, deportation; access to federal safety net and other federal programs; education; health care; data privacy); multiple social science disciplines; and multiple related research methods (e.g., large-scale secondary data analysis; demography; causal evaluation of policy impacts; primary survey data collection; and qualitative research on experiences of immigrant youth and families, frontline community-based organization staff, and other stakeholders). Growing and maintaining a national resource repository on issues important in the immigration policy response. Establishing a proposal and review mechanism with funder partners. Reviewing proposals from research-advocacy partnerships (both smaller rapid response grants and larger grant proposals).
• Research-Advocacy Partnership Management & Technical Assistance (30%): Liaising with researchers in the database to gauge their availability for US immigration response driven by advocacy needs at three-time frames: immediate (within weeks), urgent (within a few months), and longer term (one year or more). Providing technical assistance to 1 in 4 researchers regarding aspects of research-advocacy, research-litigator, and research-policy partnerships. Liaising regularly with working groups of PIF, CTAN, and others in the field working on immigration response (e.g., SRCD; policy think tanks such as Urban Institute, Migration Policy Institute, Child Trends, etc.) to encourage and field research requests from advocacy efforts, both at the federal and state levels.
• General Project Oversight & Supervision (10%): Co-leading weekly NYU research meeting on 1 in 4. Co-supervising research assistants. Liaising with relevant NYU counterparts to maintain and update a system for tracking and forecasting project resources, including budget and personnel. Contributing to project or grant reports as needed.
• External Engagement & Fundraising (10%): Participating in further grant writing and fundraising for 1 in 4 activities. Contributing and/or editing research or policy briefs as needed. Representing the 1 in 4 project in various fora.

Education

PhD in Human Development, Psychology, Public Policy, Education, or related field.

Experience & Skills

• 15+ years of experience leading complex research initiatives and partnerships between policy, advocacy or government partners and researchers nationally.
• Proven track record of developing and implementing comprehensive research strategies with an emphasis on immigration, low-income populations, children and youth.
• Strong foundation in quantitative and qualitative methods related to policies and programs for low-income and immigrant populations.
• Proven ability to effectively communicate across social science disciplines and scholars in professional fields (e.g., education, public policy, public health, social work).
• Proven ability to organize convenings with high-level stakeholders from a range of disciplines and practice areas.
• Proven ability to uphold the highest standards of scientific rigor, ethics and research quality in research-practice partnerships.
• Proven ability to build, lead, and motivate high-performing research and policy analysis teams, fostering collaboration, a culture of continuous learning, and professional development.
• Experience with successful grant writing and fundraising for research-practice and research-policy partnerships.
• Excellent written and oral communication skills with a focus on clarity, conciseness, and persuasiveness.

In compliance with NYC's Pay Transparency Act, the annual base salary range for this position is $150,000-$175,000. New York University considers factors such as (but not limited to) the specific grant funding and the terms of the research grant when extending an offer. Per NYU's remote-work policy, this position is expected to be either remote or hybrid. Weekly in-person interaction is preferred, with remote work 3 days per week, but could be fully remote if necessary. This position will supervise the Project Coordinator position.

About IHDSC: The Institute of Human Development and Social Change (IHDSC) is a large, interdisciplinary research center at NYU's Steinhardt School that aims to break new ground through support of rigorous research and training across social, behavioral, educational, policy, and health sciences. IHDSC cultivates intellectual community and research-practice-policy partnerships focused on race and inequality, education and child development, health and wellbeing, and legal system involvement. IHDSC brings together over 90 faculty and hundreds of students and staff with the goals of knowledge creation (research), knowledge transmission (education), and knowledge utilization (policy and practice). IHDSC hosts a range of initiatives aimed at catalyzing new programs of multidisciplinary research, linking people across divides to solve social problems, building intellectual community, and disseminating research evidence to policymakers, practitioners, and general audiences.