The Company: At SPR, we believe in providing rigorous, high-quality research, evaluation, and technical assistance to improve the well-being of diverse groups of individuals, families, organizations, and communities. Over the past 30 years, SPR has earned national recognition for our work in evaluating the role and impact of public-sector investments in policies, practices, and programs designed to improve outcomes for diverse populations across the country. Our clients consistently share an appreciation of the equity lens we bring to our evaluations, the technical rigor that we bring to our evaluation design, and our ability to engage real-time data to inform continuous learning and iterative strategy improvements. For more information about SPR, please visit our website at www.spra.com.
What We Are Looking For: An Equal Opportunity Employer, SPR is an organization that values a staff with diverse perspectives and backgrounds. All applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability and veteran status (EEO/AA/M/F/Vets/Disabled).
All candidates must meet all the following requirements to be considered for this position:
- D. with 1-3 years of experience or Master’s degree with 4-7 years of experience carrying out research and evaluation studies.
- Demonstrated experience designing and carrying out applied research tasks, including at least one of the following: conducting interviews and focus groups, both virtually and in-person and writing up the results; conducting multivariate statistical analyses; managing, cleaning, and analyzing large-scale data sets; designing and administering surveys and analyzing survey data).
- Demonstrated experience with workforce development (especially apprenticeships, employer engagement, reentry services, employment rights as well as services for opportunity youth, dislocated workers, and disabled workers), housing (especially housing vouchers), or human services (especially guaranteed income, SNAP, and TANF).
- Experience managing tasks or projects, including teams of staff.
- Strong analytic skills and ability to write in clear, accurate, and well‐organized manner for non‐technical policy and practitioner audiences.
- Experience developing applied research deliverables, such as research briefs, report chapters, memos, Powerpoint decks, or data visualizations.
- Demonstrated understanding of equity as it relates to research and evaluation.
- Experience working with communities of color and other diverse communities, ideally as a researcher.
- Ability to independently manage multiple priorities and deadlines and complete assigned tasks within budget.
- Ability to work professionally and productively within a team context, including excellent interpersonal and communication skills.
- Proficiency with the MS Office Suite and its collaboration platforms including Teams, Outlook, and SharePoint.
- Ability to travel domestically as requested.
Qualifications below are preferred but not required.
- Experience designing and managing project
- Experience writing contract or grant proposals.
- Practitioner or policy-level experience in a public or nonprofit agency or higher education setting.
- Spanish fluency.
- Proficiency with Nvivo or other qualitative software.
- Proficiency with R/Stata/SAS.
- Experience with data visualization software.
- Experience facilitating meetings and providing training or technical assistance/capacity-building.
About the Position: Senior Associates at SPR have key responsibilities for working within multiple project teams to implement research and evaluation studies. Specific duties will vary by previous experience, but may include a mix of the following:
- Senior‐level collection of data through on‐site interviews and observations, telephone interviews, and document reviews, as well as providing detailed written documentation and analysis from data collection activities.
- Designing elements of mixed method studies, including data collection instruments and analysis plans.
- Serving as a senior site liaison within large scale studies, responsible for exercising independent judgment to ensure quality implementation of study design.
- Applying relevant expertise in conducing qualitative and quantitative analyses.
- Drafting and leading written deliverables including report chapters, case studies, learning papers, issue briefs, PowerPoint decks, and data visualizations. Depending on experience.
- Carrying out project management responsibilities, including overseeing budgets, schedules, staff, client relations, and technical execution, on behalf of the project.
- Representing SPR as a subject matter, technical, methodological expert with current and prospective clients and within field‐level networks.
- Making substantial and meaningful contributions to winning bid and proposal efforts.
- Carrying out other duties as assigned.
The Location: SPR staff members can work remotely from locations in California, Florida, Iowa, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Oregon, Pennsylvania, and Washington state. Employees who live within commuting distance from downtown Oakland California office can also work from full or part-time from the company’s Oakland offices.
Salary Range: $92,000 to $120,000, depending on experience and cost of living in primary place of residence.
Other Information: In this role, you can expect frequent phone or video conferencing usage; extensive computer use; use of office machines; heavy keyboarding; and occasional travel in which you may need to transport equipment up to 10 pounds in weight. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions. SPR offers excellent benefits, including health, dental, vision, Employee Stock Ownership Plan (ESOP), 401k plan, PTO, and 6 days of paid professional development time (8 days in the first year) and $600 to $1200 per year in company financial support for professional development activities.
How to Apply: Apply through our website at https://www.spra.com/about-spr/careers/. This position will remain open until filled.