Senior Research Associate, Vera Louisiana

Who we are:

The Vera Institute of Justice, founded in 1961, is a nonprofit criminal justice organization that strives to build just government institutions and safe communities free from the scourge of racism, white supremacy, profit, and inequity that is pervasive in this country’s legal systems. We are an “inside” lane organization that drives change at scale with ambitious public sector leaders who share our commitment to building anti-racist, reparative systems that deliver justice. We leverage our access to government to transform these systems and work collaboratively with stakeholders across many movements—including advocacy, grassroots, and grasstop organizations. Our role is to pilot solutions that are transformative and achievable, harness the power of evidence to drive effective policy and practice, and use advocacy and communications to change narratives and norms.

Vera has a staff of 300 people and offices in New York City, Washington, DC, Los Angeles, and New Orleans. We are an equal opportunity employer with a commitment to diversity in the workplace. We expect our staff to embody respect, independence, collaboration, commitment, anti-racism, and equity—both in our outward-facing work and the internal culture of our workplace. We value a range of experiences in people’s educational backgrounds and encourage people who have been directly impacted by the criminal justice system to apply.

Who you are:

The Senior Research Associate (SRA) reports to the Vera Louisiana Associate Director of Research. The SRA performs data collection, cleaning, and analysis on a number of quantitative research projects in the Louisiana office. An SRA may lead a component of a large initiative or manage one or multiple research projects in their area of methodological or subject matter specialization, working collaboratively with interdisciplinary teams to see work through from planning, design, data collection, analysis, write up, and presentation to various audiences. 

This role involves expertise in the team’s strategic priorities and provides quantitative support for the research elements of the strategic priorities. Senior research associates have spent significant time developing and growing as researchers before taking on this role.   

In this role, researchers develop strong management and supervision skills aligned with Vera’s core values. They provide supervision, support, and mentorship to members of their team as well as advice, methodological guidance, and peer review to researchers working on other projects and initiatives. 

Senior research associates collaborate with team members to advance the Vera Louisiana’s office goals, by actively engaging in team meetings and program activities, and support efforts to ensure Vera’s race equity and inclusion priorities are a core aspect of Vera’s research, including in methodological approaches, publications, hiring and staffing, and external and internal research communications. They often contribute to developing research agendas, in collaboration with the office’s Associate Director of Research. 

What you'll do:

Research design and review 

• Produce policy-relevant data analysis and research products that advance the initiatives of the Louisiana office. These products should be meaningful to policy goals and error-free. 
• Support the development of the team’s research agenda to meet policy goals. 
• Conduct peer-review of research design and analysis plans as well as code-review in an SQL or R environment.  

Data collection, management, and analysis 

• Lead, train, and supervise others on data collection (with a focus on quantitative or mixed methods research)  
• Lead and develop discrete components of research initiatives and train and supervise others on accompanying analyses (emphasis on quantitative) 
• Help develop and maintain local data management structures and protocol.  

Write up/presentation of research 

• Lead development, writing and/or editing of research publications and evidence-based messaging and products in support of project or initiative goals.  
• Present Vera’s research to external audiences, including academic and policy-focused conferences and professional meetings.

IRB 

• Work with Associate Director of Research to develop and present IRB applications and ensure that research is conducted to the highest ethical standards, may serve as “Principal Investigator” or “co-PI” on research projects requiring this designation. 
• Ensure research data are stored and managed in compliance with IRB protocols. 

Hiring/Supervision 

• Support hiring and recruitment for research associates, a