Research Assistant (Early Childhood Practice Area)

About Urban Institute:

The Urban Institute is a research-to-impact institution founded on one simple idea: To improve lives and strengthen communities, we need practices and policies that work. From advancing well-being to fostering shared prosperity, leaders across sectors are working every day to create brighter futures for all people and communities. For more than 50 years, Urban has delivered evidence and solutions that drive meaningful change, and this remains our charge today.

Our Mission

To drive impact by equipping changemakers with evidence and solutions.

Our Values

Collaboration, Fairness, Inclusivity, Independence, and Integrity

For more information on the Urban Institute, please visit https://www.urban.org.

The Opportunity:

The Family and Financial Well-Being Division seeks a research assistant (Step 1/ Research track) with a strong interest in child care, early education, and family support programs to join the Early Childhood Practice Area. Ideal candidates will have interest in child care and early education policy and will have some past experience working on relevant qualitative and/or quantitative research projects. Our team has a strong reputation for rigorous, non-partisan, and fact-based research.

What You’ll Do:

• Assist with qualitative research projects that involve interviews or focus groups by contributing to research protocols, study recruitment and scheduling, and documenting responses.

• Assist with data cleaning and performing quantitative and/or qualitative analysis tasks.

• Contribute to literature reviews and proposal development.

• Summarize findings and present data effectively in multiple formats, including contributing to briefs, blog posts, articles, and presentations for a variety of audiences.

• Support senior staff by planning and developing talking points, background memos, PowerPoint presentations, and other materials to share with practitioners, policymakers, and other external audiences.

• Support with project and practice area operations and management tasks, such as scheduling, budgeting, notetaking, and general project management.

Who You Are:

The successful candidate will:

• Possess a bachelor’s degree in a field related to public policy, economics, psychology, sociology, statistics, social sciences, or another related field.

• Have some training in research methods and prior research experience through school coursework, internships, or research assistantships. 

• Have coding and analysis experience with Stata, R, or another statistical analysis package (required) .

• Prior experience with NVivo or other qualitative coding software is a plus.

• Show proficiency in Microsoft Excel, Word, and PowerPoint.

• Have strong interest in policy solutions related to child care, early education, and other early childhood programs and services.

• Be interested in a position that requires highly detailed work and project management.

• Be detailed-oriented and self-motivated with the ability to work on multiple priorities, work independently and collaboratively as part of a team, and communicate effectively. 

• Have excellent organization, analytical, and communication skills.

* DC-based candidates are preferred

Applications must include all of the following:

• Resume

• Cover letter

• Undergraduate transcript (can be unofficial copy)

The interview process for the selected candidates is as follows:

• Phone screen

• Panel interview(s), if selected to proceed

• Review of coding and writing samples

What You’ll Experience:

No matter your role with Urban, you will contribute to meaningful work that makes a difference for people and communities across the country. We are committed to working in a manner defined by our mission and values.

Urban’s greatest asset is our people.

The target salary range for this position is Min $52,000 - Mid $58,500- Max $65,000 and median $53,963.90. Salary offered is commensurate with experience