Research Associate, Greater Justice New York

Who we are:

The Vera Institute of Justice is powered by hundreds of advocates, researchers, and policy experts working to transform the criminal legal and immigration systems until they’re fair for all. Founded in 1961 to advocate for alternatives to money bail in New York City, Vera is now a national organization that partners with impacted communities and government leaders for change. We develop just, antiracist solutions so that money doesn’t determine freedom; fewer people are in jails, prisons, and immigration detention; and everyone is treated with dignity. For more information, visit vera.org.

Vera has a staff of 240 people, is headquartered in Brooklyn, New York and has offices in Washington, D.C., 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.

About the team:

The Research Associate (Quantitative) will work at the intersection of research and systems change. The Research Associate will contribute to a range of projects in support of Greater Justice New York initiative’s policy and advocacy work. The research associate will primarily support quantitative analysis and coding, working with administrative and survey data across New York to understand the current landscape of criminal legal issue as well as the impact of the policy changes the initiative is working to implement. The research associate will be involved in building and maintaining the initiative’s database using R, Python, and GitHub. The Research Associate should be well-versed in conducting quantitative research in criminal legal system and have solid data management skills. The Research Associate will collaborate with internal and external colleagues to acquire, manage, clean, and analyze data, partnering with Vera’s internal data science team as needed; and share findings through memos and presentation for a range of projects focusing on policy changes to make NY criminal legal system smaller and more effective.

About the role:

Develop and implement research methodologies in support of the initiative’s priorities 

• Collect, clean, and analyze quantitative and/or qualitative data
• Use of statistical analysis software to conduct multivariate quantitative analyses
• Synthesize findings and draft and edit memos, presentations, and reports to democratize knowledge and promote transparency
• Prepare and format reports and other products
• Prepare statistics, background research, or infographics for reports and other products

Build and maintain database  

• Update and troubleshoot the initiative’s NY data hub
• Streamline the process of data collection and building database
• Develop data tools to support initiative’s policy and advocacy efforts

Lead and support projects   

• Develop tools to support system change and data-informed strategy development and implementation
• Contribute to and support discrete tasks while also owning tasks and managing laterally and up to ensure completion
• Support research team operations including contributions to advocacy and administrative work of initiative

Strategy development and implementation  

• Stay informed on developments in the field and engage in team discussions and planning regarding how to apply learning to the work internally and externally
• Collaborate with team members to advance initiative goals by actively engaging in internal meeti