Project / Product Manager, Economic Impacts of Incarceration

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.

About the Project: 

Involvement in the criminal legal system has a profound and persistent impact on the economic well-being of people and their loved ones. People of color, and particularly Black Americans, are incarcerated at much higher rates than their white counterparts and, as a result bear, the brunt of the economic impact of incarceration, further exacerbating longstanding racial disparities in income and economic opportunity. However, despite these disparate population-level and intergenerational effects, there is a lack of general awareness of the impact that incarceration has on economic mobility over the life course.  

The Vera Institute of Justice is leading an initiative to address this gap by highlighting the nexus of incarceration and poverty as a national research and policy priority. Over a three-year period, Vera’s research, data science, and communications teams will: construct datasets that describe the connections between incarceration and economic outcomes; develop an online visualization tool that can be used by wide-ranging audiences to elucidate these connections; conduct research, to inform policy and practice; and implement a strategic communications campaign, with the goal of increasing awareness of incarceration as a driver of poverty and income / wealth disparities. 

About the Role:

We are seeking an accomplished Project Manager, with demonstrated abilities or experience working in a product management setting, to work across the three core pillars of this work – data science, research, and communications – driving the strategic vision and execution of the various project components and deliverables. The Project Manager will be responsible for coordinating across the different teams, managing timelines, ensuring that the various project components are integrated and completed in a timely manner, and managing the production of all internal and externally focused deliverables. This role is suited for someone with excellent planning, management, and coordination skills. Experience working on technical research / data science initiatives and / or communications campaigns is preferred.

Who You Are:

As the Project Manager, you will spend 100% of your time dedicated to this project. Economic Impacts of Incarceration is part of a broader effort by Vera’s research unit to build a robust “public interest data science” capacity and this role is a unique opportunity to support the development of data products that address issues of economic injustice and systemic racism. You will report directly to the Vice President for Research and MEL. 

The successful Project Manager:   

• Works strategically, with the ability to plan a complex process, involving multiple and diverse stakeholders – including Vera’s data science, research, communications, legal, and IT collaborators, as well as external vendors and stakeholders – and on a specific timeline.  
• Executes effectively, leading and collaborating as appropriate, and is mindful of important details as well as the overall goals and outputs, with sufficient technical skills for the work at hand, and, critically, communicates progress regularly to both technical and non-technical colleagues.  
• Remains focused on the needs of the core users of the project – PEOPLE (including those who interact with the project's deliverables and those who are most impacted by what the data aims