Applied Research Scientist Jobs

Summary of Position:

Essential Functions:

Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions of this position. The individual employed in this position will be required to:

• Contribute to the Research team strategic plan, goals, and research agenda.
• Keep up to date on the latest research and literature in education, pipeline/pathway programs, admissions, legal education, student learning outcomes, student development, measurement tools, assessments, the legal profession, equity, advance quantitative methodology, and other relevant fields.
• Develop relationships and collaborate with team members in Data, Assessments, Product Developmental and Business Intelligence, DEI, LawHub, and other boundaries that collect, analyze, and use data.
• Support and collaborate closely with the Director of Research, Applied Research Program Manager, and Applied Research Analyst.
• Follow LSAC procedures, processes, and protocols to conduct rigorous research.
• Work closely within the research team, with internal stakeholders, and with external collaborators to manage, design, and execute research activities that support and improve innovation and equity from prelaw to practice, including innovative research on law school admission and equity.
• Use equity-minded approaches and methodology to conduct a full range of quantitative analysis (simple to complex) and, when appropriate, be able to use mixed-methods.
• Collaborate with Marketing and Communications and others to ensure clear and easily accessible summaries of research and data, including useable and understandable data visualization.
• Write research reports, briefs, and other written deliverables for both technical and lay audiences and completed in a timely manner.
• Other duties as assigned.
• Lead as a methodological and quantitative research specialist.
• Support the development of clear data and research-informed recommendations both for a technical and a lay audience.
• Readily identify potential for bias and actively work to minimize inequities in research and applied settings, including research projects, tools, products, and services.
• Present research findings to internal and external stakeholders.
• Manage multiple research projects while being agile to fulfill ad hoc requests from internal stakeholders.
• Strategically create and analyze large datasets using industry-recognized best practices.
• Collaborate with the research team and analysts in other teams to plan and design large scale and multi-year research projects.

• Must exercise confidentiality and maintain security of confidential materials.
• Excellent communication skills required.
• Demonstrates willingness to learn and to adapt to new challenges.
• Must have the ability to manage simultaneous projects in a fast-paced environment while maintaining responsiveness.
• Demonstrates strong commitment to LSAC’s mission.
• Must be highly self-motivated, resourceful, and flexible.
• Exercises appropriate research judgment independent of direct supervision.
• Excellent public speaking ability required.
• Excellent attention to detail.
• Takes initiative and ownership.
• Presents a relentless challenge to the status quo.
• Must be equity-minded, recognizing the role of social structures, systems, and environments in producing educational and workplace disparities by race, gender, socioeconomic status, and other identities.
• Demonstrate willingness to explore new and creative approaches to strategic research as it applies to legal education and addressing systemic inequity in the legal system.

Required Experience and Education:

• Prior experience collaborating on a team and concurrently working on multiple projects.
• Demonstrated experience with oral and written presentations, including ability to write for and speak to academic and popular.
• PhD in a disciplinary field with significant data, social science, and applied research background.
• At least 5 years of experience using Power BI, Qualtrics, Cosmos DB, R, STATA, SPSS, SAS, SQL, Python, and Tableau for data management, data visualization, and complex analyses.
• At least 5 years of experience in quantitative and mixed-methods research projects using large datasets.
• Five or more years of experience working in social science and applied research, evaluation, strategy, learning, and/or performance measurement, whether from working on academic or professional projects.
• Direct experience in equitable evaluation and/or culturally responsive approaches to creating and using evidence.

• Ability to work effectively both independently and within a collaborative, interdisciplinary team environment.
• We welcome and encourage candidates from diverse backgrounds who can bring unique perspectives to the table. If you feel this position would be a good fit for you, please apply even if you do not meet all the preferred listed criteria exactly.
• Strong knowledge of survey design, including survey experiments, and qualitative research design and methodology, including experience using ATLAS.ti.
• Strong knowledge of quantitative research design and methodology, building datasets from multiple sources, and statistical analysis (e.g., test statistics, power analysis, effect sizes, multivariate analysis, multilevel models).

Supervisory Responsibilities:

This role does not have people management responsibilities.

Position Type:

• Occasional travel is expected for this position.

• This job operates in a remote environment with occasional in-person and in office meetings. This role routinely uses standard office equipment such as computers, phones, photocopiers, filing cabinets and printers.

• While performing the duties of this job, the employee is regularly required to write, hear, speak, and present materials.
• The physical demands described here are representative of those that must be met by an employee to successfully perform the essential functions of this job.

Please note that this job description may not contain a comprehensive listing of activities, duties or responsibilities that are required of the employee for this job. Job responsibilities may change at any time with or without notice.