Lead Research Associate - Behavioral Health - Remote

Westat is committed to building a diverse workforce and a culture of inclusivity, belonging and equity for all. We believe that our greatest strength draws on the different backgrounds, cultures, perspectives and experiences of our employees.
Job Summary
Westat has an immediate opening for a Lead Research Associate to join our team of leading researchers in our behavioral health and health policy practice. You will be supporting projects that address the needs of individuals with behavioral health conditions.
As a Lead Research Associate you will support and lead projects that focus on a variety of behavioral health conditions and address the needs of individuals with substance use and mental health conditions.
In this role, you will work closely with project leadership and multi-disciplinary project teams. These teams will be both internal and external to Westat and they will translate science into practice and provide resources for diverse audiences including federal and state agency partners, and provider and consumer organizations. Your research and subject matter expertise will enable you to consult on behavioral health issues as needed with researchers within and outside of Westat to contribute to peer-reviewed journal articles and technical reports based on your project work.
Additional substantive opportunities include work on behavioral health program evaluation, mental health and substance use services research, health equity, social determinants of health, and opioids.
Job Responsibilities

• Provide direction and support to evaluations, technical assistance, and training contracts.
• Participate in business development with networks of internal and external staff on proposals and projects from a variety of federal agencies, states, and foundations.
• Collaborate with team leads to develop and implement methods to monitor the effectiveness of processes, protocols, and procedures.
• Assist with operationalizing project scope, goals, and deliverables.
• Support day-to-day operations of complex behavioral health research projects including project management, evaluation research, data collection/data management, data analysis, report writing and manuscript preparation.
• Lead or support qualitative or quantitative data analysis.
• Participate in presentations at conferences and other meetings.

Basic Qualifications

• A Master’s degree in public health, behavioral health, social sciences, or analytical methods with 2-4 years relevant experience with federal contracts project management and proposal processes; and experience with quantitative or qualitative research; or a PhD and 1-3 years of post-doctoral experience; experience with federal contracts project management and proposal processes; and experience with quantitative or qualitative research.
• Experience with quantitative or qualitative research.
• Experience with federal contracts project management and proposal processes.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience writing technical reports (such as literature reviews, study plans, methodology reports, summaries of research findings) or contributing to peer-review journal articles.
• Experience in behavioral health research.

Other Required Qualifications

• Organization skills, including time management ability.
• Collaboration with teams, managers and/or clients.
• Detail oriented.
• Demonstrated communication skills.