Research Manager, Economic and Educational Data

About WestEd

As a community of over 1,400 researchers, practitioners, consultants, and administrative professionals from all backgrounds and life experiences, we are committed to making a qualitative difference in the lives of youth, children, and adults. We conduct and apply research, develop evidence-based solutions, and provide consulting services across the country in both rural and urban communities to improve equitable outcomes for individuals from infancy through adulthood. Serving as trusted partners in the areas of education, health, and justice, our teams enhance capacity within communities and school districts to prioritize impact - asking the right questions, customizing methodologies, developing relevant tools, and implementing best practices specific to a diverse range of stakeholder needs.

WestEd supports individual initiative, excellence, and hard work of all individuals in our hiring and work practices. WestEd complies with all applicable federal and state anti-discrimination laws, as well as OFCCP requirements. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to disability, or status as a protected veteran.

SPECIAL NOTICE REGARDING THE WORK LOCATION OF THIS POSITION-Although WestEd provides the option of working at one of its facilities for employees, many roles allow employees to choose to work remotely for their own convenience. The decision to allow remote work at the employee's convenience is based on the requirements of the position or project in question.

The Center for Economic Mobility at WestEd: The Center for Economic Mobility at WestEd (CEM) brings deep experience in helping institutions and regions translate bold workforce ambitions into actionable strategies. We've partnered with colleges, LEAs, state agencies, regional coalitions, and cross-sector initiatives to strengthen education-to-employment pathways including sector strategies that bridge the interests and needs of local communities and employers through robust talent pipelines that tap the power of local workforce, education, and postsecondary systems. Our work is grounded in the realities of how systems function-and where they break down-to help learners move through education and training into the labor market.

We specialize in gathering data to understand regional labor markets and community needs and designing and guiding technical assistance and strategic planning processes that align stakeholders and institutions around shared goals. In every engagement, we clarify the connections between educational programming and workforce demand, surface the structures that drive inequitable outcomes, and co-develop plans that reflect both community voice and rigorous analysis. This includes identifying momentum points in data, building out equity-centered goals, assessing promising practices, and translating findings into clear, practical action steps. Our team stays engaged long after the strategy is written, supporting clients to implement, iterate, and sustain what works.

Description

The Senior Research Associate will oversee population, economic, labor market, education and training data analysis that supports the growing body of work led by CEM focused on leveraging labor market, economic, demographic, workforce training, and educational data sets to support local, regional, and systems level educational and workforce planning, demonstration initiatives, systems change, research, and evaluation. This includes aggregation, data analysis, and comparison of anomalous data sets focused on the intersection of learner populations, economic and labor market information, and educational and training systems to support regional and statewide strategies that increase outcomes for low-income individuals, families, and communities. The Senior Research Associate will work across CEM's lines of work in K16, postsecondary, workforce, and adult education systems, supporting that group's expanding portfolio of work related to increasing economic mobility for communities of need, intersegmental systems development, and use of data to inform equity and student outcomes.

Position Overview:

The ideal candidate has a strong theoretical and practical understanding of population, economic, labor market, education and workforce training data systems. They should be familiar with and have direct practical experience with a breadth of economic and labor market data tools such as O*Net, US Census, the Bureau of Labor Statistics, Lightcast, IMPLAN, Dunn and Bradstreet, and other resources. It is desirable that they are also conversant in educational data resources such as the National Student Clearinghouse, state-level administrative data systems and similar systems and the practical use of population, labor market, economic, and educational and training data to document the economic impact, relevance, and alignment of education and training programs with the needs of business and industry.

This should be matched by strong communication skills, the ability to lead diverse teams, and work in a high demand and fluid work environment. The CEM team is high performance and fast-moving working continuously across public systems and in the field. Applicants should enjoy working in a rapid paced, challenging environment where they are required to learn quickly and that pushes the boundaries of policy and practice. Curiosity, an open mind, strong problem-solving skills, and a passion for serving low income and marginalized communities are a must for this position.

Responsibilities

Labor market information leadership:

• Strengthen CEM's approach to using economic and labor market information in new and innovative ways to illuminate and inform solutions to improving economic mobility and equitable access to living wage employment.
• Identification and cultivation of new lines of work or products to support the forward-thinking emphasis of CEM and support our focus on leading rather than following the field.

Project management:

• Act as a Project Director or Co-Project Director on new projects with a total contract value up to 1 million dollars.
• Manage complex projects and client relationships on projects with multiple partners and deliverables with rapidly evolving priorities, and ensuring deliverables are on time and on budget.
• Demonstrated ability to lead project teams with clarity and purpose, including partners, in the development and implementation of large scale multi-system and multi-partner initiatives.
• Demonstrated ability to identify and think through all necessary steps of a project, set appropriate deadlines, and use project management tools to organize and track the work.

Data aggregation, analysis, and reporting:

• Design analyses requiring complex use of population, labor market, economic, occupational skills and education and training data that will support non-technical audiences to better align education, training, and employment.
• Create products intended for non-technical audiences, such as handouts, reports, graphs, social media posts, and presentations.
• Address inquires from colleagues that ensure labor market information can be integrated across CEM projects.

Practitioner engagement, professional development, and technical assistance

• Support implementation of local, regional and statewide practitioner technical assistance for stakeholders from different educational segments and public systems.
• Support the use of LMI, economic, and other data sets in the field to support change conversations with educational and workforce practitioners.
• Develop training and technical assistance models that are responsive to practitioner needs to use data for program improvement, improving equity, and systems change.

Qualifications

• A minimum of a Bachelors Degree in economics, planning, public policy or related field with a strong emphasis on quantitative methods and analysis (the need for a degree specific to this field is less important should the candidate demonstrate sufficient experience and a track record of successful projects).
• 5-10 years related experience in the use of population, labor market, economic, educational, and training data to inform educational, workforce, or economic development policy and practice.
• Familiarity and direct experience with a wide range of data and analytic tools related to population, labor market, economic, educational, and training data. aggregation and analysis, in particular how such tools have been used by the applicant to inform policy and practice in workforce, economic development, education, or community change.
• Experience using data for professional development and technical assistance for local institutions, regional consortia, or state systems, in particular to inform changes in policy and practice that increase low wage communities' access to living wage jobs.
• Knowledge of legislation and policy relevant to this position including initiatives operating under the Department of Labor (WIOA), Department of Commerce, Department of Education or state level workforce, economic development, or education agencies.

Communication Skills & Accuracy:

• Demonstrated ability to communicate in a collaborative manner with colleagues and partners at all levels, from frontline employees to executives and external representatives.
• Ability to communicate complex information to diverse audiences.
• Strong marketing skills including experience with writing, developing PowerPoints, and visualizing information for a diverse audience with clarity, brevity, and understanding.
• Experience developing strategies to improve usage of resources, and curating online content.
• Demonstrated ability to ensure that one's own and others' work and information are complete and accurate, especially under tight timelines.

Alignment: An abiding commitment to excellence and economic mobility for low wage communities and individuals with barriers to education and employment.

Travel: Ability to travel - requires 25% travel time. For staff working remotely or from a home office travel time may be occasionally as much as 50% depending on the demands of the project

*Note: Visa sponsorship is not available for this position. Successful candidates must be authorized to work in the United States.

WestEd conducts a criminal background check and education verification for all new hires. Any offers of employment will be contingent on receiving a clear background check in accordance with applicable law.

SALARY AND BENEFITS:

The full salary range for this position, WestEd level (11), is $106,000 to $165,600, but WestEd does not typically hire at or near the top of the salary range. The typical hiring range for this role is $106,000 to $132,500. The actual offer considers multiple factors, including but not limited to education, experience, internal equity, and other organizational needs.

In addition to the base salary, benefits include:

* 15% contribution toward retirement effective day 1 of employment and immediately 100% vested

* Pre-tax Flexible Spending Accounts and Health Savings Account option

* All health/welfare benefits are effective the first of the month following the hire date

* PTO: 19 days (increases to 21 days beginning the third year of employment), 12 paid holidays

* Life Insurance: value of 3x gross salary, max of 500k

* Opportunities for annual merit-based performance increases + annual incentives

* Professional development opportunities & mentorship program

For more details about our benefits, go to: https://www.wested.org/work-at-wested/#benefits WestEd is a Drug Free Employer and maintains a drug-free workplace. #LI-Remote #Circa-Remote

Equal Opportunity Employer/Protected Veterans/Individuals with Disabilities

The contractor will not discharge or in any other manner discriminate against employees or applicants because they have inquired about, discussed, or disclosed their own pay or the pay of another employee or applicant. However, employees who have access to the compensation information of other employees or applicants as a part of their essential job functions cannot disclose the pay of other employees or applicants to individuals who do not otherwise have access to compensation information, unless the disclosure is (a) in response to a formal complaint or charge, (b) in furtherance of an investigation, proceeding, hearing, or action, including an investigation conducted by the employer, or (c) consistent with the contractor's legal duty to furnish information. 41 CFR 60-1.35(c)