Passionate about translating research insights into government impact? The California Policy Lab is hiring for several openings on our UCLA and UC Berkeley teams:
1. Financial Analyst (UCLA)
Under the direction of the CPL Executive Director, the Financial Analyst will be responsible for a portfolio of extramural research funding including federal and foundation research awards. CPL’s Financial Analyst will provide analysis of CPL’s funding streams and budgets to understand the lab’s past financial performance, determine present resource allocations, and proactively plan for future revenue and expense adjustments. This position will coordinate and implement CPL’s budget allocations, maintain our chart of accounts, and identify appropriate data management tools and business processes for these activities. The role is responsible for producing regular reports summarizing budget analysis and recommendations for CPL’s financial planning, including resource allocation approaches, trended future payroll and operational requirements, and likely revenue generation.
2. Data Analyst, Labor Specialist (UCLA)
This role is ideal for a person with a background or interest in labor economics, data science, and experience analyzing individual-level data. Successful candidates will have exceptionally strong skills in data manipulation, as well as experience running, testing, and interpreting a variety of statistical models. In addition, we are looking for individuals with rigorous training in data science and experience building machine learning models. They will be passionate about using data to find innovative solutions to labor market problems facing California policymakers and workers. This position requires an individual who is able to work on research teams that run multiple projects concurrently. We seek highly organized individuals with superior written and verbal communications skills and excellent time management ability.
3. Research Assistant(s)/Associate(s) (UC Berkeley)
The Research Assistant/Associate is a critical member of CPL research teams working on policy issues such as criminal justice reform, education, employment, health, and the social safety net. The Research Assistant/Associate will apply a variety of data analysis and statistical modeling approaches to large datasets in real-world settings. They will collect, clean, and prepare data for analysis, collaborate in research design and model development, and implement studies via advanced data analysis, all while working on multiple research projects concurrently. Specifically, the Research Assistant/Associate will be responsible for preparing and analyzing large administrative datasets; helping to design and implement rigorous research designs, including randomized control trials (RCTs) and quasi-experimental studies; preparing graphs, tables, and other displays of research results; preparing reports and presentations; and developing other policy-relevant deliverables. The Research Assistant/Associate will contribute to a growing practice of advanced analytical solutions to provide data-driven research and technical assistance to governmental partners. We seek applicants who are confident bridging the gap between academic researchers and government policymakers, and who want to carry out joint research agendas with CPL partners.
We may potentially hire more than one Research Assistant/Associate, and one would support CPL’s research team in support of the Committee on the Revision of the Penal Code (CRPC), analyzing data from state and local criminal justice agencies. For this role, experience working with data from criminal justice agencies and knowledge of criminal justice policy is preferred. All other Research Assistant(s)/Associate(s) hired will work on projects related to education, employment, health and/or the social safety net.
4. Data Analyst for Homelessness Research (UCLA)
The Data Analyst will have the opportunity to apply methodologies from econometrics, statistics, and data science to original research projects primarily focused on homelessness, mental health, and the social safety net. The Data Analyst may embed with public agencies in Los Angeles to support collaborative research partnerships. The successful candidate will be well versed in data manipulation, wrangling, and cleaning, with experience running, testing, and interpreting a variety of linear models including OLS, logit, negative binomial, Poisson, and proportional hazards. They will be passionate about using data to find innovative solutions to the problems facing California policymakers and citizens. This position requires an individual who is able to work as a part of small research teams running multiple projects concurrently. We seek highly organized individuals with superior written and verbal communications skills and excellent time management ability. The Data Analyst will also be required to follow coding guidelines established by CPL and to contribute to the organization’s efforts to build richly detailed documentation of the data we use. The Data Analyst will report to CPL’s senior research staff and will work collaboratively with CPL’s Executive Director, other CPL staff, and our partner agencies. This position is based in Los Angeles, California..
The position will report to the Faculty Director, and will work directly with leading social policy researchers at UC and beyond, state and local government agency staff, and CPL’s leadership team. Researcher job title and campus title will be based on experience and qualifications.
