Senior Research Associate

Job Description:

The New York State Youth Justice Institute (YJI) is seeking to hire a Senior Research Associate to support research and evaluation efforts. The incumbent will work on a variety of funded projects with a focus on evaluation and participatory research.

The YJI’s work focuses on providing training, technical assistance, research, and evaluation support to youth justice-related state agencies, local partners, and others who provide direct services to youth under 25. Our approach includes a continuum of care, is rooted in equity across race/ethnicity, gender, ability, and geography, and honors youth voices. The team includes social scientists, data scientists, practitioners, and professionals with lived experience in the justice system.

• Lead, execute, and support qualitative and quantitative research projects that are part of YJI’s work plan, including program evaluations, design of research projects, assessment of data quality, and literature reviews.
• Collaborate with YJI’s Communications and Training and Technical Assistance teams to disseminate findings in an actionable manner.
• Engage in cross‑institutional networking at the systems and community levels to expand YJI’s research partner network and opportunities. Attend or present at conferences and other training events as required.
• Work full time from the YJI office in Albany, NY.

• Has a drive for results: proactive, balances analysis with action, sets high standards, and commits to organizational goals.
• Is entrepreneurial, leverages opportunities in unusual contexts, and copes well with ambiguity.
• Works effectively in a dynamic team: collaborates, acknowledges others, seeks help when needed, and promotes teamwork across boundaries.
• Has strong interpersonal skills and can collaborate with diverse external partners.
• Demonstrates project management and organizational skills, especially for time‑sensitive work, and can handle multiple projects simultaneously.
• Is proficient in composing reports and presentations and communicating in an organized, logical, and concise manner.
• Has mixed methods expertise, from interview and focus group guide development to survey design and measurement selection.
• Understands clients’ and colleagues’ needs, responds promptly, and customizes research assistance as appropriate.
• Displays analytical thinking and decisive judgment, drawing sound conclusions and translating them into timely actions.
• Is committed to learning and knowledge sharing: open to new ideas, shares knowledge, builds cross‑discipline learning partnerships.

• Design and conduct program evaluations, including logic model development, evaluation plan development, and evaluation framework selection for multi‑site and multi‑year projects.
• Provide technical advice to internal and external stakeholders.
• Organize and manage all statistical, analytic, and data management aspects of evaluation projects.
• Synthesize information from external sources—including literature, reports, and unstructured data—to ensure programs operate as intended. This may include systematic reviews, meta‑analysis, abstraction‑based grounded theory, and text‑to‑data abstraction.
• Provide models for data‑driven storytelling, including data visualization.
• Consult on planning and conducting evaluation studies, data analysis, and interpretation of findings.
• Participate in multiple research projects with minimal supervision within time and budget constraints.
• Manage internal relationships and resources to achieve project deliverables within a team culture.
• Promote awareness of data quality issues and share best practices for data collection and management.
• Promote the creation of a data‑driven, evidence‑based, and research‑informed culture for stakeholders.
• Work with stakeholders to identify data needs, tailor training programs, and assess data literacy initiatives.
• Expand YJI’s presence through conference presentations, report authoring, and multimedia repositories.
• Supervise at least two advanced graduate students.

• Reports to:
  
  Executive Director of the…