Applied Social Scientist - Mid to Experienced Level (Maryland

Applied Social Scientist Position

As an Applied Social Scientist, you will work with other industrial/organizational (I/O) psychologists, strategic consultants, data scientists, and human capital professionals to oversee and develop initiatives focusing on talent acquisition, development, and retention. Applied Social Scientists use social science research methods to explore and address issues around organizational and program effectiveness. They develop solutions and provide data-informed recommendations to enhance the way NSA does business.

Applied Social Scientists work across the NSA performing one or more of the following functions: pre-employment assessment and selection, development assessment, statistical and qualitative analysis of work, program evaluation, surveys and organizational effectiveness consultation.

The agency is currently hiring Applied Social Scientists to specialize in:
Occupational Analysis, Personnel Assessment and Selection, Program Design and Evaluation. Applicants selected for interviews will be requested to provide a 30-minute Job Talk, presented by the candidate, followed by panel questions from agency I/O Psychologists related to the work presented. Job Talks should highlight technical expertise and include a research or applied project (or a dissertation) relevant to Human Capital, Talent Learning or Development area.

The following two narrative questions provide an opportunity for you to highlight your qualifications and commitment as an applied social scientist. The hiring manager will review your responses to determine if you are a viable candidate. Please attach in a word document or PDF a response of 200 words or less to each question prior to applying for this position. You will be asked to certify that you are using your own words and did not use a consultant or artificial intelligence (AI) such as a large language model (LLM) like ChatGPT or Copilot.

(Please attach it in application).

• Explain statistical methods you have applied previously to IO Psychology projects, preferably in the Human Capital data environment.
• Describe your experience presenting technical information to non-technical organizational leadership.

In positions across the Agency, Applied Social Scientists:

• Collaborate with team members across the organization and develop strategic partnerships throughout the Agency to help achieve organizational goals
• Contribute to the conceptualization, design, analysis, and presentation of applied research (applying appropriate quantitative and qualitative research techniques, data collection strategies, data analysis methods) to inform technical and leadership decisions
• Keep abreast of industry and academic best practices, as well as new research in I/O, talent management, learning, and development and related fields
• Provide organizational leadership with research-based recommendations, and input on organizational strategy
• Synthesize complex findings and detailed research into executive summaries and presentations intended for managerial decisions and/or publication
• Create dynamic, user-friendly visualizations of data
• Provide high quality customer service to clients through superior technical work, consultative skills, and communication
• Lead Human Capital projects through effective project management, external contract support or oversight, milestone tracking and deliverable validation
• Leverage relevant tools such as MS Excel, MS Word, MS PowerPoint, statistical software (e.g., R), and data visualization software (e.g., Tableau)
• Present findings to technical and non-technical audiences
• Perform workforce analyses that describe current states, predict future trends, and/or inform business decisions