Director, Qualitative Research & Insights | Research, Data Impact Team

Director, Qualitative Research & Insights | Research, Data, & Impact Team

Good Reason Houston is seeking a leader to serve as the Director, Qualitative Research & Insights. This role is essential in driving the organization's mission to advance Houston as a leading education city through the production and strategic use of data, research, and evaluation. The Director leads the production of high-quality, timely, relevant and rigorous qualitative research and data analysis that can be shared across stakeholders, including policymakers, school district leaders, and community members, to accelerate and amplify our impact.

This experienced professional collaborates across the organization to augment quantitative analyses and program evaluation with insightful qualitative storytelling to illuminate the context behind the numbers.

This is a leadership role on Good Reason Houston’s growing Research, Data, and Impact team and is considered a thought leader and strategic advisor across the organization. The Director will manage and execute an organization-wide research agenda by refining research questions and orchestrating data collection, analysis, visualization and meaning‑making to inform our internal strategy and external messages. The Director, Qualitative Research & Insights will create systems and build team capacity to ensure our analyses are accurate, efficient, and accessible.

In addition, this role will help departments develop strategies for systematic collection and analysis of qualitative data. This role reports to the Managing Director, Research, Data, & Impact and works cross‑functionally to support data needs across divisions.

• Manage capacity (staff and contractors) to conduct recurring and ad hoc qualitative data analysis that maximize Good Reason Houston’s impact and aligns with strategic and external affairs objectives.
• Lead planning and execution of a portfolio of research projects with a significant qualitative analysis component, including refining research questions, developing and codifying research methods, accessing and/or collecting data, analyzing data, surfacing insights, and creating visualizations, presentations, and reports on the research findings.
• Collaborate with the Director, Quantitative Research & Data Analytics and Director, Regional Impact & Evaluation on integration of qualitative and quantitative research and findings and creation of mixed methods studies.
• Ensure timely and accurate delivery of initial and final findings from research projects.
• Collaborate with cross‑functional division leaders and team and external partners to develop appropriate research questions and data collection instruments, and coordinate research activities and dissemination.
• Serve as lead consultant on publicly available state‑ and national‑data sources on education as well as data requirements and access to support development of organization‑wide research agenda.
• Build staff capacity to interpret and leverage data by developing and facilitating training and workshops, providing small group and individual coaching, and serving as a consultant to internal teams tackling research questions.
• Facilitate collaboration across communications, advancement, and client service teams to integrate qualitative insights into broader business strategies.
• Maintain expertise on relevant research topics and methods. Encourage innovation in qualitative methodologies, tools, and frameworks through continuous learning and knowledge‑sharing.

• Surface insights from data analyses and create visualizations, presentations, memos, and reports that communicate key insights to various audiences.
• Present findings both internally and externally and ensure staff and partners are equipped to understand methodology and interpret findings.
• Collaborate with the leadership team to develop presentations that center data in support of key messages and organizational objectives.
• Collaborate with Leadership, Advancement, Communications, District Partnership, and Policy and Advocacy teams to advise on available data and visualization.
• Manage development of…