Research Manager

The Research Manager conducts rigorous, high-quality research to support Power Switch Action’s campaigns, programs, and long-term planning. They produce a range of internal and public-facing research products, from strategic corporate research and landscape and industry analyses to policy analyses, public reports, and briefs, and present findings to the Power Switch network and other stakeholders. Working closely with cross-departmental teams, the Research Manager is a key participant in strategy development processes and identifies emerging research needs.

The role may supervise staff, interns, or contractors.

Power Switch Action (formerly the Partnership for Working Families) is a national network of 21 grassroots organizations pioneering innovative policy and organizing approaches in cities, counties, and states around the US.Our long-term agenda , developed in close collaboration with our affiliates, is to forge multiracial feminist democracy and economies — starting in our cities and sparking national transformation.

Our affiliates weave strategic alliances and alignments amongst labor, neighborhood, housing, racial justice, faith, ethnic-based, and environmental groups. We organize communities, advocate for policy change, and shift power from corporations to the people whose labor has been exploited and voices excluded.

As authoritarians assault our communities and attempt to seize even more power, we’ve focused our work on halting the drive towards autocracy. Together with our affiliates and partners, we are working to:

• Significantly increase the number of people prepared to defy the autocrats and build a civic participation renaissance.
• Pull cogs from the authoritarian machine: challenging the corporations powering it, insisting our elected and civic leaders refuse to cooperate, and making the stakes clear to those who are tuned out or conflicted.
• Counter doom and division with hopeful alternatives that meet people’s needs.

We are not trying to walk back to an old system that failed far too many of us (and created conditions that were ripe for the authoritarians). We are building people power to lay a new road: one leading to a world where our communities are powerful, in control of our lives, and cherished by our institutions and each other.

1. Research production and dissemination

• Execute a research portfolio that reflects organizational priorities.
• Develop and maintain project plans and timelines, ensuring milestones and deadlines are met.
• Develop internal and public-facing research deliverables informed by appropriate methods, including but not limited to strategic corporate research, landscape analyses, industry analyses, policy analyses, and public records examination.
• Present findings to Power Switch Action staff, the network, and other stakeholders as needed.
• Conduct exploratory research for organizational growth.

2. Collaboration with campaigns and the network

• Work collaboratively with staff, affiliates, and partners to scope research projects and use research to develop campaign strategy and tactics.
• Participate actively in strategy and campaign meetings, listening for emerging research needs, tracking priorities in real time, and synthesizing what was decided.
• Work alongside the campaign team to assist affiliates with research projects, as needed
• Support the development and execution of research trainings for affiliates.

Must-Have Qualifications

• Outstanding campaign researcher:3+ years of professional research experience, with demonstrated skills across two or more of the following: strategic corporate research, power mapping, public records and legal research, policy analysis, campaign/opposition research, data scraping, data analysis, visualization and mapping, and data management. Demonstrated experience using research to develop or refine campaign strategy.
• Strong communicator:Strong writing, speaking, and presentation skills; ability to present complicated research effectively to different audiences.
• Project management experience:Effectively drives projects, sets and tracks deadlines, balances competing priorities, manages communication among stakeholders, and flags when input or support is needed.
• Agile problem solver:Quickly grasps the subtleties of complex issues and identifies patterns in challenges. Comes up with insightful, pragmatic, equitable, and sustainable ways to tackle common challenges and produce positive change. Has a successful track record of taking a concept from idea to implementation.

Preferred but not required

• Experience with campaigns or research focused on corporate accountability, labor, democracy, economic justice, progressive revenue, money in politics, housing, or climate.
• Experience designing or delivering research trainings or coaching.

This is a full-time, non-exempt position and reports to the Research Director. We offer a competitive starting salary between $74,000-$93,000 (based on…