RRI - CREST Senior Research Assistant II

Position Details

Proposed Start Date 11/16/2026 Rank K2 - Senior Research Asst II Working Title RRI - CREST Senior Research Assistant II Position Number D91958 Representation AU - AAUP Faculty Type Fixed Term Research/Grant Fixed Term End Date: 09/30/2028 Position FTE Variable 0.5 - 1.0 FTE, initially 1.0 FTE Term of Service 12 month

Brief Description of PSU/School/Dept Portland State University is Oregon’s most affordable public research university, located in the heart of one of America’s most dynamic cities. Our mission to "let knowledge serve the city" reflects our dedication to turning ideas into action - in Portland and around the world. The city is our campus, giving students unmatched access to career connections, a vibrant cultural scene and hands-on learning experiences with hundreds of community partners.

More than 20,000 students from all backgrounds bring diverse perspectives to our classrooms and campus life, from the tree-lined Park Blocks to the bustling Urban Plaza and state-of-the-art science labs. We are proud of our world-class faculty, groundbreaking research and international reputation for excellence in sustainability, community engagement and innovation.

The Regional Research Institute (RRI) in the School of Social Work conducts innovative research and program evaluation that addresses critical community issues. We work at the intersection of research, practice, training, and policy with local, state, regional, national, and international agencies and partners. The quality of our community-based participatory action work has gained us a national reputation.

This position supports RRI projects that are funded through federal grants, state agencies, city governments, and community partners. This position is within the Regional Research Institute for Human Services in the School of Social Work, and is supervised by the Principal Investigator on those grants and contracts.

The Senior Research Assistant 2 will work on various research and evaluation projects that change over time, primarily focused on conducting small to large scale surveys, evaluating community-based behavioral healthcare, developing measurement tools, and developing relationships with community partners. This is a grants and contracts funded position and will include working both on teams, with other researchers and independently.

We are recruiting to fill two open positions.

• Master’s Degree in social work, psychology, sociology, or related human services field
• Expertise with MS Word, Excel, and Access; SPSS;
  Atlas.ti;
  Qualtrics
• Knowledge and experience with the social service system, particularly substance abuse and mental health treatment
• Demonstrated ability to work collaboratively on a team and with diverse, culturally-specific community agencies and partners
• Experience implementing community-based, research and evaluation projects
• Demonstrated expertise with survey research methodology and implementation

• Two years post-MSW in order to provide field placement supervision to social work students
• Familiarity with southwestern Oregon behavioral health services
• Familiarity with City of Portland government and experience working with the service areas and individual bureaus/offices
• Experience working on research and evaluation projects through SAMHSA federal grants, Oregon Health Authority contracts, and City of Portland contracts
• Expertise with door-to-door data collection in small, rural Oregon communities
• Knowledge of arts education across the six Portland school districts
• Experience writing federal grant proposals
• Experience managing participant incentives
• Ability to balance tasks across multiple projects at once