Research Director - UC Santa Barbara Coast Community Labor Center

Position overview

Position title: Research Director - UC Santa Barbara Central Coast Community Center

Salary range: A reasonable salary range estimate for this position is $103,419-$119,124. The posted UC academic salary scales set the minimum pay determined by rank and/or step  the salary scale titled:
Academic Coordinator Series-Fiscal Year for the salary range.

Percent time: 100%

Anticipated start: April 1, 2026 (or later)

Position duration: 2 years

Open date: February 6, 2026

Next review date: Monday, Mar 16, 2026 at 11:59pm (Pacific Time). Apply by this date to ensure full consideration by the committee.

Final date: Monday, Mar 30, 2026 at 11:59pm (Pacific Time). Applications will continue to be accepted until this date, but those received after the review date will only be considered if the position has not yet been filled.

The UCSB Community Labor Center invites applications for a Research Director. The initial appointment will be for two years, with potential for reappointment contingent on funding. The UCSB Community Labor Center, based on funding provided from the University of California Worker Rights Policy Initiative and other grants, seeks to strengthen and expand the labor movement through advanced research, education, and strategic partnerships with workers, labor, community, immigrant rights, and environmental justice organizations, policymakers, and philanthropic organizations on the Central Coast (San Luis Obispo, Santa Barbara, and Ventura Counties).

Our major research projects currently include agriculture and farm workers, homecare, responsible offshore wind development (clean energy jobs), public sector workers as well as how the current political and policy environment is impacting Central Coast workers overall. In addition to research, we also offer education and training that is accessible to the communities we collaborate with and are building links for students to be engaged in the work of Central Coast labor unions and community-based organizations.

The addition of a Research Director to the Center's team will build our capacity for conducting engaged research, policy analysis, and community engagement that contributes to the empowerment and well-being of workers, their families, and their communities and that recognizes the diversity of the Central Coast economy and workforce, including its substantial immigrant and Indigenous communities. We work closely with the Central Coast Labor Council and its member organizations as well as other labor and community organizations working for economic, social, environmental, and intersectional justice.

The UCSB Community Labor Center is actively connected with similar Labor Centers that exist across the entire UC system. We work together with these centers on issues of mutual and overlapping interests.

The Research Director will report directly to the UCSB Community Labor Center Executive Director and Faculty Director and, as part of the core team, will oversee and administer the Center's research agenda and research projects. Shaping and Developing Center's Research Agenda Working with the UCSB Community Labor Center staff, its Advisory Committee, and Center-affiliated faculty members, the Research Director will play a key role in shaping, developing and managing the implementation of the Center's research agenda, policy analysis, and research-related grant development.

The Research Director will identify and develop new areas of research that are relevant and significant to unionized and non-unionized workers and working families on the Central Coast and to support our community and labor partners, as well as the broader labor movement in our region.

Additionally, the Research Director will be responsible for the following areas:

• Supervising and mentoring graduate students, postdoctoral fellows, and relevant staff (as applicable) involved in research, policy analysis, and/or research-related fundraising, and coordinating with faculty and off-campus partners who are engaged in programmatic research on behalf of or in partnership with the Center.
• Planning, developing, and initiating strategies…