Associate Director, Data Labs

The Pew Charitable Trusts; Washington (Washington County); Hybrid; USD 150,000 - 190,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Health care

Paid time off

401(k) plan

Telework flexibility

Job summary

Pew Research Center’s Data Labs team seeks an Associate Director to guide the research portfolio, mentor junior staff, and shape methodological decisions. The role emphasizes leadership, collaboration with internal partners, and advancing AI governance within social science research.

The position reports to the Managing Director of Data Labs and involves public speaking, strategy, and ensuring research quality across multiple projects.

Qualifications

• PhD-level research experience or equivalent.
• Experience leading research teams or managing people preferred.
• Experience conducting or managing technical research projects using diverse data sources (web, social media, text, geographical, audiovisual data).
• Strong understanding of the technical infrastructures that enable social science methods at scale.
• Excellent communication and conflict resolution skills; ability to speak fluently about complex topics to technical and non-technical audiences.
• Experience with large data sets, managing compute loads, and monitoring AWS infrastructure.
• Deep expertise in applied NLP, including transformer fine-tuning, zero-shot and few-shot classification, LLM prompts, and model evaluation best practices.
• Experience with multimodal data processing (audio, video, image); familiarity with HuggingFace ecosystem.

Responsibilities

• Oversee day-to-day management and career development of junior and mid-level staff.
• Public spokesperson for the team at conferences, the media and other venues.
• Interface with internal partners and stakeholders around research production, dissemination and budgeting.
• Help select methods and project designs for ongoing research efforts.
• Manage the team’s technical toolkit and ensure best practices are documented.
• Contribute to AI governance and use of LLMs in research processes.
• Help pitch and shepherd projects from conception to production.
• Set the team’s overall strategic direction in collaboration with leadership.

Skills

Team leadership

Communication

Project management

Large datasets

NLP expertise

Model evaluation

Transformer fine-tuning

LLM prompt engineering

AWS

Education

PhD-level research

Experience leading research teams

Tools

HuggingFace

ML platforms

Job description

Pew Research Center’s Data Labs team uses data science tools and techniques to produce original research. The team contributes to the Center’s reputation for experimentation and tells interesting stories about the behaviors and life experiences of the public.

The Associate Directoris responsible formanaging the team’s junior and mid-level data scientists; weighing in on technical and methodological decisions across the team’s various internally- andexternally-facingprojects; andestablishingresearch standards and best practices across the team.The ideal candidate will have a strong background in social science researchpairedwitha deep understanding of thetechnicaland methodological decisionsneeded toproduceresearch that is on par with the Center’s standards.

While the Associate Director will have opportunitiesfor individual research contributions,theprimaryfocusof the role isfacilitatingthebroaderresearchportfolioof the team.This position reports to the Managing Director of Data Labs.

Primary Responsibilities

• Responsible for day-to-day management and career development of junior and mid-levelresearch staff.

• Publicspokespersonfor the teamat conferences,the mediaand elsewhere.

• Interface withinternal partners and stakeholders around research production,disseminationand budgeting.

Methods,researchstandardsand processguidance

• Works with research staff to select mostappropriate methodsandprojectdesigns for ongoing research efforts.

• Manages the team’s technical toolkit, ensures thatresearchbest practicesare being followed and sufficiently documented.

• Contributes significantly to AI governance and use of LLMsin the research process for the teamandacross the Center.

Team strategy

• Helps topitch,selectand refine theteam’s ongoing research portfolio.Helpstoshepherd projects from conception toproduction.

• In collaboration with the Managing Director andVP of Methods and Innovation,setsthe overall strategicdirection and focus of the team.

Education/Training/Experience

• PhD-level research experience or equivalent

• Experience leading research teams or managing people preferred

Knowledge and Skills Requirements

• Experience conductingormanaging technicalresearchprojectsusingdiverse data sources(includingweb, social media, text, geographical, and/or audiovisual data).

• Strongunderstanding of the technical infrastructures that enable and supportsocial sciencemethods atscale.

• Excellent communication andconflict resolution skills. Ability to speak fluently about complex research topics withboth technical and non-technical audiences.

• Experience working withlargedata sets, managing largecomputeworkloads, andmonitoringcloud computing infrastructure such as AWS.

• Deepexpertisein applied NLP, including transformer fine-tuning, zero-shotand few-shot classification, LLM prompt engineering, and model evaluation best practices. Canarticulateand champion a technical vision that is grounded in social science research.

• Experience with multimodal data processing, including audio, video, and image data; familiarity withHuggingFaceecosystem preferred.

FLSA Status: Exempt

Compensation: The typical starting salary for this position is $167,400 annually.

Hybrid Work Schedule

Hybrid Work Schedule :Pew Research Center staffare required tobe present in the Center’s Washington, D.C., office three core days weekly (Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday).Staff may workvirtually fromremote locations on other days in a typical work week.

Total Rewards

In addition to competitive pay, Pew Research Center’s employees enjoy a robust total rewards package that includes:

• Affordable, comprehensive health care that includes medical, dental (including adult orthodontia) and vision benefits.

• Generous paid annual leave plan, including a winter break between Dec. 25 and Jan. 1

• Employer-paid disability, life insurance and paid family leave plans

• Up to a 12% employer 401(k) contribution, with vesting at the end of the first year.

• A 37.5-hour workweek.

• Health savings or flexible spending account options with employer funding component.

• Flexibility to telework a portion of each week, with an additional four telework “flex weeks” each year for most staff.

EEO

Pew Research Centermakesemployment decisionswithout regard to age, sex, race, ethnicity, religion, disability, marital status, sexual orientation or gender identity, military/veteran status, or any other basis prohibited by applicable law. We encourage applications from candidates who representa variety of backgrounds, perspectives, and skills.