Remote Policy & Research Specialist—Equity & Innovation

Foundation for California Community Colleges; United States; Remote; USD 70,000 - 75,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Remote-first

PTO & Holidays

Health plans

Tuition reimbursement

Public Service Loan Forgiveness

Retirement plans

Job summary

FoundationCCC's Success Center is seeking a Research Specialist to advance student success and equity in California higher education through policy research, evaluations, and strategic innovation collaborations. The role is remote-first with travel as needed and requires strong teamwork.

You will design and conduct quantitative and qualitative analyses using Stata, SQL, and Atlas.ti, develop briefs and visualizations, and partner with internal teams and external stakeholders to translate

Qualifications

• Minimum of three (3) years of related work experience in research, evaluation, stakeholder engagement, and/or project management.
• Experience working within higher education systems and structures, including working with a wide range of stakeholders.
• Experience conducting research, writing in-depth reports in a professional setting, and managing multiple projects with competing deadlines.
• Preferred: Experience in higher education reform, systems change, or nonprofit/public sector environments.

Responsibilities

• Support the planning, design, and implementation of research and evaluation initiatives that advance student success, equity, and Success Center strategic priorities.
• Collect, clean, validate, analyze, and interpret quantitative and qualitative data from internal and external sources.
• Independently conduct quantitative analysis using tools such as Stata and support the construction and analysis of large datasets, including COMIS, IPEDS, Census, and other publicly available data using SQL and Stata.
• Prepare and analyze qualitative data using Atlas.ti, ensuring data quality, consistency, and accuracy throughout the research process.
• Conduct literature reviews, background policy research, and other secondary research to support research projects, evaluations, proposals, and concept papers.
• Develop research briefs, reports, data visualizations, figures, tables, and presentations that translate complex findings into actionable policy and practice recommendations.
• Provide research and data expertise to SPIR and other Success Center teams and collaborate with external partners to support effective implementation of research and evaluation initiatives.
• Develop and maintain project plans, track deliverables, milestones, and outcomes, and use tools such as Asana to keep multiple workstreams organized and on schedule.
• Coordinate project meetings, activities, and deliverables across internal teams and external partners, helping ensure strong communication and alignment throughout implementation.

Skills

Research methods

Data analysis

Stakeholder engagement

Project management

Policy analysis

Qualitative analysis

Quantitative analysis

Tools

Stata

SQL

Atlas.ti

R

Job description

FoundationCCC's Success Center is seeking a Research Specialist to advance student success and equity in California higher education through policy research, evaluations, and strategic innovation collaborations. The role is remote-first with travel as needed and requires strong teamwork.

You will design and conduct quantitative and qualitative analyses using Stata, SQL, and Atlas.ti, develop briefs and visualizations, and partner with internal teams and external stakeholders to translate