Strategic Policy & Research Lead — Remote (CA)

Foundation for California Community Colleges; California (MO); Hybrid; USD 75,000 - 85,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Competitive compensation

Generous PTO & holidays

Medical, dental, and vision plans

FSA / HSA

Job summary

Foundation for California Community Colleges seeks a Senior Research Specialist, Strategy, Policy, Innovation, and Research to lead research initiatives across the Success Center. The role emphasizes analyzing complex datasets, crafting evidence-based policy recommendations, and presenting findings to college leaders and policymakers.

The successful candidate will design and manage research projects, work with large state datasets, and translate results into actionable guidance for

Qualifications

• Minimum five years of progressive experience in research, evaluation, and innovative project implementation.
• Experience leading research projects through full lifecycle with limited supervision.
• Experience engaging senior leaders, policymakers, or executive stakeholders.

Responsibilities

• Lead the design and execution of research and evaluation projects advancing priorities and goals.
• Independently conduct quantitative and qualitative analyses; synthesize findings and develop evidence-based recommendations.
• Lead and manage research activities including scoping, data collection, analysis, and reporting.
• Analyze large datasets (e.g., COMIS, IPEDS, Census) using Stata, SQL, and other tools.
• Develop near-final drafts of reports, briefs, dashboards, and data visualizations for policy use.

Skills

Research design

Quantitative analysis

Qualitative analysis

Stata

SQL

R

Atlas.ti

Policy research

Project leadership

Tools

Stata

SQL

R

Atlas.ti

Job description

Foundation for California Community Colleges seeks a Senior Research Specialist, Strategy, Policy, Innovation, and Research to lead research initiatives across the Success Center. The role emphasizes analyzing complex datasets, crafting evidence-based policy recommendations, and presenting findings to college leaders and policymakers.

The successful candidate will design and manage research projects, work with large state datasets, and translate results into actionable guidance for