Sustainability Design Researcher

LPA, Inc.; Sacramento (CA); On-site; USD 70,000 - 85,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Mentorship

Career development grants

In-house training

Volunteer hours

Community impact projects

Professional development grants

Annual bonus

Flexible work programs

Health & dental insurance

Retirement planning

Job summary

LPA, Inc. seeks a Design Researcher to join its Sustainability + Applied Research team in California.

The role focuses on applying social science and research methods to real-world design challenges across market sectors, translating insights into design outcomes for built environments. The candidate will conduct literature reviews, develop briefs and visuals, and support pre-design research and stakeholder engagement.

Qualifications

• MS or PhD in environmental psychology, applied research, design research, social science, data science, or a related field
• Proficiency in Microsoft Project and Excel
• Strong written communication and verbal presentation skills
• Experience with mixed-methods research
• Experience with online research tools
• Experience conducting literature searches or literature reviews
• Basic descriptive statistical or data analysis experience
• Data visualization or other graphic skills for communication of data
• Awareness of current research ethics and equity, diversity, and inclusion topics
• Entrepreneurial energy, comfortable with some ambiguity
• Proactive attitude, prepared to ask questions, and always looking for opportunities to improve

Responsibilities

• Conduct literature reviews to gather, evaluate, and synthesize multidisciplinary research in response to project and research questions
• Develop research briefs, presentations, visuals, and other resources that translate research findings into clear, digestible insights and practical implications that designers and clients can easily understand and apply
• Look across projects and research findings to identify recurring patterns, opportunities, and questions worth investigating further
• Help build LPA's internal research knowledge base, making previous studies, findings, and resources easier for teams to access and reuse
• Help develop and refine research tools and methodologies that can be used consistently across projects
• Support and facilitate pre-design research and stakeholder engagement, including surveys, interviews, workshops, and other methods for understanding user needs and behaviors
• Support and coordinate post-occupancy evaluations (POEs), including outreach, data collection, analysis, and reporting
• Analyze qualitative and quantitative data to identify patterns, themes, and meaningful findings
• Work with design teams to establish measurable project goals and identify ways to evaluate design outcomes
• Explore creative approaches to investigating research questions when established methods or data are not readily available
• Communicate research findings and lessons learned through internal presentations and, as experience grows, external publications, presentations, and thought leadership
• Perform other duties as applicable

Job description

LPA, Inc. seeks a Design Researcher to join its Sustainability + Applied Research team in California.

The role focuses on applying social science and research methods to real-world design challenges across market sectors, translating insights into design outcomes for built environments. The candidate will conduct literature reviews, develop briefs and visuals, and support pre-design research and stakeholder engagement.