The California Policy Lab (CPL) is looking to solve Californias most urgent issues, including homelessness, poverty, criminal justice reform, and education inequality, by generating research insights for government impact and building the data infrastructure necessary to improve programs and policies.
Requirements
- Mastery of data analysis and data visualization in Python, R, or Stata
- Experience working with large administrative datasets including knowledge of strategies for dealing with computing resource limits or for speeding up analyses
- Background and experience with causal inference research designs
- Understanding of relational databases and mastery of data analysis and data management in SQL
- Experience implementing machine learning models
- Strong interest in applied policy questions in labor economics and labor market programs
- Experience with predictive modeling, machine learning, or artificial intelligence
Responsibilities
- Clean, merge, and match data from large and complex administrative datasets to prepare analysis datasets and accomplish research tasks.
- Perform exploratory analysis on new datasets and identify potential research questions or projects the data could support.
- Create or add to existing data documentation that supports CPLs research projects.
- Write replicable code adhering to CPLs coding guidelines.
- Fit and test a variety of statistical models and causal inference research designs that draw policy-relevant insights.
- Provide in-person progress reports to CPL Directors, research team members, and policymakers.
- Summarize the results of analyses with data visualizations, presentations, and written reports that are accessible for technical and non-technical audiences.
Other
- Bachelors degree in public policy, economics, statistics, or other relevant field or equivalent experience/training; masters degree preferred
- At least one year of relevant research experience; experience gained in school counts toward this requirement
- Two to three years of professional post-baccalaureate experience is preferred
- Excellent written and verbal communication skills to interact with different audiences
- Ability to work independently and as part of a team; Ability to multi-task with demanding timeframes
