Applied Research Scientist

LSAC’s mission is to advance law and justice by promoting access, equity, and fairness in law school admission and supporting the learning journey from prelaw through practice. 

Pay rate: $95,000 - $103,000, depending on experience

This position is fully remote.

As an LSAC Applied Research Scientist, you will be a key contributor to advancing LSAC’s mission by maintaining our commitment to rigorous, collaborative, practitioner-informed, and equity-minded research. The research scientist will play a significant role in research design and analysis while also supporting LSAC’s research agenda more broadly to meet the goals set forth by the Director of Research and aligned with LSAC’s strategic plan. The scope of the work includes leading research design, development, execution, and write ups for technical and lay audiences. The research scientist reports to LSAC’s Director of Research and has no supervisory responsibilities.

Essential Functions:

Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions of this position. The individual employed in this position will be required to:

• Lead as a methodological and quantitative research specialist.
• Work closely within the research team, with internal stakeholders, and with external collaborators to manage, design, and execute research activities that support and improve innovation and equity from prelaw to practice, including innovative research on law school admission and equity.
• Strategically create and analyze large datasets using industry-recognized best practices.
• Use equity-minded approaches and methodology to conduct a full range of quantitative analysis (simple to complex) and, when appropriate, be able to use mixed-methods.
• Follow LSAC procedures, processes, and protocols to conduct rigorous research.
• Readily identify potential for bias and actively work to minimize inequities in research and applied settings, including research projects, tools, products, and services.
• Support and collaborate closely with the Director of Research, Applied Research Program Manager, and Applied Research Analyst.
• Develop relationships and collaborate with team members in Data, Assessments, Product Developmental and Business Intelligence, DEI, LawHub, and other boundaries that collect, analyze, and use data.
• Collaborate with the research team and analysts in other teams to plan and design large-scale and multi-year research projects.
• Write research reports, briefs, and other written deliverables for both technical and lay audiences and completed in a timely manner.
• Present research findings to internal and external stakeholders.
• Collaborate with Marketing and Communications and others to ensure clear and easily accessible summaries of research and data, including useable and understandable data visualization.
• Manage multiple research projects while being agile to fulfill ad hoc requests from internal stakeholders.
• Support the development of clear data and research-informed recommendations both for a technical and a lay audience.
• Keep up to date on the latest research and literature in education, pipeline/pathway programs, admissions, legal education, student learning outcomes, student development, measurement tools, assessments, the legal profession, equity, advance quantitative methodology, and other relevant fields.
• Contribute to the Research team strategic plan, goals, and research agenda.
• Other duties as assigned.

Competencies:

• Strong written and verbal communication skills.
• Holds a strong sense of accountability for both individual and team objectives.
• Embraces a forward-thinking mindset, contributing to a culture of continuous improvement and creativity.
• Excellent time management, prioritization, and organization skills
• Must be equity-minded, recognizing the role of social structures, systems, and environments in producing educational and workplace disparities by race, gender, socioeconomic status, and other identities.
• Presents a relentless challenge to the status quo.
• Must have the ability to manage simultaneous projects in a fast-paced environment while maintaining responsiveness.
• Must exercise confidentiality and maintain security of confidential materials.
• Exercises appropriate research judgment independent of direct supervision.
• Must be highly self-motivated, resourceful, and flexible.
• Excellent public speaking ability required.
• Excellent attention to detail.
• Takes initiative and ownership.
• Demonstrate willingness to explore new and creative approaches to strategic research as it applies to legal education and address systemic inequity in the legal system.
• Ability to work effectively both independently and within a collaborative, interdisciplinary team environment.
• Demonstrates willingness to learn and to adapt to new challenges.
• Demonstrates strong commitment to LSAC’s mission.

Required Experience and Education:

• PhD in a disciplinary field with significant data, social science, and applied research background.
• Five or more years of experience working in social science and applied research, evaluation, strategy, learning, and/or performance measurement, whether from working on academic or professional projects.
• At least 5 years of experience in quantitative and mixed-methods research projects using large datasets.
• At least 5 years of experience using Power BI, Qualtrics, Cosmos DB, R, STATA, SPSS, SAS, SQL, Python, and Tableau for data management, data visualization, and complex analyses.
• Prior experience collaborating on a team and while working on multiple projects.
• Demonstrated experience with oral and written presentations, including ability to write for and speak to academic and popular.
• Direct experience in equitable evaluation and/or culturally responsive approaches to creating and using evidence.
• Preferred survey methodologist or advance survey methodology experience.
• Strong knowledge of quantitative research design and methodology, building datasets from multiple sources, and statistical analysis (e.g., test statistics, power analysis, effect sizes, multivariate analysis, multilevel models).
• Strong knowledge of survey design, including survey experiments, and qualitative research design and methodology, including experience using ATLAS.ti.

Supervisory Responsibilities:

This role does not have people management responsibilities.

Position Type:

The LSAC standard business hours are Monday-Friday, 8:30 a.m. - 4:45 p.m. ET. While these are the standard office hours for LSAC, as an exempt employee, the employee will be expected to work the hours necessary to satisfactorily complete their assignments in a responsible and professional manner.

Travel:

Occasional travel is expected for this position.

Work Environment:

This job operates in a remote and professional office environment. Whether remote or in-office, this role routinely uses standard office equipment such as computers, phones, photocopiers, filing cabinets and fax machines.

Physical Demands: 

The physical demands described here are representative of those that must be met by an employee to successfully perform the essential functions of this job. While performing the duties of this job, the employee must regularly write, hear, read, speak, communicate effectively, and present materials.

Additional Information:

Please note that this job description may not contain a comprehensive listing of activities, duties or responsibilities that are required of the employee for this job. Job responsibilities may change at any time with or without notice.

Except as otherwise provided by law, all terms of employment are subject on an at-will basis and can change at any time.

LSAC actively seeks to foster greater levels of diversity in our workforce and in our pipeline of future leaders. We are committed to attract and retain candidates who have a passion for their work and encourage all qualified individuals, including minorities, women, LGBTQIA+, and individuals with a disability, to apply. LSAC is an Equal Opportunity Employer.