Director, Research

Job Title: Senior Director, Research

Team: Product

Location: Hybrid in Chicago (IL), Atlanta (GA), or Newark (NJ)

Employment Type: Full-time

Start Date: June 2025

Braven is a national nonprofit that prepares promising college students to secure a strong first opportunity after college graduation through a career-accelerating program.

We work with higher education and employer partners to offer a life-changing experience that begins with a semester-long course for college students followed by support that lasts through graduation.

Together, our ambition is to help rebuild the middle class and revitalize the American Dream.

To learn more, take a look at Braven's Jobs Report.

In order to achieve its ambition of serving 80,000-100,000 Fellows over the next decade, Braven is hiring a Director, Research who will lead the evaluation and continuous improvement aspects of Braven's Research agenda.

This role is for a seasoned researcher with deep expertise in program evaluation, a strong grounding in applied methods, and a passion for using evidence to drive strategic decision-making. As part of the Research team within Braven's broader Product function, you will design and lead learning agendas, run pilots to answer key questions about program effectiveness, and translate findings into actionable insights that inform the evolution of Braven's program model. You will also steward external research partnerships, contribute to third-party studies, and help shape Braven's public voice through literature reviews and support for thought-leadership efforts.

This role is on the Product team and reports directly to the Managing Director, Research.

Lead Braven's efforts to generate actionable insights through rigorous evaluation, piloting, and continuous learning to strengthen our program model. (80%)

• Establish Braven's pilot learning framework
• Define and prioritize the most important learning questions to help Braven evaluate our program model, monitor and analyze fidelity of implementation, and understand where and how we can best improve.
• In partnership with Product and regional team colleagues, design and run pilots and other projects to answer learning questions
• Translate research findings into strategy to inform continuously improving program design and processes, in partnership with Product and regional team colleagues
• Synthesize research findings in clear and compelling reports, presentations, dashboards, etc. for internal and external audiences.
• Lead analyses for special projects (e.g., use predictive modeling to identify the components of our program most associated with outcomes)

Steward Third-Party Research and Contribute to Field Knowledge (15%)

• Support third-party research partnerships, including, but not limited to, overseeing the Request for Proposal process
• Develop and maintain relationships with external researchers and/or college-to-career experts
• Conduct literature reviews on research related to the college-to-career space to inform measurement and strategy
• Contribute to the creation of thought-leadership papers, including, but not limited to, conducting relevant analyses and providing input into draft papers

Contribute to cross-functional projects (5%)

• Be a member of Braven's cross-functional project teams, as needed. Project teams centrally plan and execute Braven programming, as well as other strategic projects.
• Other duties as assigned

Requirements

• Master's in Arts - quantitative field or work experience that demonstrates expertise in quantitative analysis
• 5+ years of experience in a program evaluation or other analytical/learning role
• Proficiency in at least one statistical programming language (e.g., Stata or R)
• What Works Clearinghouse 5.0 certification and/or training in causal research design

Preferred Qualifications

• Ph.D. preferred
• You are committed to continuous learning and improvement and as such, are comfortable seeking out, receiving and implementing constructive feedback.
• You have a researcher's mindset and have fun designing pilots and experiments to test hypotheses.
• You enjoy telling stories with data and pair that with excellent verbal and written communication skills.
• You have deep experience conducting complex quantitative analysis with different tools and statistical packages while working with others to make use of findings, preferably in the non-profit field.
• You love collaboration and are good at it.
• You excel at daily operations, paying close attention to detail and communicating well with stakeholders.
• You have the following technical skills and knowledge:
• Proficiency in Google Suite, Slack, Asana
• Proficiency in Tableau, PowerBI, or other data visualization software
• Proficiency in Salesforce

• Demonstrated commitment to building strong and welcoming cultures that help to develop others.

• Exemplification of Braven's core values.
• Experience that has informed your belief in Braven's mission and has prepared you to work with or for Braven's student Fellow population.

Please know that no one ever meets 100% of the preferred qualifications. If much of this describes you, we encourage you to apply.

Work Demands

• Ability to work in-person in Chicago (IL), Atlanta (GA), or Newark (NJ)
• Travel roughly 4 times per year for in-person team meetings or staff retreats

Additional Requirements

• Authorized to work in the U.S.
• Braven doesn't offer employment visa sponsorship

Application & Interview Process

While the interview process may vary slightly, the general process will be:

• Phone screen with Talent Team member
• Performance Task
• Interview with Hiring Manager
• Panel Interview with Key Partners
• Reference Checks

Benefits

The salary for this position, which depends on prior work experience and our assessment of your demonstrated fit for the role, will likely be between $86,800-$108,400 in Atlanta, $91,300-$114,100 in Chicago, and $100,500-$125,600 in Newark. Braven offers competitive base salaries based on the midpoint of the market among not-for-profit organizations of similar size, with opportunities for salary growth over time. We believe in compensating staff members fairly in relation to each other, their qualifications, and their impact on behalf of the organization, and take internal and external equity seriously. Given our commitment to equity, Braven does not negotiate salary offers; instead each salary offer is determined carefully using external and internal benchmarking. You will have an opportunity to discuss salary in more detail after you begin the application process.

Braven also provides competitive, comprehensive benefits, recognition, and career development. While Braven reserves the right to change benefits at any time, current benefits include:

• Unlimited vacation time in addition to org-wide holidays and week-long shutdowns in July and the end of the calendar year (this is a minimum of 19 days per year)
• Match of your 401K contribution up to 5% of your base annual salary, starting your first full month
• Coverage of 85% of health insurance premium for employee and dependents
• A one-month paid sabbatical after 4 years on staff

Location

We gather in the office 3 days a week (Tuesday through Thursday) and work remotely 2 days a week (Monday and Friday). Therefore, this role requires teammates to live within commuting distance of one of our hubs: Atlanta, Chicago, or Newark. We believe in the magic, connection, and collaboration that happens when people work together face-to-face, and we believe in giving people flexibility to focus, balance personal priorities, and save themselves two commutes per week.

Braven is an equal opportunity employer and considers qualified applicants for employment without regard to race, color, creed, religion, national origin, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity and expression, age, disability, veteran status, or any other protected factor. We encourage talented individuals of all backgrounds to apply.

Qualification

Master's Degree