University of California, Los Angeles

Position Title/Short Description

Full Text of JOE Listing:

The California Policy Lab creates data-driven insights for the public good. Our mission is to improve the lives of Californians by generating evidence that transforms public policy. We do this by forming lasting partnerships between government and California’s flagship public universities to harness the power of research and administrative data. We work on CA’s most urgent issues, including homelessness, unemployment, poverty, criminal justice reform, and education inequality. We facilitate close working partnerships between policymakers and researchers at the University of California to help evaluate and improve public programs through rigorous empirical research and technical assistance. We are looking for equity-minded applicants who represent and understand the diverse racial and ethnic, gender identity, sexual orientation, educational, socioeconomic, cultural, and disability backgrounds present in California. When you join our team, you can expect to be part of an inclusive and equity-focused community.

This is an exciting role for an early- or mid-career researcher who wants to design and conduct policy-relevant research with administrative data in California. The data includes roughly two decades worth of linked employer-employee earnings and unemployment insurance (UI) claims microdata for the universe of UI-covered jobs in California. The ideal candidate has expertise in labor economics, workforce development, or the social safety net. The Researcher conducts independent quantitative research, including conceptualizing research questions and designs; overseeing the requesting, receiving, and cleaning of data files; creating and overseeing the implementation of analysis plans; conducting quality assurance reviews; summarizing results in documents for both academic and policy audiences; and generating replicability documentation. The Researcher can implement and defend multiple causal research designs, including randomized control trials, quasi-experimental designs, and non-experimental designs. The Researcher will write grant proposals to support research tasks and contribute to grant reporting. The Researcher will also supervise junior staff. A successful candidate has demonstrated experience managing research projects and assigning and supervising tasks.

The position will report to the Faculty Director, and will work directly with leading social policy researchers at UC and beyond, state and local government agency staff, and CPL’s leadership team. Researcher job title and campus title will be based on experience and qualifications.

Required Qualifications
Training and experience that clearly demonstrates qualifications.
Ph.D. in economics, public policy, or related social science field, or equivalent experience.
Fluency in data-analysis packages from commonly used programming languages like Python, R, Stata, SQL.
Experience overseeing research deliverables.

Go to UCLA Recruithttps://recruit.apo.ucla.edu/, click on applicants, search for JPF07969