Assistant Vice President/Vice President -- Applied Research

Federal Reserve System•Minneapolis, MN

15d•Onsite

About The Position

Community Development and Engagement (CDE) at the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis advances the economic well-being of Indian Country and low- to moderate-income individuals, households, and communities. CDE’s work is rooted in the Federal Reserve’s mandates from Congress around stable prices, maximum employment, and community investment. As a leader of our applied research team, you’ll advance our work informing public policy discussions through applied research, analysis and convenings. Our work is currently focused on three areas: housing and homeownership, labor market policies, and Native economies. The Research team in CDE is responsible for driving the research aspects of these focus areas by conducting our own applied research and analysis. The team partners with our division’s policy development and engagement functions who illuminate community conditions and contribute issue-specific expertise to inform the strategies of our initiatives. This partnership brings research and practice to informed audiences of practitioners, policy makers and other community leaders. In this role as a senior member of the leadership team you’ll lead the development of the division’s research agenda, manage the work of the research team, contribute to the overall strategic direction of the division, inform senior bank leadership on economic and community development issues, and build external networks and partnerships, particularly with researchers. We are looking for a big-picture thinker with experience conducting and overseeing quantitative, policy-relevant social science research focused on low- and moderate-income communities. The ideal candidate would also have experience with original data collection in a social science context, both from a research design and an operational perspective. This position will be filled at either the assistant vice president or vice president level, depending on the qualifications and relevant experience of candidate selected, and requires a regular on-site presence.

Requirements

Master’s or doctorate degree in a quantitative field, with a preference for social science disciplines including public policy, economics, or others such as data science and a minimum of 10 years of progressively more responsible job-related experience, including a minimum of 4 years of experience supervising/managing staff.
Proven track-record producing and managing quantitative research related to lower-income individuals or communities.
Demonstrated experience managing research leading to changes in policy and/or programs.
Proven leadership and strategic vision, including forward-thinking orientation, ability to work productively on a multi-disciplinary team, supporting and motivating professional staff, and influencing positive outcomes aligned with an organization’s vision, values, and goals.
Demonstrated ability to present research findings in an array of accessible formats to reach a broad audience of stakeholders from experts to the informed public.
Demonstrated ability to foster a creative and innovative environment.
Excellent skills developing and motivating team members.
Ability to support staff with innovation in a larger division and institution.
Demonstrated ability to foster a team and collaborative approach.

Nice To Haves

Familiarity with research on housing and labor markets and/or Native economies preferred.
Experience supporting a communications strategy (publications, website, social media) preferred.
Demonstrated ability to build research partnerships across organizations and a broad network is preferred.

Responsibilities

Lead a team of data scientists and economists and set a research agenda that advances division objectives.
Work with team to select and shepherd rigorous research in a way that maximizes potential utilization of findings that inform policy and practice, promoting economic growth and stability for lower-income individuals.
Provide methodological review to research and manage the overall research process, ensuring it is rigorous, objective, and consistent with modern econometric practices.
As part of this management, ensure that CDE research output is rooted in the larger body of evidence on a given topic.
Promote a process for clearly communicating research findings in a variety of formats
Partner with Public Affairs and CDE communications teams to maximize research impact.
Effectively represent the division’s research to senior leaders both internally and externally, safeguarding the accuracy and credibility of the research to ensure that it does not over- or mis-state findings or results, particularly in communication with non-researcher audiences.
Participate in the development of division focus areas and associated goals, as well as division management policies.
With other CDE leaders, support the effectiveness of division operations by overseeing some administrative operations.
Provide regular briefings to senior bank leadership on emerging issues and current policy discussion pertinent to lower-income communities.
Develop briefings to support the President’s Federal Open Markets preparation.
Develop broad-based knowledge pertaining to our focus areas and environmental factors affecting them to be able to inform the above strategic work.
Effectively leverage the broad set of knowledge and skills across the team when identifying projects and roles.
Support creative ideas and risk-taking that promote division objectives.
Provide supervision and constructive feedback to help team members achieve their potential, identify growth opportunities, and create development plans.
Help staff solve research and technical problems that arise in their work and connect them with experts inside and outside the Federal Reserve System who can improve their projects.
foster strong collaboration across the division, the Bank, and the Federal Reserve System.
Identify and develop relationships and/or partnerships to spur change or to take on research questions related to how we collectively understand and respond to issues faced by low-income populations—particularly through analytical work.
Passion for connecting research findings to the informed public.