Research Coordinator

University of Chicago•Chicago, IL

9d•$53,000 - $56,000•Hybrid

About The Position

The Behavioral Insights and Parenting Lab (BIP Lab) at the University of Chicago brings together interdisciplinary scholars to design, evaluate, and disseminate programs to help children from low-income families to achieve their full potential by improving caregivers’ engagement in their learning. The BIP Lab’s team of full-time staff, post-doc and PhD scholars, and student research assistants has worked with over 500 community partners serving families with young children in Chicago and across the US. The Lab has also recently expanded to working in Latin America and India. The Lab has been conducting rigorous experimental research to find scalable ways to address inequality in children’s skill development for 12 years. Reporting to the Associate Director, the Research Coordinator at the BIP Lab will perform routine assignments related to the implementation of research projects. The Research Coordinator will work in coordination with the research team to provide support in designing, operationalizing, managing data collection, and providing technical assistance for large-scale projects related to the BIP Lab’s research goals. This support can include creating protocols around field work and data collection, data management and cleaning, management of a team of field Research Assistants in multiple states, ensuring compliance of research activities with institutional, state, and federal regulatory policies, writing literature reviews, and assisting in drafting presentations. We seek a strong multi-tasker with excellent communication skills who will thrive in a dynamic project-based environment. Priority will be given to candidates who are fluent in both English and Spanish. The BIP Lab team has a hybrid work policy; the days team members are expected to be in the office are set and will be communicated by managers. Primary responsibilities include support with research participant recruitment and school research partner communication, hiring, training and management of research assistants, implementation of data collection activities, quality assurance and management of data, research activity reporting, logistics coordination of field implementation, maintaining research protocols and other duties as assigned. This position is grant-funded for one year with the potential for future renewal.

Requirements

College or university degree in related field.
Knowledge and skills developed through < 2 years of work experience in a related job discipline.

Nice To Haves

Bachelor’s degree in a field relevant to the research being conducted (e.g., public policy, economics, psychology, education).
Relevant research experience.
Experience coding in Stata and/or R.
Willingness to travel to research sites.
Valid driver's license.
Experience working with Qualtrics and/or Survey CTO.
Experience working with messaging management platforms.
Experience working with low-income communities.
Organized, resourceful, detail-oriented, effective time manager.
Team player – collaborative, reliable, ability to receive and give constructive feedback, flexible, supportive.
Comfortable working with remote collaboration tools.
Independent – able to problem solve, prioritize and exercise good judgment under time pressure.
Excellent written and verbal communication skills.
Fluent in both English and Spanish.

Responsibilities

Support recruitment of and communications with schools and other research partners: 15%
Support relationship management between the BIP Lab and the research partner organizations.
Prepare and organize research materials for partner organizations: 15%
Curate research materials including digital devices, tools and assessments.
Provide support for onboarding, training, scheduling and management of field research assistants: 15%
Lead the interview and onboarding process for research assistants.
Provide ongoing coaching to research assistants.
Review and approve research assistant time.
Provide technical support to partner organizations, research participants and research assistants: 10%
Oversee communication with research participants.
Respond to inquiries from research sites about research activities.
Respond to technical questions from research assistants.
Support development of ongoing research projects: 20%
Support study design and preparation efforts.
Recruit research participants on site and remotely.
Support logistics of implementing all data collection in the field.
Track and process payments for research participants per study and University protocol.
Support development of prospective research projects.
Support project budget and timeline development.
Clean, format and audit data files.
Transcribe and code qualitative data.
Monitor and report on progress of research projects.
Maintains technical and administrative support for a research project.
Installs, sets up and performs experiments, interacting with students and other research staff under the direction of the principal investigator.
Maintains recruiting and scheduling research subjects; assisting with developing or amending study protocols; assisting with developing data collection tools; assisting with building databases; and providing general administrative support.
Has general awareness in research techniques or methods, regulatory policies and procedures, and relevant scientific field.
Performs other related work as needed.