Research Fellow

Civitech•Austin, TX

2d•$55,000 - $65,000•Hybrid

About The Position

Civitech is a public benefit corporation dedicated to creating a fairer and more equitable democracy by building the tools and infrastructure needed to increase civic participation, empower Democratic candidates to win, and support the success of progressive causes. The Research Fellow will support one or multiple research verticals focused on the extraction, normalization, and ingestion of civic data. This person would join a team working to build an unparalleled database on U.S. government officeholders, candidates, and places. Civitech is a remote-first company hiring within our current footprint of 27 states. The Data Acquisition team is focused on building processes to extract, normalize, ingest, and regularly refresh large volumes of civic data. This includes data relating to current positions, officeholders, and candidates for office from the federal level to local special districts. This team also collects geospatial data to power our products and direct users to useful voting resources. The Research Fellow will report to a project manager on the Data Acquisition team. It is important that our team reflects the diversity of the organizations we seek to serve. We strongly encourage women, people of color, LGBTQIA+ people, and those otherwise underrepresented in the technology sector to apply.

Requirements

1-3 years of professional experience in project management
Strong written and verbal communication skills
Strong attention to detail and excellent time management skills
Committed to leveraging technology and data products to increase civic participation

Nice To Haves

Experience working with political data
Proficiency with SQL and GIS

Responsibilities

Drive fast-paced, complex research projects through thoughtful planning, organization, and delegation
Conduct rigorous quality assurance (QA) on complex datasets
Upload large volumes of data to our internal database, investigate data flags, and collaborate with technical teams to troubleshoot issues
Use tools like SQL, web scrapers, internal data platforms, and Google Sheets to extract, clean, and upload data
Support project management across one or more research verticals (e.g. Candidate Research, Office Holders, Early Voting etc.) to ensure accurate, timely, and robust data delivery
Delegate tasks to contractors, monitor progress, and find creative solutions to meet tight deadlines
Develop project checkpoints, milestones, and dashboards for assessing and communicating progress to the broader team
Manage large, distributed teams of remote researchers to ensure efficient and accurate research
Provide proactive communication, actionable feedback, and recognition to researchers