Research Scientist (Evaluator)

Education Development Center • Waltham, MA

11h • $87,000 - $110,000

About The Position

EDC is hiring a Research Scientist (Evaluator) to provide strategic leadership, methodological expertise, and senior-level project management across two initiatives: the Zero Suicide Institute Project and the Safeguard Veterans Project. The position is based in EDC’s Be Well program area and focuses on suicide prevention work funded by state, federal, foundation, and private sources, including partnerships that support systems change and effective prevention and treatment across health systems, schools, and communities.
The role will contribute to projects associated with EDC’s Zero Suicide Institute (ZSI), which supports systems of care in adopting and sustaining continuous quality improvement practices to strengthen suicide prevention and treatment. ZSI works with health and behavioral health systems, states, tribes, federal agencies, and partners worldwide to implement the Zero Suicide framework.
Safeguard Veterans Project
Funded by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, Safeguard Veterans tests the feasibility of a comprehensive, community-based system of care for Veteran suicide prevention. The project partners with community organizations in six pilot counties to implement and evaluate a bundle of targeted interventions while strengthening overall community infrastructure and continuity of care. The evaluation includes both intervention-level analyses (e.g., evidence-based practice training, safety planning in emergency departments) and a nested logic model examining system capacity across sectors. EDC plays a lead role in evaluation design and implementation, interpretation of findings, and development of the final Feasibility Study and Implementation Plan in collaboration with partner organizations.
With guidance from the Senior Evaluation Advisor, the Research Scientist (Evaluator) will lead evaluation design across pilot communities, ensure rigor in quantitative and qualitative methods, supervise evaluation staff, and serve as a senior thought partner to project leadership, federal partners, and community coalitions. The role includes leading EDC’s contributions to analysis and reporting and working closely with an Evaluation Lead at a partner organization to support collaboration, information sharing, and alignment across teams.
Zero Suicide Institute Project
This project focuses on evaluating the impact of ZSI services and tools in three health care settings: community mental health/CCBHCs, crisis services, and integrated health care. The Research Scientist (Evaluator) will guide evaluation design, manage progress on the evaluation plan, and oversee key project management activities. Responsibilities include leading a mixed-methods evaluation, ensuring timely and accurate reporting to the funder, and producing insights that inform strategic marketing, positioning, and continuous improvement of ZSI services and the Zero Suicide toolkit.
The ideal candidate is an experienced evaluator and project manager with deep expertise in logic models, theory-driven and mixed-methods evaluation, and applied work in community and behavioral health settings. This senior leadership role requires the ability to supervise staff, adapt to evolving evaluation needs, and translate findings into actionable insights for practitioners, policymakers, and partners.

Requirements

• PhD in behavioral science, epidemiology, public health, community psychology, or related health/social science field.
• 10+ years of professional evaluation experience, including program- and community-level evaluation.
• 5+ years of project management experience, including staff supervision.
• Demonstrated leadership in evaluation design, with deep expertise in logic models and qualitative and mixed-methods approaches.
• Experience supervising or leading teams, ideally including evaluators and/or technical assistance providers.
• Strong project management skills, including defining roles, delegating work, and keeping complex projects on track.
• Ability to thrive in fast-paced, evolving environments and coordinate work across multiple contracts and external partners.
• Experience applying multi-level, systems-based, or collective action frameworks to the design and evaluation of complex initiatives.
• Strong grounding in public health approaches to prevention, including population-based, systems-level, and community-driven strategies.
• Experience designing and delivering evaluation-focused training and technical assistance to coalitions, behavioral health systems, or community-based organizations.
• Excellent facilitation, collaboration, and communication skills.
• Strong writing and reporting abilities, with experience developing evaluation frameworks, tools, and guidance documents, and a record of published work.
• Proven ability to present evaluation findings clearly to both technical and non-technical audiences.

Nice To Haves

• Lived experience as a Veteran or as an immediate family member of a Veteran or Service Member.
• Familiarity with the Zero Suicide framework and other systems-change initiatives.
• Experience working on programs that support Veterans.
• Experience in suicide prevention initiatives and/or behavioral health evaluation.
• Familiarity with federally funded projects, including VA-funded and philanthropic initiatives.
• Demonstrated thought leadership in evaluation methodology, capacity building, or prevention science.

Responsibilities

• Lead the design and implementation of evaluation frameworks across projects.
• Provide senior oversight to evaluation staff and TTA providers, ensuring clear roles, methodological rigor, and consistency.
• Manage evaluation timelines, tasks, and deliverables across multiple projects for both individual and team workloads.
• Develop and refine logic models, theories of change, and evaluation designs for project initiatives.
• Ensure rigorous qualitative and quantitative methods while balancing feasibility and scientific integrity.
• Build and sustain collaborative relationships with external partners, addressing challenges and promoting shared understanding across organizations.
• Guide the development of evaluation tools, frameworks, and resources to support workgroups, community pilots, and ZSI clients.
• Translate evaluation findings into clear, actionable insights for funders, communities, behavioral health systems, and other partners, including substantive contributions to final reports and deliverables.
• Represent evaluation priorities in senior-level meetings, cross-site workgroups, and external forums.
• Mentor and supervise evaluation staff, fostering methodological excellence and professional growth.
• Partner closely with Project Directors to align evaluation needs, staffing, and communication across project teams.
• Manage competing priorities while ensuring alignment of evaluation activities across teams.

Benefits

• Health, dental, and vision insurance
• Paid holidays
• Generous vacation benefits for full- and part-time employees
• Dependent Care Flexible Spending Accounts
• Pre-tax transport benefit
• Robust retirement plan with TIAA/CREF (Teachers Insurance and Annuity Association/College Retirement Equities Fund)
• Paid sick time and personal time annually
• Parental leave
• Employee assistance program

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Mid Level
• Education Level: Ph.D. or professional degree