Research Specialist

Princeton University•Princeton, NJ

3d•Hybrid

About The Position

We seek to hire a talented, independent, and motivated Research Specialist to support the growth of the FFCWS (Future of Families and Child Wellbeing Studies), providing strong technical skills to append contextual and administrative data to the survey as well as data management, quality assurance, and operational support. This position will have a significant role in data quality assurance and programming for the Year 27 wave of data collection, developing new supplemental administrative data files to append to FFCWS data, and providing technical data support and outreach for FFCWS. This position will support Principal Investigators and collaborators, project staff, students, and external researchers using the FFCWS data.The ideal applicant will: (1) have strong programming skills (Stata experience preferred), with the ability to help manage, support, and expand a large archive of contract data; (2) be a self-starter and able to manage projects independently; (3) develop a deep understanding of FFCWS survey data files, efficiently code Stata programs, and quality check data files with meticulous attention to detail; (4) access, preprocess, and append contextual data sources (e.g., Census) to geographic locations of FFCWS survey participants; (5) provide technical support to researchers with clear and concise written and verbal explanations; (6) thrive in a flexible, team-based work environment; and (7) be committed to continued learning and training in areas such as data management and statistical analysis. This will be a one-year term position, with the possibility of renewal contingent upon continued funding and satisfactory performance. The position will start in summer, 2026 (exact date is flexible). The position is based in Princeton, NJ and will require being in the office at least 3 days a week.

Requirements

Experience working with large, longitudinal surveys
Experience with data appendages including based on geographic characteristics (e.g., geocodes, census tracts, counties)
Strong organizational skills and attention to detail
Ability to work independently while also knowing when to ask questions
Intermediate to advanced skills using Stata OR intermediate to advanced skills using Python, R, or SAS, or SPSS and the desire and ability to quickly learn Stata.
Experience with Microsoft applications, including Word, Excel, and Powerpoint.
Bachelors’ degree with at least 3 years of work experience doing programming for a quantitative social science research project.

Nice To Haves

Master’s degree in mathematics, statistics, sociology, social work, economics, psychology, public policy or a related field, with at least 2 years of work experience managing and analyzing large social science datasets using Stata software is preferred.
Prior experience with FFCWS data, or with other large, longitudinal social science datasets (PSID, Add Health, NLSY, etc.) is strongly preferred.

Responsibilities

Preparing new supplemental contextual and administrative files. Tasks will include developing supplemental files from diverse and complex government and administrative data sources; standardizing new data files to FFCWS variable naming and missing data conventions; quality checking files; and creating technical documentation.
Shared responsibility for file preparation, quality assurance review, and drafting documentation of Year 27 data.
Programming, including writing Stata code to 1) review and carefully check quality and consistency of complex, raw survey response data files, 2) convert raw survey response data files to fully-cleaned, well-organized data files following established data release conventions, and 3) review and carefully check quality and consistency of fully-cleaned data files.
Providing extensive technical support to researchers and data users via email queries, introductory tutorials, and presentations for new data users, including conference travel.