Senior Research Specialist/Michigan State Lead

Princeton University•Princeton, NJ

5d•$80,000 - $90,000•Remote

About The Position

The Bridging Divides Initiative (BDI) is a non-partisan research initiative focused on tracking and mitigating political violence in the United States. BDI supports local community resilience, particularly during elections and other high-risk periods, aiming to bridge national divides. Their work involves producing action-oriented research, enabling cross-sector collaboration, and influencing policy and community responses. BDI is based at the Princeton School of Public and International Affairs (SPIA) and co-hosted by the Empirical Studies of Conflict (ESOC). This is a full-time, benefits-eligible, 1-year term position with the possibility of extension. The role requires work to be performed within the United States and is fully remote. The Senior Research Specialist/State Lead in Michigan will focus on monitoring political violence, developing state-based partnerships and networks, and supporting state-level coalitions. Key activities include producing Situation Reports (SitReps), issue briefs, and conducting conflict analysis to support BDI's state-based partners. The role involves integrating BDI's efforts into the state's mitigation and resilience environment. The position is part of the BDI Collaborations Team, reporting to the Collaboration Director. The goal is to produce reliable and timely monitoring and early warning analysis products that contribute to the U.S. early warning infrastructure, providing actionable information to the early warning ecosystem.

Requirements

Must live in the state of Michigan, or in a state adjacent to Michigan, and have significant state-specific knowledge, networks, and experience in Michigan.
Bachelor’s degree or higher in a related field.
5-7+ years of experience in research, policy, community engagement, or related role.
Research experience focused on the U.S. political violence landscape, especially in identifying relevant early warning indicators.
Interest in and commitment to supporting civil society efforts to address political violence in the U.S., including work with partner organizations across diverse political affiliations, geographies, and sectors.
Ability to think strategically and creatively around quantitative and qualitative data, including identifying new/emerging trends, gaps, and alternative analysis methods.
Excellent writing abilities, especially past experience writing policy-focused memos, recommendations, or reports.
Outstanding interpersonal skills, and the ability to engage with a multidisciplinary team and collaborators, including a wide array of partners from diverse backgrounds and in a remote work setting.
Ability to thrive in a fast-paced environment, including proactivity and agility in response to potential early warning indicators.
Familiarity with a variety of social media platforms while being able to evaluate source credibility.

Nice To Haves

Master’s degree in a relevant field.
Expertise in conducting OSINT monitoring to track activities of conflict actors, especially via social media and alt platforms.
Familiarity with ACLED data and/or other relevant quantitative data sources tracking political violence in the U.S. context.
Interest and ability to translate research findings to policy and practitioner audiences.
Experience working on a remote team, including familiarity with relevant work tools (e.g. Slack, Zoom, Asana, etc.).
Familiarity with common research tools (NexusUni, ProQuest, Google News Alerts).
Experience with spatial analysis, including aggregation of demographic and point data to spatial units alongside data visualization/cartography.
Experience developing datasets and subsets from various sources, including creating and maintaining documentation for all data and tools and ensuring data integrity.
Experience with HTML/CSS, Python, or other programming languages or interest in developing greater fluency.
Experience with time series and event data, building analytical outputs for description and predictions, such as forecasting models, indices, and multiple linear regressions.

Responsibilities

Develop state-based research, monitoring, and analysis around incidents of political violence, actors involved, and its connection to broader trends in the state.
Understand and communicate the social, political, economic, and other impacts of a given conflict.
Contextualize trends over time by including quantitative analysis of longitudinal data.
Build BDI’s state-based partnerships and relationships with key stakeholders representing varying sectors including election protection, racial justice, LGBTQ+ rights, faith-based, government, and others.
Actively engage in state-based coordination tables and coalitions by actively providing monitoring support and analysis.
Provide customized public and private briefings on state-level risks and trends upon request to key audiences and partners.
Proactively work to build connections with organizations and groups with a focus on supporting and resourcing communities that are particularly vulnerable to incidents of political violence and harm.
Work closely with the broader BDI team and connect state-level work with national efforts to mitigate risk of political violence.
Produce regular SitRep for your state.
Build meaningful relationships.
Build out the state-based SitRep distribution list.
Conduct briefings with state-based partners.
Produce other research and monitoring products as assigned.