Data Scientist, Survey Research Manager

Climate Nexus is a nonprofit strategic communications group dedicated to changing the conversation on climate change and clean energy solutions in the United States. Climate Nexus is seeking a data scientist for its Campaigns & Strategies team in Washington, D.C.

Our team leads long-term narrative campaigns to change public perception and accelerate the transition from fossil fuels. We specialize in media outreach and messaging, government affairs and politics, research and polling, and opposition strategy.

Climate Nexus was created to be the behind-the-scenes connector to ensure coherent, effective climate communications and to elevate the work of a broad network of partners, including youth groups, environmental justice allies, cities and state leaders, and more. Climate Nexus provides pro bono support to organizations that work on climate change and clean energy and believes the "story" of climate change is the foundation on which meaningful action is built. Our job is to tell that story to as many people as possible.

Climate Nexus is committed to a diverse and inclusive workplace and considers qualified applicants for employment without regard to age, sex, ethnicity, religion, disability, sexual orientation or gender identity, military/veteran status, or any other basis prohibited by applicable law.
Why apply:
There has never been a more important time to be working on climate change; both the public will and the urgent need for action are high. But opposition forces with seemingly endless resources are stalling critical policy action on climate. We need the help of talented, committed, and justice-oriented individuals who agree data, polling, message research, and analytics have a crucial role to play in communicating the threat and mobilizing the public and decision-makers to seize this opportunity for climate action.
ABOUT THE ROLE
Climate Nexus is looking to add an advanced R programmer and data wizard to support our partner services and quantitative projects across the organization. This role will manage the survey research back-end and be the go-to expert on all things data, which means getting into the weeds and applying best practices when it comes to polling, including programming surveys, assessing data collection, running A/B tests, using tools to analyze survey responses, developing visuals with ggplot, making dashboards, using SQL to manage data, survey weighting, and many other applied quantitative methods.

The role requires a positive attitude, the willingness to help teammates, and the utmost attention to detail. This role also requires managing multiple projects at once and working with internal and external stakeholders. The ideal candidate will have an entrepreneurial spirit with an eye towards improving current processes/products and developing new ones.

The successful candidate will also demonstrate general cultural competency and ability to respectfully communicate across racial, ethnic, cultural, and other lines of difference, recognize the existence of historic racial injustice, and show an interest in working to address it, including through intersectional movements.
RESPONSIBILITIES
Data Science/Programming/Infrastructure (70%)

• Design, program, and field surveys using Qualtrics or Alchemer
• Analyze and scrub data using R
• Build toplines and crosstabs
• Develop R-scripts to automate survey processes and analysis
• Conduct background research on data/weighting sources and specific issues as needed
• Oversee controlled experiments and regression analysis, including A/B testing
• Create data visualizations such as charts for PowerPoints and dashboards for data presentations using R/Shiny-R (ggplot, leaflet, etc.)
• Serve as lead data manager and go-to subject expert

Survey Research (30%)

• Help partners think about potential survey topics and research questions
• Participate in polling calls and presentations
• Work with internal stakeholders and affiliate partners to develop questionnaires
• Support the development of multiple questionnaires in a deadline-driven environment
• Analyze question-wording and apply best practices to reduce non-sampling bias

ATTRIBUTES
REQUIRED

• 3 years of experience using R statistical software (including data visualizations)
• 3 years of experience analyzing survey data and summarizing results
• Strategic and analytical thinker with a background in polling, insights, digital analytics and/or market research
• Must be detail-oriented and comfortable working in a deadline-driven environment
• Must be comfortable working collaboratively with a team
• Must be comfortable with learning new programming languages or methods as necessary based on project needs
• Experience with conducting data analysis or research with marginalized and underserved communities, including communities of color

PREFERRED:

• Prior experience in political polling or market research
• Undergraduate degree in a quantitative and/or social science field (e.g., economics, statistics, sociology, computer science, political science, computational social science)
• Experience conducting linear regression for descriptive and inferential statistics
• Experience with SQL and data pipelines (APIs, S3, databases, cloud infrastructure DigitalOcean)
• Advanced R programmer
• Strong verbal and written communication skills with ability to translate polling data into actionable intelligence

LOCATION
Flexible. Climate Nexus has teams in the Washington, D.C. and New York City areas, although our staff is currently fully remote. Occasional travel to our New York and/or D.C. offices will be required when it is safe.

While we value work/life balance, due to the nature of news this role will sometimes require work outside traditional hours.
SALARY RANGE
Approximately $70,000-$80,000, commensurate with experience. Climate Nexus offers a generous benefits package, including paid vacation, personal and sick leave; standard health, dental, and vision packages; generous employer contributions to 401k retirement accounts; parental leave; and commuter transit benefit.

Applicants should submit a resume and cover letter to jobs@climatenexus.org with "Data Science, Survey Research" in the subject line. Applications will be accepted on a rolling basis.

Climate Nexus is a fiscally sponsored project of Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors, Inc., an equal opportunity employer.