Social Policy Research Associates (SPR) is seeking a Senior Research Programmer for full-time employment in our Workforce and Human Services Division.  We are a growing and dynamic research, evaluation, and technical assistance firm located in Oakland, CA. Currently, we are seeking applications for a qualified, full-time mid-level researcher to join our team and collectively help carry out evaluations of programs focused on improving employment stability and economic self-sufficiency for low-income populations.

The Company: At SPR, we believe in providing rigorous, high quality research, evaluation, training and technical assistance to improve the well-being of diverse groups of individuals, families, organizations, and communities.   SPR’s work spans multiple areas of social policy, often focusing on supporting our clients with workforce development, employment training, education, philanthropy, youth development, health, and other human service issues.  Over the past 25 years, SPR has earned national recognition for our work in evaluating the role of philanthropic and public-sector investments in policies and programs designed to improve outcomes for diverse populations across the country. Our clients consistently share an appreciation of the analytic lens and technical rigor that we bring to our work, and our ability to engage real-time data to inform continuous learning and iterative strategy improvements. For more information about SPR, please visit our website at www.spra.com. 

What We Are Looking For: An Equal Opportunity Employer and federal contractor, SPR is an organization that values a staff with diverse perspectives and backgrounds. All applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability and veteran status (EEO/AA/M/F/Vets/Disabled).

All candidates must meet all the following requirements to be considered for this position:

• Graduate degree in computer science, data science, mathematics, statistics, or social sciences and 5+ years of work experience; or bachelor's degree in computer science, data science, mathematics, statistics, or social sciences and 7+ years of work experience.
• Experience in programming and managing data sets in SAS, Stata, and/or R.
• Demonstrated strength in successfully developing and managing large datasets created from multiple sources.
• Demonstrated strength in statistical analysis.
• Demonstrated interests in issue areas relevant to SPR project portfolios.
• Strong analytic skills and ability to write in clear, accurate, and well‐organized manner for non‐technical audiences.
• Ability to work professionally and productively within a team context, including excellent interpersonal and communication skills.
• Ability to work independently and to manage multiple priorities and deadlines and complete assigned tasks.
• Self-motivated, organized, and detail-oriented work style, as well as ability to multi-task across multiple projects.
• Experience working with data visualization software such as R Shiny and Tableau.
• Experience working in GitHub and/or employing quality assurance practices with reproducibility in mind.
• Experience working with PII data.
• Experience working with geospatial data is a plus.
• Experience accessing data via APIs and web-scraping is a plus.

The Position:  The Senior Research Programmer at SPR has key responsibilities for working within multiple project teams to implement research and evaluation studies.  Specific duties will vary by previous experience and research skills, but may include a mix of the following:

• Developing and managing data files in various formats and developing public use datasets with associated documentation.
• Developing programs for statistical analysis.
• Creating analytic files per project team requests.
• Developing reproducible programs for data management tasks.
• Developing skills in programming languages deemed necessary for project data development across SPR projects (SAS, Stata, and/or R).
• Leading data-related tasks to support project workplans.
• Following SPR’s data security protocols, procedures, and Quality Assurance requirements within project tasks.
• Maintaining version control programs within SPR’s team of research programmers across divisions.
• Helping prepare portions of reports and proposals, including both writing and data displays.
• Production of tables or preparation of material to support analyses.
• Assisting in the collection of quantitative data through data downloads, d data security protocol.
• Assisting in the administration of paper/online surveys through survey set-up in Alchemer and assistance with survey tracking.

The Location: SPR is conveniently located right on top of the City Center BART station in downtown Oakland. The building plaza has great food options for lunch, and we are just a few blocks away from Chinatown restaurants. Our location in Oakland also allows us to be in close contact with many of the communities we support through our work. Please note that SPR is following all current, applicable state and county health and operating orders, and this position may not have immediate access to the physical SPR office. Once we resume regular operations, SPR will continue to flexibly offer hybrid at-home/in-office schedules for staff.

Other Information: In this role, you can expect to work in an office environment; occasional lifting up to 40 lbs; frequent telephone usage; extensive computer use; use of office machines; heavy keyboarding. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions. SPR offers excellent benefits, including health, dental, vision, and 401k plan.

How to Apply:  Apply through our website at https://www.spra.com/about-spr/careers/.  This job will remain open until filled.  No phone calls please.