The Director role is located in the College of Arts and Science at Vanderbilt University. This position directs and manages all survey research operations at the Center for Global Democracy. The Director reports directly to the Director of the Center for Global Democracy. The position requires a thorough understanding of University policies and procedures.
About the Work Unit:
At CGD, we bring together social science researchers and policymakers to study democratic development and design innovative policies to strengthen democracy and bolster good governance. Our mission is to understand how people around the world think about democracy, how they interact with their political institutions, and what they expect from their government. We strive to foster innovative approaches to enhance support for democracy and build confidence in political institutions. Our dedicated research staff, faculty, and students achieve these goals by employing research techniques at the frontier of the social sciences, building capacity for international research, and supporting policy innovation.
Duties and Responsibilities:
Operations (50%):
• Directs, manages, and supervises CGD’s survey research operations effort focused on quantitative social sciences, cutting-edge survey methods, and advanced analytic techniques
• Functions as Director, providing supervision and accountability for all technical activities on project coordination and managing the activities, mentoring, and ensuring the quality of work products of CGD staff
• Collaborates and provides guidance and oversight on the lifecycle of projects, including study design, survey firm recruitment, survey modes (face-to-face, telephone, Web), quality assurance, and communication of research and results through academic papers, technical notes, methodological white papers, reports, and presentations
• Provides input into project design and implementation at all stages – providing input into questionnaire design, sampling, programming, data collection, fieldwork monitoring, data processing, and reporting and dissemination
• Participates in academic conferences, workshops, and keynote presentations with stakeholders
• Develops and ensures compliance with project schedules
Administrative and Financial (20%):
• Supports CGD's Director in the center’s operations and administration, including the development of project scopes of work, staff levels of effort, project budgets, and development of survey research proposals
• Collaborates on administrative efforts related to staffing and recruiting, consulting, CGD communications, and project and contract administration
• Develops and coordinates calls for bids, contract terms, and rubrics for contracting CGD service providers and consultants. Reviews and approves CGD technical provider and consultant deliverables
• Engages in the development of survey research proposals, as well as proposal writing and budgeting
Capacity Building (15%):
• Develops internal and external training materials on survey operations. Trains international survey firms, research institutions, and local universities on survey research operations
• Collaborates with designing and implementing the Center for Global Democracy’s Summer School in International Survey Methods. Teaches the course on sampling
• Coordinates graduate students' work for the center in addition to providing mentorship to students and CGD staff
Innovations (10%):
• Contributes to the development of the strategy and vision for the center, including the design and development of approaches and techniques to enhance CGD’s survey research capabilities, including data collection, sampling, instrument design, capacity building, quality control, and analytic methods
• Experiments with improvements & innovations in survey research and data collection methods. Contributes to monitoring, evaluation, and learning activities to measure the impact and performance of survey projects. Develops impact evaluation techniques and metrics
Other (5%):
• Provides input to the institutional design of the Center by collaborating on the design and implementation of the vision and mission statements
Supervisory Relationships:
This position is responsible for supervising personnel assigned to the Center for Global Democracy, providing guidance, training, and support to research staff, and fostering a collaborative and productive work environment while promoting professional growth and development.
Education and Certifications:
▪ A Ph.D. degree in political science, survey methodology, economics, or a related field is required.
▪ At least 8 years of relevant experience in positions of increasing responsibility in survey research operations, project management, statistical analyses, quantitative methodology, or related areas is necessary.
▪ At least 8 years of experience managing and directing survey research projects end-to-end, including survey design, sampling, data collection, quality control, data processing, quantitative data analysis, reporting, and dissemination is necessary.
▪ Demonstrated experience supervising and mentoring staff and students is necessary.
▪ Demonstrated ability to direct and manage day-to-day operations and fieldwork personnel coordination of multi-country, multi-lingual survey projects in a university setting supported by and responsive to multiple donor sources is preferred.
▪ Strong interpersonal communication skills are necessary.
▪ Ability to perform complex tasks and to prioritize multiple projects and competing deadlines is necessary.
▪ Demonstrated ability to work independently and in a team setting is necessary.
▪ Knowledge of University policies, processes, and procedures is preferred.
▪ Expert in statistical software (Stata, SPSS, R) and data collection software (SurveyToGo, Qualtrics) is necessary.