Careers Job Description
General Description
As New York’s leader in online education since 2006, the CUNY School of Professional Studies (CUNY SPS) offers the most online bachelor’s and master’s degree options at the City University of New York, and serves as the University’s only undergraduate all-transfer college. With 24 degrees and numerous other non-degree and grant-funded workplace learning programs, CUNY SPS meets the needs of adults who wish to finish a bachelor’s degree, progress from an associate’s degree, earn a master’s degree or certificate in a specialized field, and advance in the workplace or change careers.
Consistently ranked highly by U.S. News & World Report for its quality online offerings, and noted for its soaring growth and enrollment, CUNY SPS has emerged as a nationwide leader in online education. The School’s renowned and affordable online programs—which offer in-state tuition to all students regardless of where they live—ensure that busy working adults may fulfill their educational goals on their own time and schedule.
Within and created at the same time as CUNY SPS, the Office of Innovative Learning Solutions (ILS) designs custom workplace learning programs to help organizations achieve their goals. We are experts in research-based learning practices, online as well as in-classroom curriculum development and implementation. We are uniquely positioned to respond to organizational learning needs and support change management initiatives swiftly and effectively.
Description:
CUNY SPS seeks a Research Associate who will work on, and be embedded with, the Benefits Access Program, sponsored by the Mayor’s Office for Economic Opportunity (NYC Opportunity), within their Poverty Research Unit. NYC Opportunity helps New York City apply evidence and innovation to reduce poverty and increase equity. They work to improve government systems by advancing research, data, and design in program and policy development, service delivery, and budget decisions. Their work includes analyzing existing anti-poverty approaches, developing new strategies, facilitating the sharing of data across City agencies, and rigorously assessing the impact of key initiatives.
NYC Opportunity works collaboratively with City agencies to design, test, and oversee new programs and digital products. NYC Opportunity also produces research and analysis of poverty and social conditions, including its influential annual Poverty Measure, which provides a more accurate and comprehensive picture of poverty in New York City than the federal rate and are active in making equity a core governing principle across all agencies.
NYC Opportunity’s Poverty Research Unit (PRU) is responsible for publishing the NYCgov poverty measure. This nationally recognized metric plays a crucial role in assessing and informing policies aimed at alleviating poverty in New York City. This measure is integral for evaluating existing strategies and formulating new initiatives aimed at reducing economic hardship. PRU produces valuable insights into issues of poverty, inequality, and workforce programs, thereby directly contributing to the City's policy initiatives. Additionally, the team supports the Equity NYC indicators and generates data-driven content. Through collaboration with city agencies, PRU provides data, analysis, and expertise specific to New York City, focusing on poverty, inequality, and the workforce system.
Ultimately, the objective of PRU's work is to enhance the accuracy of anti-poverty efforts, assess the efficacy of programs, and mitigate disparities among communities in New York City.
We are seeking a qualified candidate to fill a full-time Research Associate position. This role will have primary responsibility for maintaining and advancing NYC Opportunity’s poverty metrics and supporting the production of NYCgov Poverty Measure. The position requires collaboration within NYC Opportunity’s Poverty Research Unit and with cross-functional teams to extract insights from various data sources, build and maintain data pipelines, and develop impactful visualizations. Responsibilities span a broad range of tasks, from data analysis to data management. Analytical work will focus on poverty metrics, anti-poverty policies, and equity issues. On the data management side, the role includes streamlining the production of poverty metrics using version control, optimizing query performance, and adapting data structures and tools to meet evolving analytical and operational needs.
Other Duties
- Data Analysis and Visualization:
- Contributing to annual production of the NYCgov poverty measure
- Responding to rapid data requests
- Supporting modeling of policy alternatives and their comparative outcomes (anti-poverty impacts and distributional consequences)
- Identifying key stories (e.g., disparities in economic well-being across population cohorts) to drive engagement and decision-making across city agencies
- Data Insights and strategies:
- Formulate hypotheses and economic measures to drive insights and value creation.
- Collaborate with the product team to create user-friendly applications to help the city agencies use our data products.
- Data Management:
- Partner with the data architect to maintain and improve code to automate recurring reporting processes.
- Streamlining production of poverty research data to ensure fast access to metrics
- Documenting research databases including description of content, context, and changes; enhancing ability to promote discovery through use of data
- Reviewing annual releases of American Community Survey for data changes, implementing compatibility with existing data and code, advising on potential impact in production of poverty metrics
- Data pipeline management and collaboration:
- Assist the data architect in building and maintaining various indicator data pipelines with city agencies and external partners, ensuring efficient data flow and integrity.
As well as other duties as assigned.
Qualifications
Preferred Skills & Experience
- Master’s degree from an accredited college in economics, public policy, data science, statistics, public administration, urban planning, or software/IT management required
- Minimum two or three years of responsible full-time research experience in the appropriate field of specialization with a relevant Master's degree, or one year of full-time experience in a responsible supervisory, administrative, or relevant research capacity with a relevant Doctorate
- Strong programming and quantitative analysis skills using R, Stata, or Python
- Familiarity with large-scale datasets such as the ACS, CPS, SIPP, HVS or MEPS
- Knowledge of applied econometrics and causal inference techniques
- Strong verbal and written communication skills, including the ability to translate complex data into clear policy insights
- Experience working on economic, social policy, or anti-poverty initiatives, especially in urban contexts
- Experience with version control, data documentation, and reproducible research
- Ability to work independently and collaboratively across interdisciplinary teams
- Experience with AWS and cloud data infrastructure is a plus
- Proven experience in managing data systems is also preferred
Location: Downtown Brooklyn, NY
The Research Foundation of the City of New York & Diversity
Diversity is a core value at the Office of Innovative Learning Solutions (ILS) at the CUNY School of Professional Studies (CUNY SPS). We are passionate about building and sustaining an inclusive and equitable working and learning environment for all students, staff, and faculty and believe every member on our team enriches our diversity by exposing us to a broad range of ways to understand and engage with the world, identify challenges, and to discover, design and deliver solutions.
RFCUNY Benefits
RFCUNY Employee Benefits and AccrualsAbout the Research Foundation
The Research Foundation of The City University of New York (RFCUNY) is a nonprofit educational corporation founded in 1963 to provide post-award fiscal and administrative support for CUNY’s research and sponsored programs. RFCUNY’s services allow CUNY researchers, faculty, and staff to focus on their intellectual curiosity and scientific discoveries, on projects and programs that serve our local and global communities, proposing concrete solutions to society’s most pressing challenges.
RFCUNY serves as a fiscal agent and works closely with all the CUNY campus Grants Offices to perform the core functions of post-award financial management for CUNY research projects and sponsored programs. These functions include legal assessment and signing of agreements where RFCUNY is named as a fiscal agent; setting up award accounts; preparing sub-awards and assisting PIs in monitoring the work of the recipients of sub-awards; supporting project directors with hiring and managing research project and sponsored program staff; supporting the purchasing and paying for goods and services with grant and program funds; managing financial aspects of projects including accounts receivable, financial reporting, invoicing, budget monitoring, and cost compliance with uniform guidance; ensuring that sponsor financial requirements are met; monitoring compliance with applicable project and financial management rules and laws; supporting the management of independent and external audits and financial reviews; and providing data, information, management expertise, and other supports to CUNY’s research and sponsored programs.
Equal Employment Opportunity Statement
Key Features
Innovative Learning Solutions (ILS)
Full Time
$95,000.00 - $95,000.00
Oct 14, 2025 (Or Until Filled)