Career Opportunities
Thank you for your interest in career opportunities with the University of Chicago Urban Labs! Urban Labs has a strong commitment to using science in service of cities to improve the quality of urban life. We regularly seek out passionate, data-oriented, public service minded individuals to join our team.
For more information on Urban Labs' career opportunities, culture and recruiting process, please see the frequently asked question section below.
Current Opportunities
Crime & Education Labs
- Job Title: Senior Grants and Finance Manager
- Desired Start Date: TBC
- Requisition Number: JR04713
The Senior Grants and Finance Manager will administer sponsored research awards for UChicago Urban Labs, supervise a Grants and Finance Associate, and assist the Director of Finance with establishing and maintaining best practices in the area of finance and sponsored research. This is a great opportunity for a mid-career professional to learn about finance, accounting, sponsored research, and general operations in a non-profit research environment.
- Job Title: Project Associate (Project Management)
- Desired Start Date: TBC
- Requisition Number: JR04858
The University of Chicago Crime Lab is seeking a Project Associate with strong project management skills.
This position requires an individual who is able to work as a part of small research teams running multiple projects concurrently. The position offers the opportunity to work directly with leading social policy researchers at the University of Chicago and government agency staff, as well as an experienced team of data scientists, administrative staff, and project managers from the Chicago office. The Crime Lab is also hiring a Project Associate to support with data analysis. For more information on this position, please visit Urban Labs Careers page: https://urbanlabs.uchicago.edu/careers.
- Job Title: Research Manager
- Desired Start Date: TBC
- Requisition Number: JR05141
The University of Chicago Crime Lab is seeking a Research Manager to work on large-scale social policy experiments designed to test the effectiveness of interventions to reduce violence and improve youth outcomes. This position offers the opportunity to work directly with leading social policy researchers, local policymakers, frontline practitioners, and a dedicated team of research analysts, data scientists, and administrative staff.
Crime Lab New York
- Job Title: Data Engineer (Limited-term)
- Desired Start Date: TBC
- Requisition Number: To apply, please email Greg Stoddard: gstoddard@uchicago.edu
Crime Lab New York is seeking an experienced data engineer for limited-term contract work to design and build a data processing pipeline for a complex administrative dataset (more information about the dataset below). This pipeline will serve as the data infrastructure behind a multi-year scientific evaluation of a recent large-scale reform in criminal justice.
We’re looking for someone who will both listen closely to the needs of our principal investigators and data scientists but will also lead the design based on their experience and established best practice. Our current projects use a series of small R & Python scripts with makefiles to control the workflow1. This design works well for smaller projects and simpler datasets but we’re interested in pursuing a more robust solution for larger and more complex projects. The ideal candidate will help us develop that vision in the context of this project.
- Job Title: Project Associate
- Desired Start Date: TBC
- Requisition Number: JR05270
The New York office of the Crime Lab and Education Lab is seeking a full-time Project Associate with strong writing, organization, and communications skills, and a passion for public policy work. The project associate will support large-scale criminal justice and education research projects that rigorously evaluate ways to prevent crime, increase fairness, and improve outcomes for all New Yorkers. Working in close coordination with Crime and Education Lab’s research managers, the Project Associate will assist with the daily management of a portfolio of large-scale research projects designed to both test the effectiveness of promising interventions and develop new interventions. This position also offers opportunities to work directly with leading social policy researchers and government agency staff.
Health Lab
- Job Title: Research Scientist
- Desired Start Date: TBC
- Requisition Number: JR05367
The Research Scientist will work closely with the Executive Director to ensure that the Health Lab data and analytics team is well positioned to conduct high quality, timely, and relevant analyses on applied research projects in support of our mission. To that end, the Research Scientist will oversee and support the Lab’s analytics team as well as develop and implement the infrastructure and systems needed to ensure the quality of the team’s work. He or she will also maintain a portfolio of applied analytic projects.
- Job Title: Research Analyst
- Desired Start Date: TBC
- Requisition Number: JR05368
The Health Lab is seeking a Research Analyst with strong research, methodological, and programming skills to support social policy research projects. The Research Analyst will have the opportunity to apply tools and approaches from methodologies in both traditional econometrics and modern data science to original projects on mental illness and the criminal justice system, improving health outcomes and reducing costs, and preventing and ending homelessness. In addition to supporting field-based randomized controlled trials, the Research Analyst will contribute to a growing practice of advanced analytical solutions to provide data-driven technical assistance to governmental and non-profit partners.
The successful candidate will have experience in applying a variety of statistical modeling approaches to large datasets in real-world settings. From project inception to delivery, the Research Analyst will contribute to all facets of data collection & cleaning, model development, and implementation. This position requires an individual who is able to work as a part of small research teams running multiple projects concurrently. The position offers the opportunity to work directly with leading social policy researchers at the University of Chicago and local city agency staff, as well as a team of administrative staff, project managers, and student research assistants.
Poverty Lab
- Job Title: Research Analyst
- Desired Start Date: TBC
- Requisition Number: JR04805
The University of Chicago Poverty Lab is seeking a Research Analyst with strong research, methodological, and programming skills to support social policy research projects. The Research Analysts will have the opportunity to apply tools and approaches from methodologies in both traditional econometrics and modern data science to original projects impacting youth services, financial empowerment, and workforce development. In addition to supporting field-based randomized controlled trials, the Research Analyst will contribute to a growing practice of advanced analytical solutions to provide data-driven technical assistance to governmental and non-profit partners.
The successful candidate will have experience in applying a variety of statistical modeling approaches to large datasets in real-world settings. From project inception to delivery, the Research Analyst will contribute to all facets of data collection & cleaning, model development, and implementation. This position requires an individual who is able to work as a part of small research teams running multiple projects concurrently. The position offers the opportunity to work directly with leading social policy researchers at the University of Chicago and local city agency staff, as well as a team of administrative staff, project managers, and student research assistants from the Chicago office.
FAQs
For our three most common research roles--Project Associate, Research Manager, and Research Analyst--please refer to the responsibilities outlined below:
- Project Associates support large-scale social policy research projects designed to test the effectiveness of promising interventions by supporting a Research Manager or Research Analyst.
- Research Managers work directly with leading social science researchers, local policymakers, frontline practitioners, and a dedicated team of research analysts, data scientists, and administrative staff to implement ambitious field experiments.
- Research Analysts apply a variety of statistical modeling and data techniques to datasets in real-world settings, and contribute to all facets of data collection & cleaning, model development, analysis, and interpretation of results.
Urban Labs also hires for other positions in research, IT, and operations. We encourage you to view opportunities below.
You may be asked to submit multiple documents, including a Cover Letter, Writing Sample, and Unofficial Transcripts from the highest degree program received. Please see the job description for the exact documents required for that job. All materials should be submitted to the Workday system. Refer to the job requisition number on the job description to apply to the correct position.
All of our positions require a cover letter. In the cover letter, we encourage you to elaborate on your relevant achievements and describe your interest in the position.
We appreciate your interest in Urban Labs and look forward to reviewing your application. Due to the high-volume of applications that we receive, although we try, we may not be able to respond to all individual inquires.
Urban Labs employees are committed to creating a collaborative, high energy office that is open and welcoming to individuals of all backgrounds and life experiences, and prioritize developing a workforce that is as diverse as the city in which we work.
While we are affiliated with the University of Chicago, we are not located in Hyde Park. We have an office in downtown Chicago, which allows us to work more closely with our public sector partners.
In addition, Urban Labs also has an office in New York City that focuses on Crime and Education work. The New York Office works in close collaboration with the Crime and Education Labs in Chicago.
Urban Labs is a set of highly collaborative Labs and as such, we all work together towards a common mission of science in service of cities.
If you have questions about the Workday Application System, click here.
If you have specific questions that were not answered in our above frequently asked questions section, please contact us at urbanlabs@uchicago.edu Thanks!
