Program Director - Research and Strategic Initiatives

Position description

Program Director for Research and Strategic Initiatives

Location

Remote, with the ability to work US East Coast office hours, with occasional domestic and international travel.

Role

Verité is looking for a values-aligned, experienced researcher to advance Verité’s vision of a world where people work under safe, fair, and legal conditions. This position will lead rigorous, desk-, and field-based research projects for corporate clients, foundations, and government funders across a wide range of geographies, sectors, and supply chains.

The Program Director will bring methodological depth, quantitative research expertise, strong writing and client service, and effective team leadership to their work at Verité. The Program Director will strengthen research methodologies and efficiencies, responsibly apply technology and AI, and translate evidence into client-ready deliverables and original publications that expand Verité's thought leadership and the impact of our research portfolio.

Responsibilities

• Lead corporate client, foundation-, and government-funded research and projects, from scoping and design through execution, quality assurance, and delivery.
• Oversee staff, consultants, and research partners conducting desk and field research, as well as workplans, deliverables, and client relationships.
• Design rigorous field research methodologies and approaches to sampling and data analysis across diverse geographies, sectors, worker populations, and supply chain contexts.
• Lead development and implementation of quantitative desk research methodologies, including establishing innovative, scalable data collection, scoring, analysis, and visualization approaches.
• Draft and oversee high-quality, client/funder-ready deliverables, including narrative reports, research briefs, Excel-based analytical products, and PowerPoint presentations tailored to executive audiences.
• Ensure research ethics and methodological transparency, including appropriate protections for workers and other research participants.
• Identify and implement responsible uses of technology and AI to improve efficiency in research and deliverable drafting, while maintaining human oversight, safeguarding quality and confidentiality, recognizing bias and other risks, and mitigating potential negative impacts.
• Produce external communications grounded in original analyses, including blog posts, social media content, white papers, journal and press articles, and other publications that position Verité as a thought leader on emerging labor rights and human rights issues.
• Work closely with Verité’s business development team to develop compelling technical approaches and proposals, identify prospective clients and grant opportunities, and expand the organization’s research and grant portfolio.
• Build and maintain productive relationships with clients, funders, government agencies, research partners, civil society organizations, and subject-matter experts.
• Contribute to organization-wide research strategy, knowledge management, and continuous improvement of methodologies, tools, and delivery systems.
• Supervise junior researchers and provide ongoing mentorship, capacity building, oversight of quality and performance, and guidance on career development.
• Other related duties as assigned.

Qualifications

• Advanced degree in sociology, anthropology, economics, political science, international development, public policy, human rights, statistics, or a related field.
• Minimum of ten years of professional experience conducting and overseeing research on labor rights, human rights, or related fields, demonstrating progressively increasing responsibility for research design, project and team leadership, quality assurance, and client and funder relationships.
• Demonstrated experience developing research methodologies and data-collection tools for qualitative and quantitative desk and field research.
• Significant experience with sampling methodologies and the ability to select, document, and communicate sampling approaches appropriate to varied contexts.
• Demonstrated quantitative research and data-analysis skills, including the ability to structure, clean, analyze, interpret, and communicate complex datasets.
• Experience drafting client- and publication-ready research products, with strong English language writing, editing, synthesis, and data-visualization skills.
• Advanced proficiency developing deliverables in Microsoft Word, Excel, and PowerPoint for diverse audiences.
• Demonstrated ability to manage complex, multi-country or multi-sector research projects, including budgets, timelines, teams, partners, risks, and competing priorities.
• Strong client service and stakeholder-management skills, with the ability to communicate methodological choices, findings, limitations, and recommendations clearly and credibly.
• Demonstrated organizational and project management skills, sound judgment, and close attention to detail.
• Self-driven and able to work effectively both independently and collaboratively as part of multiple teams in a fast-paced environment.

Preferred qualifications

• Fluency in Spanish, Portuguese, French, or another language relevant to Verité’s global work.
• Familiarity with quantitative data analysis and visualization tools, such as Power BI, Tableau, R, Python, SPSS, and Stata, and experience using these platforms to clean, analyze, interpret, and visualize research data.
• Experience using AI tools to enhance research, data analysis, and report writing, with demonstrated attention to quality assurance, bias, confidentiality, responsible use, and mitigation of negative impacts.
• Experience supporting business development, including drafting proposals and identifying client or grant opportunities.

Qualifications for all Verité positions

• Demonstrates strong personal commitment to Verité's mission or related social justice objectives in human rights, labor issues, international law, or corporate social responsibility.
• Demonstrates professional competency and/or personal experience thinking and working effectively across boundaries. *
• Demonstrates sensitivity and competency engaging with the diverse marginalized populations impacted by Verité’s mission around the world.
• Personal reliability and commitment to organizational success.
• Maintains confidentiality in communications, as appropriate.

Salary

$75,000 - $100,000 annually, commensurate with qualifications and experience.

Application instructions

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