Senior Research Analyst, Lead

Summary: 

The Senior Research Analyst Lead is a key member of the Southern Poverty Law Center’s Intelligence Project Department and oversees supervising a small team of research analysts tasked with monitoring and reporting on the antigovernment militia and related movements in the United States.

A core focus of this department is to produce our flagship annual report on the Year in Hate and Extremism which includes a survey of hate and antigovernment groups operating in the U.S. This position will also be responsible for managing the team’s research requirements, the data collection process, and steering the team’s analysis and reporting. This person also will lead multiple external partnerships and coalition work and contribute content for press interviews, community speaking events, policy briefings and legislative hearings.

The Senior Research Analyst Lead is also responsible for ensuring the team properly captures and enters all extremist information into the Intelligence Project’s central database in a standardized manner.

The Senior Research Analyst Lead works closely with the editorial staff to produce quality, high impact content for our different editorial vehicles, such as Hatewatch, TechWatch, and develops other in-depth publications and research projects. This involves highlighting news, trends, and developments anti-government extremist movements and militias, including cross-cutting issues such as extremism in the military, electoral extremism, the spread of conspiracy theories and related issues. 

This position will have a critical management and mentoring role for a team consisting of members in the bargaining unit. It will also be important for this person to collaborate effectively across the organization with colleagues in the Policy, Communications, Learning for Justice, and Immigrant Justice Project at SPLC.

 Primary Job Functions:

• Manages a team of approximately 4-6 staff, providing mentoring and coaching to support the work;
• Hire, train, establish, and monitor staff performance and development goals, assign duties, and conduct performance reviews;
• Understands and communicates intelligence needs, identifies knowledge gaps, establishes research questions and identifies opportunities for data collection;
• Collects, enters, and maintains data from various sources, and ensures data integrity through standardization and regular audits;
• Proposes and explores research questions that add to the field of understanding and countering the far right and trends in extremism;
• Analyzes trends and information, with an eye for preparing reports which will inform policy;
• Collaborates with SPLC policy department on subject matter legislation and administrative policies;
• Publishes articles, reports, and other types of materials covering area of focus;
• Liaises with SPLC’s communications department to establish analytically sound and strategic talking points for media;
• Develops and maintains key relationships with partners, allied organizations, and experts on collaborative projects;
• Identifies training opportunities to develop and maintain subject matter expertise of extremism and other relevant disciplines across the team;
• Other duties as assigned.

Qualifications –

Education and Related Work Experience:

• Minimum of 7 years’ experience researching, monitoring, analyzing and writing on far-right extremism or related field such as human rights;
• Demonstrated management experience;
• History of working in immigration or related advocacy field desired but not required; and
• Bachelor’s degree in journalism, social justice studies, sociology, history, political science or related field with research and writing requirements preferred.     

Knowledge, skills and abilities:

• Knowledge of immigration and religious policy efforts, and debates surrounding such policies, at all levels of government, from municipal and city to federal level preferred;
• Understanding of far-right extremist networks in the United States, and debates surrounding how to counteract extremist mobilization, at all levels;
• Demonstrated ability to oversee structured analytic processes and projects;
• Understands the research and/or intelligence cycle and the roles of collection, analysis, and decision makers;
• Strong critical thinking and problem-solving skills;
• Demonstrated ability to write clearly and concisely;
• Ability to make tough decisions based on competing analytic assessments;
• Demonstrated experience collaborating across teams and departments;
• Computer literate+;
• Must be a team player;
• Exceptional managerial and interpersonal communication skills;
• Commitment to the mission of the SPLC and a strong desire to meld research on far-right extremism with advocacy efforts;
• Commitment to the ideals of justice, equity, diversity, and inclusion; and
• Commitment to fostering an anti-racist work culture and to anti-racist principles and learning. 

Work Designation:

This role has the following work designation options: 

• Distant Remote:  Will work remotely and are not expected to work in the states in which the SPLC has an office or in an SPLC office. They may be required to attend occasional meetings or activities in the states in which the SPLC has an office or elsewhere.
• Local Remote:  Will work remotely but is expected to attend work-related activities that occur at the SPLC offices or in the states in which the SPLC operates.
• Telework:  Will work at an SPLC office at least three days per week and may work two days per week from an alternative work location.

Other Special Considerations:

This job is performed under general office conditions and is not subject to any strenuous physical demands or dangerous conditions.

Disclaimer:

The statements herein are intended to describe the general nature and level of work being performed by the employee in this position.  These statements are not intended to be construed as an exhaustive list of all responsibilities, duties, and skills required of a person in this position.

An Equal-Opportunity Employer with a Commitment to Diversity

Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) is proud to be an equal opportunity employer, and as an organization committed to diversity and the perspective of all voices, we consider applicants equally of race, gender, gender identity, color, sexual orientation, religion, marital status, disability, political affiliation, national origin, or prior record of arrest or conviction.