Director, Research
hace 23 horas
Chicago
The Commercial Club of Chicago and Civic Committee Overview \n The Commercial Club of Chicago is a membership organization of senior leaders in the region. Our members span the business, education, civic, cultural, and philanthropic sectors - unified by excitement for the future of Chicago. We believe cooperation and an open exchange of ideas are fundamental to success. \n \n Throughout our history, the Commercial Club of Chicago and our affiliated organizations have played a leading role in shaping the Chicago region. We have helped tackle the most pressing issues facing Chicago and have been instrumental in some of the City’s most visionary efforts. \n Today, the Commercial Club continues to address social and economic issues of importance to the Chicago region. \n \n The Civic Committee's mission is to make the Chicago region a great place for everyone to live, work, and do business. Originally formed in 1983, the Civic Committee is tasked with identifying key issues facing the State of Illinois and the greater Chicago region and providing leadership, high-quality research, long-term policy recommendations and programmatic actions for the benefit of the city, region and state and all who live here. The Civic Committee is composed of the leaders of the Chicago region’s leading private sector employers and works with public officials and other civic organizations on transformational initiatives to promote our region's social and economic well-being. The Civic Committee generally serves as the Club’s lead on policy and programmatic initiatives and our focus areas currently include efforts in public safety, business diversity, transportation and infrastructure, and state and local finance. \n \n We also work alongside, and partially fund, the organizations established by us to tackle key issues head-on: \n\n • Civic Consulting Alliance: Civic Consulting Alliance has an effective model for addressing systemic problems and achieving lasting change. We leverage the power of public-private collaboration through a unique approach to management consulting, to channel Chicago’s proud history of civic engagement.\n, • Kids First Chicago: Kids First Chicago’s mission is to dramatically improve education for Chicago’s children by ensuring high-quality public schools are accessible to all families. We believe a healthy education environment where kids, schools, and communities thrive is the key to a world-class city. We believe that those closest to our students - families, community members, and educators - are best equipped to design policies and systems that will improve equity and lead to stronger outcomes for our students, communities, and city.\n, • P33: Our ambition is to transform Chicago into a tier one technology and innovation hub and promote inclusive economic growth.\n\n \n Terms of Employment \n This is a full-time position with benefits, reporting to the Executive Vice President for Strategy and Planning. Initial employment will be on a introductory basis, with detailed evaluations and feedback at the 30-, 60-, and 90-day marks. \n \n Position Overview \n The Civic Committee seeks to hire a Director of Research who will lead the organization's research function within the Strategy & Development job family, reporting to the Executive Vice President for Strategy and Planning. Operating at the Senior level, the Director is responsible for designing and executing high-quality, evidence-based research and data analysis tools and platforms that inform the Civic Committee's policy priorities, programmatic initiatives, and member engagement strategies. \n \n The Director will source, generate, and synthesize complex data — including acquiring, cleaning, and joining data from public, administrative, and partner sources — and translate findings into decision-ready analysis and visualization for senior leadership and members, and serve as the organization's primary intellectual resource on issues most critical to the Chicago region's civic and economic future. This role requires a seasoned researcher who can operate with significant autonomy, lead projects from design through publication, and collaborate effectively across policy staff, external partners, and the senior leadership team. \n \n Essential Functions \n The Director of Research serves as the organization's lead researcher and analytical resource. Core functions include: \n\n • Designing and managing a research agenda aligned with the Civic Committee's strategic priorities and policy focus areas\n, • As needed, producing rigorous, high-quality research reports, briefs, and data analyses accessible to diverse audiences — including members, policymakers, and the public\n, • In collaboration with the Director of Communications and Senior Director of Development, lead the development of an annual impact report.\n, • Synthesizing complex quantitative and qualitative information into clear findings, conclusions, and recommendations\n, • Building and maintaining the organization's core datasets, indicator tracking, and analytical tools — including dashboards and data products that program staff can use directly in their own work\n, • Presenting research findings to senior leadership, Board members, and external stakeholders with confidence and clarity, using visual and narrative formats matched to the audience\n, • Ensuring the quality and integrity of all research products developed within or on behalf of the organization\n, • Identifying emerging issues and data trends relevant to the organization's mission and advising leadership accordingly\n\n \n Primary Responsibilities \n Research Design & Execution \n\n • Lead the design, methodology selection, and execution of primary and secondary research projects — including quantitative analysis, literature reviews, landscape scans, and mixed-methods studies\n, • Manage multiple research workstreams simultaneously, ensuring quality, accuracy, and timely delivery\n, • Maintain current knowledge of research methods, data sources, and analytical tools relevant to civic policy, economic development, and social impact\n, • Establish and uphold standards for research rigor, citation practice, and intellectual integrity across all organizational publications\n\n \n Analysis & Communication \n\n • Translate complex research findings into compelling written products — reports, policy briefs, memos, presentations, and op-eds — tailored to specific audiences\n, • Design and maintain data visualizations, dashboards, and self-serve analytical tools that make research insights immediately usable by program staff, members, and the public\n, • Own a slate of recurring data products — including the annual impact report and periodic indicator updates on the Civic Committee's focus areas — on a predictable publication calendar\n, • Contribute to the organization's external communications strategy by providing research-driven content and analysis\n, • Present findings confidently in member meetings, public forums, and media contexts as needed\n\n \n Stakeholder & Partner Engagement \n\n • Build and maintain relationships with external research partners, academic institutions, think tanks, and data providers\n, • Serve as an embedded analytical partner to Policy & Programs staff — helping colleagues sharpen their questions, running the analysis, and delivering results in the form each team can act on\n, • Establish a simple, transparent process for how research requests from across the organization are surfaced, prioritized, and scoped against available capacity\n, • Support member engagement by providing research resources, responding to inquiries, and identifying opportunities to connect members to the organization's research agenda\n, • Coordinate with affiliated organizations — including the Civic Consulting Alliance and P33 — on shared research interests and joint projects\n\n \n Strategic Contribution \n\n • Participate in organizational strategy and planning processes, contributing a research and evidence perspective to priority-setting\n, • Advise senior leadership on data, trends, and developments relevant to the Civic Committee's Strategic Framework, and help build and maintain the measurement and accountability framework used to track progress against the strategic plan's key performance indicators\n, • Contribute to grant proposals, funder reports, and development efforts by providing research narrative and impact data\n\n \n Position Requirements \n Education and Experience \n\n • Minimum of 7-10 years of progressively responsible experience in research, policy analysis, or a closely related field\n, • Demonstrated experience personally designing and executing independent research projects from conception through publication, including doing the analysis and building the outputs directly rather than directing others' work\n, • Experience working in or with civic, nonprofit, or public policy organizations strongly preferred\n, • Familiarity with the Chicago region's policy landscape, key institutions, and civic ecosystem is a significant advantage\n, • Advanced degree (Master's or PhD, with PhD preferred) in public policy, economics, sociology, urban planning, political science, or a related field preferred; exceptional candidates with a Bachelor's degree and equivalent professional experience will be considered\n\n \n Technical Skills \n\n • Hands-on proficiency in quantitative data analysis, with demonstrated ability to independently execute analyses in Excel and in at least one statistical or scripting environment (R, Python, Stata, or SPSS)\n, • Experience with data visualization platforms (e.g., Tableau, Power BI, or similar)\n, • Demonstrated fluency with the public and administrative data sources relevant to the region — Census/ACS, BLS, state and municipal open data, and comparable sources — including the ability to obtain, clean, and combine data from multiple systems\n, • Strong command of secondary research methods, including literature synthesis and policy landscape analysis\n, • Proficiency with Microsoft 365 suite; familiarity with Salesforce or a comparable CRM a plus\n\n \n Required Personal Attributes \n\n • Exceptional written and oral communication skills, with the ability to make complex, data-heavy material clear to non-technical audiences in writing, in charts and visuals, and in live presentation\n, • High degree of intellectual curiosity and commitment to rigorous, evidence-based analysis\n, • Strong project management instincts — organized, deadline-driven, and able to manage competing priorities without sacrificing quality\n, • Collaborative spirit and ease working across functions and with senior leadership, members, and external partners\n, • The Director must have the capacity to welcome and respond constructively to feedback\n, • Genuine commitment to the Civic Committee's mission and to making the Chicago region a great place for everyone to live, work, and do business\n\n \n Competencies \n Aligned with the organization's Job Architecture framework, the Director of Research is expected to demonstrate Senior-level proficiency across the following organizational competencies: \n \n\n • Mission-Driven: Drives to mission and defines what it requires in practice; connects research priorities and decisions to organizational purpose\n, • Communication: Presents confidently to internal and external audiences; conveys complex, data-dense ideas with precision across written and verbal channels\n, • Relationship Cultivation & Management: Cultivates meaningful external research and policy relationships; mentors others in knowledge and relationship management\n, • Integrity: Serves as a visible standard-bearer for research integrity, intellectual honesty, and professional ethics; addresses quality or accuracy concerns directly and proactively\n, • Teamwork & Collaboration: Leads cross-functional projects and integrates research into policy, programmatic, and member engagement work\n, • Data-Driven Problem Solving: Sets analytical direction for the organization; develops research-grounded solutions and applies evidence systematically to institutional decision-making\n\n \n Working Environment \n The position is in Chicago. Regular travel within the city is required. We believe that the path to achieving our missions requires our organizations and teams to regularly collaborate, work in teams, maintain collegiality, and provide a space for thought-partnership, all of which are best accomplished in person. However, we also recognize that appropriate flexibility is beneficial to the effectiveness of our employees and our organizations. With that in mind, we offer opportunities for employees to work in a combination of in-person and remote work (“hybrid” option). \n \n Equal Employment Opportunity Statement \n The Club and its affiliated organizations are equal opportunity employers and do not unlawfully discriminate against employees or applicants for employment on the basis of any legally protected characteristic, whether actual or perceived, including, but not limited to, an individual’s race, religion, color, creed, gender, gender identity, gender expression, sexual orientation, national origin, ancestry, citizenship status, marital status, pregnancy, age, disability, genetic information, veteran status, order of protection status, arrest or conviction record, unfavorable discharge from military service, credit history, citizenship status, family responsibilities, reproductive health decisions, their (or their family members’) decisions regarding reproductive or gender-affirming care or other legally protected status. \n \n The organization prohibits the use of an individual’s residential zip code as a factor in any employment decision, including recruiting, hiring, promotion, compensation, training,
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