Research Assistant (Housing and Communities Division)

About the role

The Housing and Communities Division at the Urban Institute seeks a DC-based research assistant (Step 1 / Research track) with strong quantitative, coding, and analytic problem-solving skills to work across its six practice areas.

Responsibilities

• Collect, clean, manage, and analyze qualitative and quantitative data, with particular emphasis on working with large administrative, survey, program, and other policy-relevant datasets.
• Write, run, document, and review reproducible code to manage and analyze data in software such as R, Stata, SAS, and/or Python; troubleshoot code and improve analytic workflows.
• Use AI tools responsibly and in accordance with Urban policies to support coding problem solving, identify possible approaches, check syntax, and make routine tasks more efficient while protecting confidential data.
• Produce basic and intermediate tables, charts, maps, and descriptive statistics; summarize key patterns and provide clear first-pass interpretations of data for research teams and nontechnical audiences.
• Support quality assurance by checking code, reviewing data outputs, documenting analytic decisions, reconciling results, and identifying inconsistencies or data limitations.
• Contribute to literature reviews, field work such as interviews and site visits, publications for different audiences, research proposals, events, project management, meeting summaries, and other tasks as assigned.
• Complete logistical tasks for research proposals, internal and external research events, and research management.
• Complete administrative tasks such as tracking project timelines, project reporting, taking and summarizing meeting minutes, and other tasks as assigned.
• Independently manage time and collaborate with teams to prioritize and complete multiple tasks.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree or associate’s degree with equivalent experience required, preferably in Public Policy, Urban Studies, Urban Planning, Data Science, Sociology, Economics, Statistics, Environmental Studies, Geography, Social Welfare, Education, Psychology, Business, or a related field of inquiry.
• Demonstrated quantitative research skills, including comfort with descriptive statistics, data cleaning, and basic data analysis.
• Experience managing, cleaning, merging, documenting, and analyzing large datasets; experience with administrative, survey, geographic, longitudinal, or other complex data is a plus.
• Experience writing, running, documenting, and reviewing code in statistical packages or programming languages such as R, Stata, SAS, and/or Python; willingness to learn new tools and follow team coding standards.
• Ability to produce clear tables, charts, maps, and other data summaries and explain what the results do and do not show.
• Sound judgment using AI tools to support coding and analytic problem solving, including awareness of confidentiality, data security, and the need to verify AI-generated outputs.
• Initiative to suggest improvements or innovations on assigned tasks, including coding, data management, workflow, and quality-control improvements.
• Strong time management skills and high level of professionalism, organization, attention to detail, motivation, creativity, and self-confidence.
• Ability to work effectively, both on teams and independently, and simultaneously on multiple projects with changing work assignments, deadlines, and team environments.
• Strong interest and/or experience in one or more of the following topics: housing and housing-related assistance programs, housing finance, homelessness, demographic and population studies, urban planning and land use, community economic development, city governance and public-sector capacity, climate change, environmental justice, housing and neighborhoods as a platform for other household and societal outcomes, structural racism, and inequality.

Skills

• Bilingual abilities, although not required, are a plus.
• Willingness and ability to travel when conditions make travel safe.

Benefits

No specific benefits section provided in the job posting.

Pay

The target salary range for this position is Min $52,520 - Mid $59,085- Max $65,650 and the current median $55,336.33. Salary offered is commensurate with experience and considers internal equity.

Schedule

The position is based in Washington, DC, and candidates who are able to follow a hybrid work schedule of two or more days per week in the office are strongly preferred.