Product Manager, Poverty Platform
The Center on Poverty and Social Policy at the Columbia University School of Social Work produces cutting‐edge research to advance our understanding of poverty and the role of social policy in reducing poverty and promoting opportunity, economic security, and individual and family well‐being in New York City and the United States. The center offers an environment where professionals work collaboratively, think creatively, and produce work that has a social impact.
Reporting to the Center Director, the Product Manager will spearhead the development of a comprehensive, publicly available policy simulation platform that will allow users to manipulate policy parameters and poverty measurement inputs to return outputs on policies’ impacts on poverty and related outcomes in various formats (e.g., graphical, tabular, microdata). A unique aspect of this project is the intersection between robust policy simulations rooted in academic research and the construction of an advanced computational platform.
This is a full‐time, 100% grant‐funded position. Continued employment is contingent upon funding. Salary range is $130,000-$180,000.
This position will follow a hybrid schedule with 3 days on-site at the Columbia University School of Social Work in New York City.
Responsibilities include:
Intellectually contribute to the Center’s central goal and expand the Center’s technical, computational, and managerial capacity.
Develop and deliver the overall vision for the platform’s development and work with researchers and vendors to identify how to make the platform maximally effective in meeting the project’s goals over at least a two‐year period.
Lead the intersection between academic researchers developing policy simulations and the vendors responsible for translating the specifications of policy simulations and poverty measurement choices into a fully functional publicly available online platform.
Prioritize user‐centered design to create a seamless user experience informed by user testing and feedback.
Communicate and address challenges related to data structuring, algorithm optimization, and software development intricacies within the project's scope.
Serve as the internal project team's primary liaison to the vendor. Establish and maintain effective communication channels with vendors and other project partners.
Other duties as required.
We highly encourage candidates from groups that are historically underrepresented in academic research to apply.
Applications will be reviewed on a rolling basis, starting immediately.