Careers

Current Job Openings:

We are hiring a Communications Associate to join CUNY ISLG’s growing communications department. The Communications Associate will play a critical role in helping the Institute grow and refine its communications practices and protocols, working with the Senior Communications Associate to manage a range of content releases, run our social media channels, oversee our blog, develop communications resources for the organization, and run point on other internal and external communications efforts.

This is an excellent opportunity for an entrepreneurial- and civic-minded, early-career communications professional interested in growing and applying communications skills in a public policy setting, and for a range of audiences that include government officials, community providers, funders, researchers, and the general public. This is also an excellent opportunity to develop an understanding of government policymaking in New York City and nationally, in a number of areas including criminal legal reform, racial equity, infrastructure, government operations, and finance.

The Communications Associate will report to the Senior Communications Associate and will closely work with them as well as project staff and other colleagues across the organization on a range of tasks. These tasks fall under four general buckets, and may include:

• Editorial & Content Development + Design

  • Guiding the editorial development—including outlining, editing, and proofing—of long-form products (i.e., reports, briefs) written by research and policy staff, to ensure they adhere to organizational standards, are cohesive, and are audience-appropriate

  • Drafting/editing supplementary products (i.e., blogs, fact sheets, e-blasts) that highlight the impact of our projects and organization overall

  • Flowing copy into branded templates (i.e., on InDesign)

  • Editing and updating content for CUNY ISLG’s website or sites it manages, aligning the website with changing context, needs, and trends in the field

• Social Media

  • Developing and posting regular content to CUNY ISLG’s Twitter/X, LinkedIn, and Facebook accounts, including the creation of graphics (i.e., on Canva) as needed

  • Monitoring and reporting analytics data on said accounts

• Dissemination & Publicity

  • Assisting in the external release planning for CUNY ISLG products, including

    • Crafting talking points and outreach that supports a project’s earned media strategy

    • Drafting/editing press releases and op-eds

    • Supporting sourcing outlets and reporters

• Growing Communications Capacity

  • Collaborating with project staff on new ideas, approaches, and tools for communicating with CUNY ISLG’s audiences

  • Helping develop organization-wide communications resources and protocols

This position is hybrid and based in New York City. CUNY ISLG staff work out of the Midtown office two days a week of their choosing; the Communications Associate would overlap at least one in-office day with the Senior Communications Associate.

We would love to hear from you if:

• You have a BA or higher (or equivalent experience) and 2-6 years of demonstrated professional experience in communications, journalism, public relations, copywriting/marketing, and/or social media

• You have excellent writing skills, including experience drafting original content as well as constructively editing the work of colleagues

• You are familiar with:

  • Content management systems, such as Squarespace and/or WordPress

  • Design tools (e.g., Adobe InDesign and Canva)

  • Major social platforms

• You can get up to speed with and quickly adopt CUNY ISLG’s “voice”

• You have knowledge of NYC’s social service, criminal legal, and/or related system landscape (not a requirement but a plus)

• You have excellent time management skills and experience working in deadline-driven environments

• You can prioritize and work on a number of tasks simultaneously

• You have an exceptional commitment to accuracy and attention to detail

This is a full-time position in New York City with a salary range of $65,000-$85,000 and excellent benefits, including:

• Comprehensive medical/dental/vision insurance

• Paid vacation and personal days

• Paid sick leave

• CUNY tuition reimbursement program

• Pre-tax benefits for transit and healthcare costs

• Family/parental leave

• Life insurance

• A retirement plan with employer contribution.

• Our staff also benefit from:

  • A positive work/life balance.

  • Opportunities for advancement within the organization.

  • Engagement with the broader CUNY network.

  • Working with organizational leadership who have years of significant public sector and policymaking expertise.

How to Apply

To apply, please visit https://www.rfcuny.org/careers/postings?pvnID=VB-2402-006110. You will need to submit a cover letter describing your qualifications and interests, and attach your resume. Questions can be addressed to info@islg.cuny.edu. 

We are hiring a Research Analyst to work on multiple projects, with key responsibilities in supporting the collection, management, and/or analysis of quantitative and qualitative data, and providing administrative support as needed. This is an excellent opportunity for a civic-minded professional interested in a public policy environment. ISLG’s research projects span government policymaking in New York City and nationally, and cover a number of areas including criminal justice, racial equity, infrastructure and transportation, government operations, and finance.  Broadly, our criminal legal research projects involve assessing implementation of reform efforts, tracking progress and impacts related to criminal legal system reform through performance metrics, project development, and grants management.

While the exact mix of projects will be determined based on need and candidate skills at the time of hiring, some examples of projects that the Research Analyst might be tasked with supporting are the following:  

Safety and Justice Challenge (SJC): Launched in 2015 by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, the SJC is a multi-year, nationwide effort to inspire local criminal justice reform and change the way communities think about and use jails. Since its inception, the SJC has relied heavily on data to develop reform strategies and assess progress toward initiative goals. This wealth of data presents a unique opportunity to understand the factors, circumstances, and practices that drive jail populations and the disparities that exist across the criminal legal system. CUNY ISLG serves as the primary data and analytic partner for the SJC initiative. In this capacity, CUNY ISLG collects and manages administrative data submitted at regular intervals by partner agencies, collaborates with and provides data to other research partners, produces performance metrics, and conducts analyses to assess SJC objectives such as reductions to jail populations and racial/ethnic disparities.

Comprehensive Opioid, Stimulant, and Substance Use Program (COSSUP): CUNY ISLG is the research and evaluation partner for an initiative funded under the Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA) through which five Pennsylvania counties are receiving funding and technical assistance to implement programs aimed at addressing substance use disorders (SUDs) and opioid use disorders (OUDs) and reducing overdose deaths among people under probation supervision and individuals recently released from incarceration. CUNY ISLG’s work consists of three interconnected workstreams: (1) a high-level process assessment of implementation efforts across the sites and the site-specific strategies within and across sites; (2) a performance measurement framework to track both cross-site and site-specific metrics over time; and (3) a quasi-experimental outcome evaluation to assess the impact of site strategies.

Building Data-Informed Decision-Making Towards Decarceration in Fulton County: Through Microsoft’s Justice Reform Initiative, CUNY ISLG is conducting a foundational data capacity-building initiative centered around the development and opening of the Center for Diversion and Services (CDS), an alternative drop-off option for law enforcement officers to use in lieu of the county and city jail for individuals experiencing behavioral health concerns. This initiative is comprised of three overlapping components: (1) a landscape review of pathways into and out of jail and associated data resources; (2) development of a performance measurement framework to set key performance indicators that can be tracked to better understand the jail population and impact of the Diversion Center; and (3) support for an accompanying data tool.

For the above projects and others, the Research Analyst will report to a Senior Research Associate or Program Director on a range of tasks depending on the project, which may include but are not limited to:

Research and analysis

• Carrying out literature, policy, and practice reviews;

• Developing, tracking, and interpreting performance metrics, including their policy and practice implications;

• Conducting descriptive quantitative analysis and potentially supporting higher-level multivariate analysis;

• Drafting interview, focus group, and/or survey questionnaires; assisting in the facilitation of interviews and focus groups; drafting and/or helping administer surveys; coding and analyzing qualitative data;

• Synthesizing and interpreting findings;

• Supporting the design and creation of reports, presentations, and dashboards or other types of data visualization for practitioner and policy audiences

Research development

• Conducting literature reviews and analysis to identify areas of opportunity in criminal justice research;

• Supporting the development of criminal justice research projects;

• Drafting portions of Requests for Proposals (RFPs) and supporting application and scoring processes

Grants management and administration

• Monitoring grantee progress in meeting research goals and objectives;

• Developing processes to ensure that grantees are meeting project milestones and deliverables;

• Reviewing budgets;

• Troubleshooting issues as they arise;

• Providing administrative support for projects as needed

Data management

• Developing data requests and data collection protocols for criminal justice agencies, community-based service providers, and other relevant organizations;

• Cleaning, coding, merging, and preparing administrative data files for analysis or transcribing and coding qualitative interview and focus group data;

• Developing codebooks, coding schemes, file specifications, and other resource documents

This position is hybrid and based in New York City. CUNY ISLG staff work out of the Midtown office two days a week of their choosing and the remaining three days a week remotely.

We would love to hear from you if you have:

• Bachelor’s Degree in criminal justice/criminology, psychology, sociology, public policy, or other related field;

• Experience in collecting and working with administrative data, particularly data from government agencies (experience with criminal justice data a plus);

• You are familiar with at least one quantitative statistical software package or language (e.g., Python, R, SAS, SPSS, STATA);

• Excellent time management skills and experience working in a deadline-driven environment;

• Ability to prioritize and work on a number of tasks simultaneously;

• An exceptional commitment to accuracy and attention to detail;

• Ability to work on a team, as well as independently;

• Flexibility and adaptability;

• Background/experience in any of the following is a plus, but not a requirement:

• Information technology

• NVivo or other qualitative software

• Tableau or other data visualization software

This is a full-time position in New York City with a salary range of $50,000-$60,000 and excellent benefits, including:

• Comprehensive medical/dental/vision insurance

• Paid vacation and personal days

• Paid sick leave

• CUNY tuition reimbursement program

• Pre-tax benefits for transit and healthcare costs

• Family/parental leave

• Life insurance

• A retirement plan with employer contribution.

Our staff also benefit from:

• A positive work/life balance.

• Opportunities for advancement within the organization.

• Engagement with the broader CUNY network.

• Working with organizational leadership who have years of significant public sector and policymaking expertise.

How to Apply

To apply please visit https://www.rfcuny.org/careers/postings?pvnID=VB-2404-006257. For this role, please submit a cover letter describing your qualifications and interests and attach your curriculum vitae. Questions about the position can be addressed to info@islg.cuny.edu.  Application review will commence immediately and continue until the position is filled.

We are hiring a Research Associate to support our work on a number of criminal justice projects in the Institute’s research portfolio. This is an excellent opportunity for a civic-minded professional interested in a public policy environment. CUNY ISLG’s research projects span government policymaking in New York City and nationally, and cover a number of areas including criminal justice, racial equity, infrastructure and transportation, government operations, and finance. Broadly, our criminal legal research projects involve assessing implementation of reform efforts, tracking progress and impacts related to criminal legal system reform through performance metrics, project development, and grants management.

While the exact mix of projects will be determined based on need and candidate skills at the time of hiring, some examples of projects that the Research Associate might be tasked with supporting are the following:

Safety and Justice Challenge (SJC): Launched in 2015 by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, the SJC is a multi-year, nationwide effort to inspire local criminal justice reform and change the way communities think about and use jails. Since its inception, the SJC has relied heavily on data to develop reform strategies and assess progress toward initiative goals. This wealth of data presents a unique opportunity to understand the factors, circumstances, and practices that drive jail populations and the disparities that exist across the criminal legal system. CUNY ISLG serves as the primary data and analytic partner for the SJC initiative. In this capacity, CUNY ISLG collects and manages administrative data submitted at regular intervals by partner agencies, collaborates with and provides data to other research partners, produces performance metrics, and conducts analyses to assess SJC objectives such as reductions to jail populations and racial/ethnic disparities.

Comprehensive Opioid, Stimulant, and Substance Use Program (COSSUP): CUNY ISLG is the research and evaluation partner for an initiative funded under the Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA) through which five Pennsylvania counties are receiving funding and technical assistance to implement programs aimed at addressing substance use disorders (SUDs) and opioid use disorders (OUDs) and reducing overdose deaths among people under probation supervision and individuals recently released from incarceration. CUNY ISLG’s work consists of three interconnected workstreams: (1) a high-level process assessment of implementation efforts across the sites and the site-specific strategies within and across sites; (2) a performance measurement framework to track both cross-site and site-specific metrics over time; and (3) a quasi-experimental outcome evaluation to assess the impact of site strategies.

Building Data-Informed Decision-Making Towards Decarceration in Fulton County: Through Microsoft’s Justice Reform Initiative, CUNY ISLG is conducting a foundational data capacity-building initiative centered around the development and opening of the Center for Diversion and Services (CDS), an alternative drop-off option for law enforcement officers to use in lieu of the county and city jail for individuals experiencing behavioral health concerns. This initiative is comprised of three overlapping components: (1) a landscape review of pathways into and out of jail and associated data resources; (2) development of a performance measurement framework to set key performance indicators that can be tracked to better understand the jail population and impact of the Diversion Center; and (3) support for an accompanying data tool.

For the above projects and/or others, the Research Associate will report to a Senior Research Associate or Program Director on a range of tasks depending on the project, which may include but are not limited to:

Research and analysis

• Carrying out policy and practice reviews;

• Conducting interviews, focus groups, and observations;

• Developing, tracking, and interpreting performance metrics, including their policy and practice implications;

• Conducting quantitative analysis, including descriptive analysis, and potentially higher-level multivariate analyses;

• Conducting qualitative analysis, including content analysis and development of themes;

• Synthesizing and interpreting findings

Using analysis to inform policy and practice

• Designing and creating reports, dashboards and other types of data visualization for practitioners and policy audiences;

• Providing technical assistance to government and community partners, as needed, to develop criminal justice reform strategies and build data and analytical capacity;

• Working closely with government partners and other project collaborators on all aspects of the work

Research development

• Conducting literature reviews and analysis to identify areas of opportunity in criminal justice research;

• Developing criminal justice research projects;

• Crafting Requests for Proposals (RFPs) and managing application and scoring processes

Grants Management

• Monitoring grantee progress in meeting the research goals and objectives;

• Developing processes to ensure that grantees are meeting project milestones and deliverables;

• Reviewing budgets;

• Troubleshooting issues as they arise;

• Liaising regularly with grantees;

Data management

• Developing data requests and data collection protocols for criminal justice agencies, community-based service providers, and other relevant organizations;

• Cleaning, coding, merging, and preparing administrative data files for analysis or transcribing and coding qualitative interview and focus group data;

• Developing codebooks, coding schemes, file specifications, and other resource documents

This position is hybrid and based in New York City. CUNY ISLG staff work out of the Midtown office two days a week of their choosing and the remaining three days a week remotely.

We would love to hear from you if you have:

• MA or PhD in criminal justice/criminology, psychology, sociology, public policy, or other related field;

• At least two years of experience (four or more years preferred) conducting research in an applied research setting;

• Experience in collecting and working with administrative data, particularly data from government agencies (experience with criminal justice data a plus);

• Excellent data management and analysis skills, quantitative and qualitative;

• You are familiar with at least one quantitative statistical software package or language (e.g., Python, R, SAS, SPSS, STATA);

• Strong background in criminal justice policy preferred, including an ability to translate analytical and research findings into policy and practice recommendations;

• Excellent oral and written communication skills, with the ability to convey complex research findings to broader audiences, and to develop clear, visually-compelling reports for government, non-profit, and private sector partners;

• Exceptional interpersonal skills with the ability to create and maintain excellent working relationships with government and community partners;

• An exceptional commitment to accuracy and attention to detail;

• Ability to work on a team, as well as independently;

• Background/experience in any of the following is a plus, but not a requirement:

• Information technology

• NVivo or other qualitative software

• Tableau or other data visualization software

This is a full-time position in New York City with a salary range of $65,000-$75,000 and excellent benefits, including:

• Comprehensive medical/dental/vision insurance

• Paid vacation and personal days

• Paid sick leave

• CUNY tuition reimbursement program

• Pre-tax benefits for transit and healthcare costs

• Family/parental leave

• Life insurance

• A retirement plan with employer contribution.

Our staff also benefit from:

• A positive work/life balance.

• Opportunities for advancement within the organization.

• Engagement with the broader CUNY network.

• Working with organizational leadership who have years of significant public sector and policymaking expertise.

How to Apply

To apply please visit https://www.rfcuny.org/careers/postings?pvnID=VB-2404-006258. For this role please submit a cover letter describing your qualifications and interests and attach your curriculum vitae. Questions about the position can be addressed to info@islg.cuny.edu.  Application review will commence immediately and continue until the position is filled.