Research Director

About OpenMind

In recent years, our society has become increasingly divided. Rather than appreciating our differences, all too often, people are viewing the world through an "us versus them" lens. OpenMind works to address these issues by translating the best behavioral science research into practicable, scalable, and evidence-based tools that equip people with the mindset and skillset to communicate and collaborate across differences. Our tools are built for use in many contexts, including workplaces, universities, and communities.

OpenMind is a non-partisan, non-profit organization that was co-founded by the social psychologist Jonathan Haidt, the author of the bestselling books The Righteous Mind and The Coddling of the American Mind. Since launching in 2017, our online program has reached more than 45,000 people in more than 900 classrooms, as well as 100+ organizations and companies, across more than 15 countries.

About the Role

We are looking for a Research Director to spearhead OpenMind’s efforts to develop and validate evidence-based interventions to help people bridge divides. The Research Director will be part of the leadership team and will be responsible for developing and executing OpenMind’s research agenda.

The ideal candidate is a business-savvy Ph.D. with experience leading multi-modal research projects in organizational settings. The Research Director will be responsible for overseeing all aspects of research across the organization, including large-scale mixed-methods research projects with clients, developing assessments, overseeing randomized controlled trials, and leading our data analytics function. The Research Director will also work closely with our content and product teams to build the most effective learning solutions.

Key Responsibilities

• Develop and lead the organization’s research agenda, including budgets, timelines, hiring/recruitment, and team management
• Build and maintain research partnerships with external collaborators
• Oversee our research within organizations to inform our learning solutions design, including multi-modal research and randomized controlled experiments
• Advance our learning solution effectiveness by running mini-studies and user research, conducting literature reviews, reviewing the content’s scientific accuracy, and overseeing the data analytics function
• Keep up-to-date with trends and research in social psychology, conflict resolution, and behavior change design, and continuously incorporate into our content as appropriate
• Communicate OpenMind’s research externally through journal and report publication, conference presentations, and media interviews

Job requirements

Qualifications

• A Ph.D. in industrial and organizational psychology (I/O), social psychology, moral psychology, political psychology, positive psychology, or a relevant field
• 3-5 years of industry experience in people operations/analytics, organizational development, Learning & Development, or related area
• 10+ years of experience conducting qualitative research, developing assessments, running randomized controlled experiments, and conducting complex analyses using multilevel and mixed-effects modeling
• Successful track record of project and research team management
• Expertise in designing effective behavior change interventions
• A passion for making a difference through psychology
• Strong programming experience in R and/or Python
• Excellent written and presentation skills

Why Work With Us

• Fully Remote — OpenMind has always been fully remote, and we work hard to maintain a strong team culture across vast distances (our small crew is spread across six states and three countries)
• A Mission-Driven Culture — we practice what we preach, so we wear our values of intellectual humility, continuous learning, and non-partisanship on our sleeves
• Compensation — competitive salary starting at $125,000
• Unlimited PTO
• Other Benefits — $400/mo reimbursement for health insurance premiums/expenses, subsidized parental leave, 401(k) program (not matched), short- and long-term disability insurance, life and AD&D insurance, $1,000 annual professional development budget

OpenMind is an equal employment opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment and will not be discriminated against on the basis of race, color, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, religion, disability, age, genetic information, veteran status, ancestry, or national or ethnic origin.