Fellow, Good Jobs Innovation Lab
Position type: Part-Time (up to 30 hours) Contractor, 1-Year Term
Reports to: Good Jobs Innovation Lab
Location: Oakland, CA area preferred (PCV has office space in Downtown Oakland. This job can be largely remote, with the expectation that the team will intentionally get together several times a year to collaborate.)
Salary: $60 – $70 per hour, contingent on experience
Are you passionate about building a more equitable society through restorative capital and inclusive entrepreneurship? Are you skilled at leveraging qualitative and quantitative insights to tell meaningful stories? Are you a recent college graduate, MBA, MA or MS seeking a career in economic research for social justice research?
PCV is thrilled to offer a one-year fellowship program to accelerate your career in field-building applied research to drive social change.
About PCV
PCV is a 25-year-old nonprofit CDFI that is invested in the success of historically excluded communities and small business owners to build and grow their businesses, create good quality jobs that address racial and gender wealth gaps, and build community wealth for shared prosperity. Our approach is unique. PCV’s Small Business Lending and Advising teams connect entrepreneurs to the pre- and post-investment expertise, and restorative capital they need to grow their businesses to help local economies thrive. PCV’s new Good Jobs Innovation Lab wraps around these teams using applied research, product design, and impact evaluation to design increasingly effective products and services for the communities we serve.
What You Will Do
In this role, you will be responsible for performing applied research to understand the personas and good jobs journeys of our small business clients – to better inform the design and development of CDFI lending products and technical assistance services that support good jobs and racial wealth-building outcomes.
The Good Jobs Innovation Lab leverages behavioral economic frameworks coupled with leading-edge qualitative research techniques. Experience performing culturally competent, research in community, and familiarity with efforts to re-think research design to become more inclusive, and less extractive, would be an asset in the role.
Our ideal candidate is a data storyteller – someone who can leverage Tableau to create powerful infographics and provide meaningful narrative and insights to advance the field’s capability to better serve BIPOC and female-identifying small business owners.
What You Will Gain
- Authorship recognition for articles, blogs and knowledge products developed in your role.
- Opportunities to present research in public forums, including PCV’s Lessons from the Lab webinar series.
- 1:1 coaching for career development with PCV’s CIO.
- Networking opportunities to build relationships with community groups.
Core Projects
The fellow will support the Good Jobs Innovation Lab’s inaugural research agenda: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1_24SX3zqIduAa5QJci_k_3n0HZO89oSg/edit#slide=id.p2
Pacific Community Ventures will also be launching its Good & Green Jobs agenda in Q4 2023, and familiarity with the clean energy deployment landscape is a plus.
We expect the Fellow to embrace the following
- Lead the writing, design, and development of PCV knowledge products with a focus on digital storytelling, publications, and data visualization.
- Conduct primary and secondary research to measure and evaluate best practices, innovations, and interventions as a part of PCV’s innovation R&D framework.
- In collaboration with business line leads, support the design and implementation of improved products and services to achieve good job outcomes through restorative investment and quality mentorship/technical assistance experiences provided to small business entrepreneurs.
- Support the CIO in cultivating and speaking with donors, policymakers, and ecosystem partners – primarily other CDFIs and community organizations – by surfacing data-driven insights to drive innovative concepts for improving job quality access for BIPOC entrepreneurs and their workers.
- Help represent the PCV Good Jobs Innovation Lab and network at community events and conferences.
Qualifications, Skills & Experience
- 3+ years of work experience in applied research or related role, including internships.
- College degree or master’s degree (preferred) or relevant experience in a related technical field such as business analytics, economics, public policy, political science, applied statistics or related field.
- Excellent writing and communication skills, and ability to translate technical information to non-technical audiences.
- You are a self-starter who is comfortable with ambiguity, asks thoughtful questions, and can translate unclear situations/business requests into clear, actionable next steps.
- Working proficiency with Tableau or similar data analytics tool and/or confidence in ability to learn new data ecosystems and tools quickly.
- Passion for social justice, community development and/or entrepreneurship.
Location/Travel
PCV’s office is located by the 19th Street BART Station in Oakland, CA. PCV works largely remotely and gathers for team activities determined by team and manager. Preference is for candidates located in the San Francisco Bay Area and available to meet in-person periodically for collaborative work and strategy planning
To Apply
Interested candidates must be legally authorized to work in the United States. To apply for this position, send a resume and cover letter to: HR@pcvmail.org, by July 31, 2023. Please include the title of “Fellow, Good Jobs Innovation Lab” in the subject of your email.