Director of Research

Director of Research

Full Time Regular Professional (Remote)

Company Overview

Founded in 1990, Kauffman & Associates, Inc., is an American Indian– and woman-owned management

consulting firm dedicated to uplifting American Indian and Alaska Native people, tribal and urban

Indian communities, and social sector programs. We value Indigenous knowledge and believe in the

inherent strength, resilience, and sovereignty of tribal nations to find community-led solutions

for intergenerational healing, wellness, and growth.

Our expertise spans diverse specialty areas, including behavioral health, public health, education,

and tribal affairs. We work closely with diverse stakeholders, combining stories of lived

experiences with data-driven insights, to drive positive change across Indian Country. At KAI, we

do work that matters!

Job Summary

The Director for Research is responsible for leading and sustaining planning, implementation, and

evaluation of a wide range of multidisciplinary indigenous research projects and strategic

initiatives across KAI service delivery to benefit American Indian and Alaska Native (AIAN)

communities. Counsels in advancing organizational capacity in the Indigenous Evaluation Framework

(IEF)1, and data collection, analysis and evaluation informed through Indigenous Ways of Knowing

and Tribal Oral Tradition. Advises applied research activities focused on community-based

initiatives, national evaluations, social marketing, and other evaluation components of client

contracts. The work in this position is predominantly intellectual and varied involving independent

research and evaluation across multiple contracts in education, health, behavioral health, social

work, human services, and client identified focus

areas. Effective collaborative teamwork is an essential skill in assisting with weaving together

programmatic and evaluative efforts. Demonstrated experience with managing federal grants,

contracts or initiatives is required.

Essential Job Functions

• Draw from Indigenous and Western evaluation frameworks to develop and implement culturally

responsive and adaptive evaluation approaches. Designs and plans evaluation models using

participatory processes including empowerment evaluation.

• Facilitates integration of indigenous research principles across all aspects of KAI service

lines and supports KAI Leadership in advancing indigenous research capacity including developing

and delivering ongoing professional development opportunities.

• Review and recommend for inclusion research components of grants for alignment with client

guidelines/expectations and with an eye to best practices and indigenous methods in research and

evaluation.

• From and Indigenous Evaluation Framework, conducts program evaluation and applied research of

various community-based initiatives and grant-funded projects which are primarily AIAN community

focused.

• Leads community engagement, participatory action research, and/or other strategies to implement

studies in partnership with AIAN communities.

• Apply rigorous analytic thinking in the collection and interpretation of quantitative and

qualitative data including grounded theory. Uses mixed methods and adaptive approaches to gather

information and write reports for programmatic, evaluation, and social marketing purposes.

• Lead the development of literature reviews, reports, technical memos, TA tools, issue briefs,

presentations, journal manuscripts and through multi-media formats.

• Experience with federal contracts or subcontracts, and providing high quality deliverables and

services, within budget and timelines, while coaching an effective team.

• Able to negotiate Federal OMB Clearance, Data Use Agreements, and Institutional Review Board

processes and documentation.

Secondary Functions

Secondary job functions include business development activities and continuously opportunities as

assigned, including presentations to potential clients on KAI’s capacities around indigenous

research and evaluation, meetings with project officers and other officials of funding agencies,

and participation in various meetings with strategic partners.

Additionally secondary functions include:

• Maintain a strong understanding of the literature, legislation, regulatory, and policy

requirements and tribal practice of indigenous research frameworks including tribal data

sovereignty principles.

• Provide individualized technical assistance and facilitate KAI colleague learning

areas of needs assessment, program evaluation, performance measurement, data collection and reporting,

data management, dissemination, and continuous quality improvement from an Indigenous Evaluation

Framework.

• Monitor activity relating to AIAN research which may include capacity building capacity of

federal grant readers to understand indigenous and tribal logic models, tribal IRB development and

data collection and evaluation practices with AIAN communities.

• Serve as a liaison indigenous evaluation subject matter expert (SME) to assigned organizations

and clients serving Indigenous communities including Tribes, Tribal organizations, and urban AIAN

organizations.

Specific Job Skills

• Ability to conduct work that is predominately intellectual in character and requires the

consistent exercise of discretion and judgment.

• Reflexively analyze and make recommendations for continuous organizational capacity improvement

with respect to indigenous evaluation research practice.

• Outstanding relational, teamwork, and cultural competency with colleagues, community members,

federal representatives, contractors, and clients.

• Excellent qualitative research including grounded theory and indigenous evaluation and practice,

and analysis skills as well as familiarity with quantitative research analysis.

• Excellent analytical and writing skills that include attention to detail as well as a grasp of

large conceptual frameworks.

• Ability to facilitate and direct onsite/offsite evaluation work using participatory evaluation

models such as empowerment evaluation.

• Ability to incorporate adult learning methods when training and providing technical assistance

to community.

• Effectively analyze and report, written and verbally, findings from research and

evaluation

Education and Experience Required:

• A Ph.D. in evaluation, psychology, health, social work, social services, or related

field.

• Demonstrated education/ experience conducting indigenous research and evaluation including

leading, conducting, and managing research and/or evaluation projects.

• Specific experience conducting research with mixed method qualitative and quantitative research

designs and methodologies with AIAN communities.

• At least 10 years demonstrated production of complex and high-quality work including federal

grant writing, administration, tracking deliverables and report writing.

• Experience with overall program evaluation and applied research of various community- based

initiatives including Data Use Agreements and conducting research in an AIAN setting with IRB

approval and/or tribal consent.

Preferred

• At least 5 years experience of personnel supervision in a AIAN tribal organizational setting

including creating and administering budgets.

• Demonstrated evidence of successful and creative project design, development, and

management.

• Demonstrated history of professionalism, teamwork, multi-cultural awareness and working with

diverse populations.

• Demands/Complexity
• The Director of Research shall be responsible for producing high-quality, timely contract

deliverables within budget. This individual will be assigned tasks that may at times be complex in

nature with overlapping deliverables and deadlines. The Director of Research exercises independent

judgment in matters of specialization within the discipline of social science. Work products will

be subject to review by project managers respective of contract once the Director of Research has

completed them.

• Supervisory Responsibility
• The Director of Research reports to the Vice President for Research, Evaluation, and Planning

but regularly will serve as the Point of Contact to coordinate assignments and deliverables

performed by Program Evaluators as well as support staff and

consultants.

• Contact with Others
• The Director of Research will communicate face-to-face, by email, and by telephone with the Vice

President for Research, Evaluation and Planning. The Director of Research also will communicate

face-to-face, by email, and telephone with respective project managers, other members of the team,

and other KAI staff and subcontractors as required. Interactions will include simple exchanges of

information, coordination of activities, receipt of assignments and other instruction, and regular

invitations to independent problem solving.

Job Conditions

The Director of Research will work remotely. The position will include travel, evening meetings,

extended hours, and interruptions from time-to-time. Close computer work for extended periods

of time will be required.

Disclaimer

This job description is not to be construed as an exhaustive list of all responsibilities, duties

and skills required of this position. All KAI employees may be required to perform duties outside

of their normal responsibilities from time to time, as needed, to meet the ongoing needs of the

organization.

Benefits Overview

• 80% company paid medical insurance premiums; portion of family paid
• 50% company paid dental insurance premiums; portion of family paid
• Vision insurance
• $50K company paid life insurance
• Partial internet reimbursement
• 15 days of annual leave in first year
• 100% Remote work
• Matching 401K with immediate vesting
• EAP