The Federal Judicial Center (Center) is the federal courts' agency for research and continuing education. Congress established the Center in 1967 as a separate organization within the federal judicial system at the request of the Judicial Conference of the United States. A nine-member board, chaired by the Chief Justice of the United States, determines its basic policies.
MANDATORY QUALIFICATIONS: Ph.D. in a social or behavioral science discipline such as data science, economics, political science, psychology, or sociology or a J.D. At least two years of experience conducting policy-related research or working in a law-related area. DESIRABLE QUALIFICATIONS: A successful candidate will have a strong combination of the following qualifications. One position might be filled, for example, with a social scientist with strong methodological and analytical skills and experience conducting court-focused research, and another position might be filled with a lawyer with litigation experience, exemplary legal research and writing skills, and the ability to develop educational resources. Completion of graduate-level coursework in applied research methods, data science, and statistics; Knowledge of scientific research methods, principles, and techniques; Experience with designing and conducting court-focused research; Experience with writing law and data-based materials for professional audiences; Law practice experience, especially in litigation; Knowledge of federal court structure, governance, and operations; Strong writing and oral presentation skills; Strong interpersonal and communication skills, including the ability to work collaboratively with highly motivated and experienced professionals; Project management skills, including the ability to work independently to meet deadlines; Experience working with state or federal court data; Experience extracting and analyzing information from large datasets; Experience with statistical analysis programs such as SAS, SPSS, R, STATA and advanced features of Excel; Experience with data visualization applications such as Tableau; Advanced text analysis skills; Fluency with programming languages such as SQL, Python, and R; and Willingness and ability to learn new topical areas and research skills, as needed.
The Research Division conducts empirical research on the operation of the federal courts, especially at the request of committees of the Judicial Conference, and promotes such research by other public and private persons and entities. Its role is to provide accurate and objective information to facilitate thorough and candid analysis of judiciary policies, practices, and procedures. The Division's interdisciplinary staff designs and implements studies and prepares research reports, and also produces resources for judges and the judiciary on legal developments, case management, and other topics. DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES: The primary duties and responsibilities of a Research Associate are to contribute to the design and conduct of social scientific and law-related research aimed at identifying innovative or improved approaches to judicial administration in the federal court system, including appellate, district, and bankruptcy courts. Research associates, as part of project teams, carry out various research tasks and projects, including: Developing ideas and suggestions for new research projects; Conducting thorough social science and legal literature reviews; Designing and implementing qualitative and quantitative research using replicable; research processes; Creating data collection instruments, such as interview protocols, questionnaires, and instruments for coding information from electronic and paper records; Gathering data, assessing data validity, and synthesizing data into analytic data sets from structured and unstructured sources; Conducting and overseeing data and statistical analyses; Presenting research findings to diverse audiences within and outside the judiciary; Authoring research reports; Developing educational material grounded in law and social science research for judges and other court employees; Developing and maintaining relationships with stakeholders within and external to the Center; Providing constructive feedback on the work of colleagues across the division; and Performing other duties as assigned by the Director of Research. The position requires some travel.