Heron Power

Senior Director of Research

Birmingham, Alabama · Director

Sponsorship not specified$184k-$220kDetected 45 days ago

Data AnalysisAccessibilityProject ManagementResearchLeadershipCommunicationCollaboration

About the role

Senior Director of Research Reporting to the Managing Director of Programs.
Heron works directly with local organizations that are embedded in, deeply trusted by, and inherently driven by the voice and vision of their neighbors.
Heron works mainly in rural communities experiencing persistent poverty, systemic challenges, historic disinvestment, and a legacy of disenfranchisement.

Lead the development and execution of Heron's comprehensive research agenda across six program areas.
Serve as a key thought partner to executive leadership on research strategy, community selection, and data-driven decision-making.
Build and lead a high-performing research team, including hiring and managing a data analyst and additional research staff.
Collaborate closely with Community Partnerships Network, Outreach, and Investment teams to ensure research informs all aspects of Heron's work.
Partner with research institutions and experts to ensure data quality, accessibility, and usability.
Create user-friendly tools and guides that enable community partners and other communities to access, interpret, and apply community capitals data.
Maintain a comprehensive catalog of communities facing persistent poverty in the U.S.
Collaborate with staff to identify and recommend priority communities for development.
Develop reports that help communities anticipate and prepare for trends such as climate change, demographic shifts, and economic disruption.
Create expert-informed frameworks and toolkits communities can use to assess their vulnerability and build adaptive capacity.

Build Heron's reputation as a credible, innovative source of research and data on rural community health, persistent poverty, and community capitals.
Establish rigorous, equity-centered parameters for identifying candidate communities for Heron partnerships.
Track and report on the health of these communities over time using expert-supported methodologies.
Lead the creation of comprehensive community health profiles for each Heron partner community in collaboration with community members, regional experts, and Heron staff.
Research and document the critical systems (health, education, infrastructure, enterprise) and local community-based organizations that sustain community health.

Founded in 1992, Heron is dedicated to helping people and communities to help themselves.

This listing is sourced directly from Heron Power's careers page and normalized into a canonical job model.