Founded in 2006, ITIF is an independent 501(c)(3) nonprofit, nonpartisan research and educational institute—a think tank. Its mission is to formulate, evaluate, and promote policy solutions that accelerate innovation and boost productivity to spur growth, opportunity, and progress. ITIF’s goal is to provide policymakers around the world with high-quality information, analysis, and actionable recommendations they can trust. To that end, ITIF adheres to a high standard of research integrity with an internal code of ethics grounded in analytical rigor, original thinking, policy pragmatism, and editorial independence.
The role
ITIF seeks an economic and technology policy research assistant to work on a wide range of issues related to technological innovation, productivity, and competitiveness. The analyst will identify, collect, and analyze data (it is a highly data-intensive position); conduct scholarly literature reviews; and draft reports, blog posts, and op-eds. The position will be based in Washington, DC, reporting to ITIF’s vice president of global innovation policy.
Key roles and responsibilities
- Help develop reports such as ITIF’s State New Economy Index and related international indices ranking nations on topics such as competitiveness, innovation, or aspects of trade policy.
- Locate, extract, manipulate, find patterns, and draw conclusions from public and private datasets.
- Compile and analyze data from national and international statistical economic databases.
- Write clear and incisive policy reports, op-ed articles, blog posts, and other materials on a broad variety of policy areas relating to innovation and economics.
Experience and skills
- At least a bachelor’s degree, if not a master’s, or equivalent skills, in economics, public policy, international economics, international trade, or a related field.
- Strong background in Excel, with an advanced understanding of statistics and data analytics.
- Demonstrated success as a careful researcher who detests errors.
- Exceptional writing skills—especially an ability to write clearly, succinctly, logically, and persuasively for policymakers and lay stakeholder audiences.
- Keen interest in technology, innovation, and public policy.
- Knowledge of business economics would be a significant plus.
- Working familiarity with the federal statistical system also would be a significant plus, including the data sets available from the Bureau of Economic Analysis, the Bureau of Labor Statistics, and others.
- Highly proactive and flexible, with an ability to work simultaneously on multiple projects in a dynamic, rapidly moving environment.
- Highly productive and efficient.
- Experience with statistical and visual programs such as R, Stata, and Tableau is a plus.