Careers

Grants Manager

The Center for Guaranteed Income Research (CGIR) is seeking a Grants Coordinator (GC) to support CGIR’s Director, Award Development & Finance (AD&F) and Senior Management. CGIR has a rapidly growing $20M research portfolio of more than 20 awards and gifts. This position will report directly to our CGIR’s Director, Award Development & Finance and collaborate with CGIR’s Financial Support and Engagement Coordinator and Grants & Finance Administration team within the School of Social Policy and Practice (SP2).

The Grants Coordinator will work directly with CGIR’s research staff to support a range of research activities within the Center, both pre and post award. Such activities include supporting CGIR research teams during award setup and facilitating research partnerships with Co-PIs to support CGIR projects. This position also works in close collaboration with subcontractors and will partner with them to ensure smooth operations, information sharing, and overall compliance with School and University policies. In addition, the GC will provide critical financial and regulatory information to support CGIR research studies and staff throughout the study duration to inform project projections, workflow, and staffing allocations.

The GC will produce and distribute specialized monthly grant management related reports for each award and gift. Finally, the GC will provide support for research activities, including but not limited to overseeing and supporting the human subject payments process for all Guaranteed Income (GI) pilots in 30 plus cities with the Financial Support and Engagement Coordinator and Research Coordinators. This position will report to the Director, Award Development & Finance within the Center for Guaranteed Income Research, housed within Penn’s School of Social Policy and Practice (SP2).

Position is contingent upon continued funding.

Postdoctoral Fellowship

The Center for Guaranteed Income Research (CGIR) at the School of Social Policy & Practice at Penn is seeking to fill two Postdoctoral fellowships with scholars specializing in poverty, mental health/well-being, unconditional cash, or an adjacent area. The CGIR conducts applied cash-transfer studies in concert with community-based organizations and government stakeholders in order to add to the empirical scholarship on cash, economic mobility, and poverty. The successful candidates will be working with data from CGIR’s $24 million research portfolio that encompasses 34 mixed-methods research sites across the US.  

• The quantitative post-doc position will be working with primary data across the entire portfolio.

• The qualitative post-doc position will be working with narrative, photo, and video data from young people ages 16-24 who are enrolled in guaranteed income experiments in the US. 

Fellows will be working alongside the center’s co-founders and research scientists on pre-existing research designs but will be given the opportunity to craft their own research plan and publications using center data. Consistent with Penn’s postdoc policy, the initial appointment will be for a one-year term that may be renewed for a second year based on performance. Salary will be based on the University of Pennsylvania’s established postdoctoral stipend levels. Scholars will be provided with $2,000 annually towards personal research expenses. Penn’s postdoc policies, FY 24 salary range, and benefits can be found on the Office of the Vice Provost for Research site. Screening of applications will begin February 19th, 2024 and will continue until the positions are filled.

Application Instructions

Apply by either submitting the documents below through the CSWE website OR by sending the documents below to our Executive Director, Dr. Allison Thompson at thompa@upenn.edu and to our Co-Founders, Dr. Amy Castro at castro1@upenn.edu and Dr. Stacia West at west.stacia@gmail.com. 

Required Application Items:

• A one-page cover letter describing expertise related to the position.

• A CV (including papers and grants in progress or under review)

• 3 peer-reviewed publications (Papers at the R & R stage may be included).

• Contact information for 3 academic and/or research references. At least one reference needs to be from a direct supervisor, advisor, or dissertation chair (references will not be contacted until after first-round interviews, and candidates will be informed ahead of time)

Requirements and Qualifications

Applicants must have a PhD in social welfare, public health, sociology, or a related social science discipline by 5/15/24. Candidates who have passed their dissertation defense, but do not have a diploma yet are eligible to apply.  The postdoctoral fellowship on the quantitative team requires familiarity with primary data collection, RCTs, power analyses, and writing statistical analysis plans. The fellowship on the qualitative team requires experience conducting qualitative research studies, conducting in-person field work, a successful track record of drafting qualitative findings for peer-review, and research experience with young people.

Both fellowships require working in-person a minimum of two days per week, experience working in a team-based environment, comfort with community-based research, a strong track record of publications, demonstrated interest in poverty alleviation, and a willingness to travel to research sites around the US.