T4America Blog

Now hiring: Economic Analyst

Smart Growth America seeks a skilled, experienced Economic Analyst with two to six years experience to conduct technical and quantitative analyses regarding a wide variety of issues associated with the built environment and transportation, including economics, real estate, social equity, and the environment. The Analyst will report to Smart Growth America’s Vice President for Economic Development, and work across a number of SGA programs, including the National TOD Technical Assistance Program, the Rural Development program, and other transportation and community technical assistance programs.

Position description
An ideal candidate has a complementary set of skills—a quantitative mindset with exceptional data analysis skills, and background and experience applying this to policy research. This position will provide evidence-based advice, building on leading-edge research, to policy makers across the country about how and why to build sustainable communities. This position will also support work providing technical assistance in economic development and community revitalization. Initial projects potentially include: Fiscal analyses of alternative development patterns; market analyses to determine market demand for different development products at a particular development site; value capture potential for transit-oriented development; analysis of revitalization plans for a small town downtown; analysis of impacts of changes of transit routes; and, analysis of the economic impacts of a complete streets project.

Responsibilities

• Developing research proposals including scopes of work and budgets
• Conducting fiscal impact analyses and refining SGA’s fiscal impact model
• Analyzing metropolitan development and real estate market trends
• Analyzing affordable housing strategies/policies
• Estimating revenue potential of various “value capture” plans to finance new transit or other community benefits
• Analyzing local market, demographic, regulatory and other factors affecting revitalization, and participating in the creation, drafting and presentation of revitalization strategies
• Writing reports, and preparing and/or delivering presentations

Requirements
A successful candidate will have a demonstrated interest in urban planning issues, and care about changing America’s built environment. Candidates should have the confidence and ability to independently design, manage, and conduct multiple research assignments with minimal supervision, while working in a collaborative environment. Candidate should have two to six years of related experience; a graduate degree in urban planning, economics, real estate, or geography would be ideal. In addition, candidates should have the following skills:

• Most important: a quantitative mindset with exceptional data analysis skills, experience with ESRI’s ArcGIS; familiarity with descriptive and inferential statistics (esp. regression analysis), and with statistical packages (SPSS, Stata, R). Ability to apply statistics to inform overall analysis and policy recommendations. Ability to use MS Excel for moderate to advanced data analysis (pivot tables, macros, moderate-to-advanced Excel functions). Familiarity with MS Access, databases, and SQL highly desirable.
• Analyzing and synthesizing large amounts of data to the most salient points. Familiarity and ability to use key data sets. This includes familiarity with U.S. Census data, as well as various transportation statistics from US DOT (Bureau of Transportation Statistics), state, local, and MPO data sets. Ability to find key data sets, download and process the data, and prepare data for analysis. Ability to interpret and assess trends in large data sets.
• Real estate market research; real estate financial analysis and projections using advanced Excel; and fiscal analysis.
• Conducting research and writing proposals; writing professional reports and delivering presentations.
• Detail-oriented and motivated to be accurate.
• Strong writing skills.
• Ability to prioritize and efficiently deal with multiple assignments, a “self-starter”, capable of learning on the job when necessary, ability to work in teams.
• Dedication to achieving smarter growth.

Compensation, location and time frame
Salary commensurate with experience. This is a full-time position based in Washington, DC. Benefits include health insurance, 401(k), and paid vacation and sick time.

How to apply
Please send a resume, cover letter, three references, and two short writing samples (no more than two pages each) to jobs@smartgrowthamerica.org, with “Economic Analyst” in the subject line. Applications will be accepted immediately on a rolling basis until the position is filled.

Equal Opportunity Employment
Equal opportunity and having a diverse staff are fundamental principles at Smart Growth America. Employment and promotional opportunities are based upon individual capabilities and qualifications without regard to race, color, religion, gender, pregnancy, sexual orientation/preference, age, national origin, marital status, citizenship, disability, veteran status or any other protected characteristic as established under law.