Senior Manager, Qualitative Evaluation and Insights
About this role
Who We Are
The Constructive Dialogue Institute (CDI) is a non-partisan, non-profit dedicated to equipping the next generation of Americans with the skills to communicate and collaborate across lines of difference. We work with U.S. colleges and universities by providing co-curricular programming for students, professional development for faculty and staff, and strategic guidance to leadership. Our goal is to foster constructive dialogue at every level of the institution and to create the conditions for lasting organizational change. CDI was co-founded by psychologist Jonathan Haidt, the bestselling author of The Righteous Mind and The Anxious Generation.
The Role
CDI is seeking a rigorous, disciplined, and analytically sharp Senior Manager to serve as the qualitative expert behind our campus consulting work. Reporting to the Senior Director of Campus Culture Change, you will collect and code the interview, focus group, and survey data our engagements run on, and turn it into the findings our university partners act on.
This is a hands-on analysis role. You will run qualitative data collection across a portfolio of campus engagements, code consistently against CDI's shared frameworks, and hold the line on coding quality across projects. You will draft reports, memos, and client-facing narratives, and build the materials that carry findings to internal and external audiences. You will also partner with other team members to build qualitative case studies and institutional spotlights.
What You’ll Do
Research Design and Delivery
Collect and code interview, focus group, and open-ended survey data across a portfolio of campus consulting engagements, applying CDI's coding frameworks consistently from project to project.
Serve as lead liaison with the Research team and contribute to codeframe updates
Coordinate data collection logistics with campus partners, sequencing fieldwork around the academic calendar.
Measurement and Evaluation
Analyze qualitative and quantitative data to identify the themes, patterns, and findings that inform engagement recommendations and deliverables.
Own engagement deliverables: reports, memos, presentations, client-facing narratives
Present findings and recommendations to external stakeholders
Research Partnership & Thought Leadership
Build CDI's approach to assessing campus and Institutional Change Model consulting initiatives.
Conduct interviews and draft case studies that surface what is working across our campus partnerships.
Identify institutional spotlights for Culture Change projects, partnering with Communications.
Advise colleagues and partners on measuring organizational culture and the conditions for dialogue and open inquiry
Requirements
Who You Are
Required
A trained qualitative researcher. You bring 5+ years of applied qualitative research experience, or a graduate degree with substantial fieldwork, and you've run interviews and focus groups yourself.
Disciplined with a codebook. You code high volumes of data consistently and know which discrepancies to escalate and which to resolve on the spot. Experience with multi-coder QA or inter-rater reliability is a strong plus.
A clear analytic writer. You move from coded data to findings without overstating them, separate what participants said from what you infer, and integrate survey results with qualitative data.
Organized across a portfolio. You keep several engagements moving without losing track of which campus, which codebook version, and which deadline.
Grounded in organizational culture measurement. You assess culture beyond a single survey score, design approaches that combine interviews, documents, and survey data, and can explain what a given measure can and cannot tell us.
A steady partner to campus contacts. You coordinate with institutional research, academic leadership, and student affairs, and you plan around the academic calendar, not against it.
Credible across perspectives. You work with judgment across ideological lines, understand why nonpartisan restraint matters, and are motivated by CDI's mission.
Fluent with tools and AI. You're comfortable in qualitative analysis software (Dovetail preferred; Dedoose, NVivo, , or MAXQDA welcome) and use AI to speed up coding and drafting, while keeping interpretation in human hands.
What We Offer
A Mission-Driven Culture — our work culture genuinely reflects our mission, characterized by intellectual humility, continuous improvement, and open-mindedness
Unlimited PTO — recharge on your own schedule with unlimited paid time off, in addition to 13 company holidays
Health, Vision & Dental — health, vision, and dental plans, with CDI contributing toward your premiums each month
401(k) Match — invest in your future with a 100% match on your contributions, up to 3% of your pay
Professional Development — a generous annual budget to invest in your growth: build new skills, deepen existing ones, and stay inspired in your work
Remote Work Support — up to $500 reimbursed for home office equipment and up to $50/month reimbursed for home internet or cell phone expenses
The Details
Compensation: $101,000-$113,000
Location: Remote, must be based in the U.S.
Schedule: Full-time, flexible within U.S. time zones
Reports to:Senior Director of Campus Culture Change
Target start date: Jan 1, 2027
Highlights
CDI seeks a Senior Manager, Qualitative Insights & Evaluation to lead qualitative research and evaluation with colleges and universities, turning findings into guidance campus partners act on.
Originally posted on Himalayas