Careers at MDRC
Working at MDRC
MDRC fosters a collegial and harmonious work environment that values diversity and promotes productive and fulfilling working relationships.
A Diverse, Multidisciplinary Staff
We believe that recruiting and retaining a diverse workforce of all backgrounds and perspectives improves the quality and relevance of our research, as well as the daily experiences of our staff. By fostering an equitable culture of inclusivity and belonging, we seek an environment in which staff feels welcomed, valued, and engaged in their work.
MDRC’s staff of more than 300 are multicultural and multidisciplinary, with diverse professional backgrounds and experience. We employ research assistants, economists and statisticians, sociologists and psychologists, public policy analysts and behavioral science experts, demographers and ethnographers, educators and urban planners, program operations and survey specialists, editors, accounting and budget specialists, IT systems analysts and programmers, and human resources professionals.
The Cutting Edge of Social Policy Research Methods
MDRC conducts experimental studies using methods that provide the best evidence to build knowledge in the social and education policy fields. It is not enough to find out what works; research must learn why and how programs work. MDRC is known for large-scale studies using random assignment and other rigorous quantitative methods, but our staff also call upon an array of qualitative techniques—ethnography, case studies rooted in field research, surveys, focus groups, classroom observations, case file reviews, and in-depth interviewing—to complement our quantitative analyses.
Get to Know MDRC Staff: Leigh Parise
In this four-minute video, Leigh Parise, Associate Director of Program Development and a senior K-12 researcher, describes how her experiences as a former elementary school teacher and the head of a nonprofit championing school-aged kids inspire her work at MDRC.
Opportunities to Realize Your Professional Potential
MDRC encourages and assists our employees in their professional development. MDRC staff work in interdisciplinary project teams with leading social policy researchers, learn to employ innovative methodologies, and contribute to published reports. Through a formal mentoring program, experienced staff orient employees to MDRC and advise them on advancing their careers.
Our Research Technology Unit provides on-the-job training in SAS programming, report production and presentation software, data management, statistics, and qualitative data management and analysis. Lunchtime forums keep the staff abreast of the latest research and policy developments.
Competitive Salaries and Excellent Benefits
- Group major medical, hospital, dental, and life insurance
- Prescription drug program
- Pension plan, fully paid by MDRC
- Generous vacation package
- Paid family leave
- Benefits for domestic partners
- Adoption benefit
MDRC complies with all federal regulations for Transparency in Coverage (TiC) in connection with our employee health plans. Access TiC machine-readable files.
The Hiring Process
Learn what to expect from the MDRC recruitment process.