Job Description
Do your best work here.
Hopelab envisions a future where young people have equitable opportunities to live joyful and purposeful lives. As a researcher, investor, and convener, Hopelab is dedicated to fostering greater mental health and well-being outcomes for Brown, Black, and Queer young people.
Position Overview: Research Assistant
The Research Assistant is an entry-level role that supports Hopelab’s efforts in youth-centered research and translational science, focusing on understanding and improving the well-being of Black, Brown, and Queer young people. The ideal research assistant excels at research organization and is a compelling communicator of our work. Typical responsibilities include creating literature and landscape reviews, publicly sharing our research through written and verbal data presentations, facilitating recruitment of research participants, organizing and conducting focus groups and interviews, conducting descriptive qualitative and quantitative analyses, coordinating with external collaborators, supporting the development of IRB protocols, and supporting event planning for convenings with our partners. At its core, a successful Research Assistant does the following:
Keeps us organized – creates and administers effective systems and procedures that support our diverse research activities
Represents our work publicly – effectively and compellingly shares our results and their impact to public audiences
Builds and maintains relationships – is a trusted point of contact for our research participants and external collaborators
Enthusiastically takes on new challenges – learns quickly and adapts to rapidly evolving work demands
The Research Assistant will report to one of Hopelab’s Principal Researchers. They will primarily support the Research team, but also have opportunities to support other strategic functional areas where their skills align with the team’s needs.
Position Responsibilities
- Create and maintain overall research and project tracking documents, including timelines, meeting notes, deliverables, databases of key relationships, and other project resources
- Recruit, schedule, track, and engage research participants
- Coordinate the development and implementation of research activities, including project kick-offs, focus groups, individual interviews, and surveys.
- Participate in data synthesis processes that distill insights that are relevant and useful to the project goals and objectives
- Conduct, write up, and present landscape reviews, and academic literature reviews on key programs, technologies, organizations, individuals, and academic and popular literature relevant to Hopelab initiatives
- Present findings and perspectives related to our research through written and verbal professional communication outlets.
- Coordinate and assist with the development and scheduling of regular communications and presentations on research activities and findings for both internal project teams and external collaborators.
- Organize the assembly and storage of Institutional Review Board (IRB) documents and communicate with IRB officers on protocol submission requirements and documentation
- Support meetings, including set-up, note-taking, record-keeping, and follow-up items
- Support event planning for partnership convenings
- Manage internal evaluation activities related to our research and research partnerships
Required Education, Experience, and Skills
- A combination of education, relevant work experience, and/or training resulting in demonstrated ability to successfully complete the job tasks
- Typically, a Bachelor’s degree with academic studies in a relevant field (psychology, education, anthropology, sociology, public health, or health services research) is a plus
- Interest in learning about and applying health equity practices across research projects and protocols
- Experience with academic literature searches in the social and behavioral sciences, and with reference management tools, is a plus
- A confident user of common research project applications such as survey tools (e.g., Qualtrics), collaboration tools (e.g., Notion, Mural), and project management tools (e.g., Team Gantt)
- Strong project administration skills, including creation and upkeep of study protocols and instruments, and detailed tracking of project tasks, deliverables, and goals
- Strong research coordination skills, including coordinating planning processes and information sharing across multiple stakeholder teams
- Experience and enthusiasm for working in an interdisciplinary environment and learning about approaches from other fields
- Experience and comfort in communicating with diverse audiences, verbally and in writing
- Experience building relationships and partnerships and communicating sensitively with a wide range of stakeholder groups, including young people
- Experience coordinating essential communication with external collaborators
Term
This is a two-year, full-time, term-limited employment opportunity. Applicants must be able to begin in June 2026.
Compensation and Benefits
Hopelab’s compensation is tied to local job market data, so will differ by location. Here are some sample hourly rates for this role, commensurate with training and experience:
- SF Bay Area/NYC: Starting hourly rate ($35.65 – $40.11). Full range ($35.65 – $44.56).
- Los Angeles: Starting hourly rate ($33.87– $38.10). Full range ($33.87– $42.34).
- DC/Seattle: Starting hourly rate ($32.09 – $36.10). Full range ($32.09 – $40.11).
- Denver/Chicago/Sacramento: Starting hourly rate ($30.30 – $34.09). Full range ($30.30 – $37.88).
- Miami/Portland Oregon: Starting hourly rate ($28.52 – $32.09). Full range ($28.52 – $35.65).
Hopelab provides a generous benefits package that includes medical, dental, vision; internet stipends; wellness programs, including 8 therapy and 8 coaching sessions a year for you and dependents; paid time off; 401K contributions exceeding industry standards; all this, plus the opportunity to work with amazing colleagues to create a more equitable world for young people.
In-Person and Travel Expectations
San Francisco Bay Area is the preferred location for this role. This role requires some in-person time to best support collaboration with our internal team. The office and travel expectations are approximately as follows:
- Domestic travel 4-6 times per year for partnerships, conferences, and meetings with stakeholders.
- Quarterly week-long retreats in SF Bay Area (in addition to travel listed above).
- If located in the Bay Area, 1/day week working from our office in downtown San Francisco.
- All business travel is paid for by Hopelab.
The Application
Please apply with a resume and a brief cover letter describing how you’re a match for this role. As the first line of your cover letter, please indicate if you did or did not use AI in the writing of your cover letter and why. Applications are due by 11:59 p.m. PT Tuesday, February 17, 2026.
- Applicants must be currently authorized to work in the United States.
- Applicants may only apply to the Research Assistant position OR the Communications & Policy Assistant position. Applicants who apply to both roles will not be considered.
- To maintain an equitable hiring process, we do not offer informational conversations outside of the interview process. Please refrain from contacting Hopelab staff about this opportunity.
- All applicants will receive a response about their application when we have something to communicate: we will not be able to respond to individual inquiries about your application.
Commitment to Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion
Hopelab is committed to attracting and retaining a diverse staff and encourages people from underrepresented groups to apply. Hopelab is an Equal Opportunity Employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to age, race, ethnicity, religion, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, marital status, ancestry, disability status, protected veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by law. Employment offers will be contingent on a background check that is limited in scope and compliant with best practices for Fair Chance Hiring. All inquiries are held in strict confidence.
We may use artificial intelligence (AI) tools to support parts of the hiring process, such as reviewing applications, analyzing resumes, or assessing responses. These tools assist our recruitment team but do not replace human judgment. Final hiring decisions are ultimately made by humans. If you would like more information about how your data is processed, please contact us.
