Senior Qualitative Researcher

TRC Advanced Energy (TRC), a nationally known consultancy, is seeking an experienced researcher to lead qualitative and mixed-methods studies focused on clean energy programs, technologies, and policies.

When you join our team as a senior researcher, you will both lead projects teams and contribute to business development to help expand TRC's clean energy customer experience work. Your work will explain how energy-related decisions are made throughout the market-by homeowners, businesses, government agencies, schools, developers, contractors, manufacturers, and others. You will be responsible for the design and execution of rigorous, creative, and insightful primary and secondary research that helps shed light on how customers and market actors make these decisions. You will work with your team to provide insights that inform our clients' strategic business decisions, helping positively impact markets and develop new products/services related to energy efficiency, distributed energy resources, electric vehicles, micro grids, home automation, storage, and a range of other clean energy solutions.

You will be joining our team at an exciting time, as we combine our long history supporting energy efficiency and demand response with teams focused on emerging tech, distributed energy resources, microgrids, storage, electrification, and resiliency. We are looking for a candidate who is excited to help chart this future with us.

The ideal candidate will be assertive, personable, and a self-starter, with the capacity to manage multiple tasks across multiple teams. This position requires the ability to communicate effectively and coordinate with internal technical team members and external customers and who is not afraid to dive into new types of work. The preferred location for this position is Seattle, WA, but we are open to candidates nationwide. Remote working is currently in effect.

TRC is committed to promoting diversity and equity within clean energy sector. Different backgrounds and perspectives are essential to the utility of the future, and we are committed to actively developing opportunities for candidates of color and from under-represented groups in the field of energy research and evaluation. We strongly encourage that diverse candidates apply to this position.

JOB DUTIES: Responsibilities include but are not limited to the following:

Design and implement innovative customer and market research studies.
Lead our team in implementing state-of the-art qualitative research methods.
Train and oversee junior staff in designing and conducting in-depth interviews, focus groups, observational research, surveys, and other customer research methods.
Work with clients to understand their needs and how research can help them.
Work with multidisciplinary teams to integrate mixed methods research results into clear, actionable findings.
Present results to clients and help them understand how to implement changes based on our research.
Present on areas of expertise at industry conferences, webinars, and other outlets.
Contribute to proposals and other business development activities.
Help identify and pursue opportunities for customer and market research to the next generation of clean energy offerings.

QUALIFICATIONS:

Requirements

Education: Advanced degree (Masters or PhD) with a focus on Evaluation, Environmental Analysis, Sociology, Public Policy, Psychology, Anthropology, Education, Social work, Human Factors, or other relevant degrees.
Bachelors may be okay only if there is 6+ years of experience in our specific industry.
Experience: At least 4 years of experience conducting applied qualitative research, specifically with a focus on customer experience. Your experience should include use of a qualitative analysis tool such as NVivo or MAXQDA.

Skills:

You must be able to lead team-based research projects that incorporate qualitative customer research methods.
You must have expertise and ability to oversee junior staff in designing, conducting, and analyzing results from in-depth interviews and surveys.
You must have strong track record working with clients to communicate research methods and findings.
Excellent writing and presentation skills.

Nice to Have

Expertise in designing and conducting surveys, data analysis, focus groups, field observations, ethnographic and anthropological research, usability testing, online qualitative research, content analysis, segmentation, persona development, journey mapping, and other structured research methods.
Experience with utilities and/or clean energy programs, technologies, or policies.
Professional market research experience.
Exceptional business acumen.

Other

Eligible to work in the United States.

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