Research Manager

Description

Who we are

The Central Texas Food Bank (CTFB) is the largest hunger-relief organization in Central Texas and a proud member of the Feeding America network. From its headquarters in Austin, CTFB serves a 21-county region on a mission to increase food access by providing nutritious food, leading hunger and poverty advocacy efforts, and transforming lives through programs, education, and innovative solutions.

Through a combination of direct-service programs and a network of approximately 250 nonprofit community partners, CTFB supports over 612,000 food-insecure individuals annually.

We offer a collaborative and community-focused culture that values Service, Integrity, Dignity, Collaboration and Innovation. We're seeking dedicated, mission-driven professionals to help us shape a healthier future for our neighbors. Join us in our vision of ensuring that all Central Texans will have immediate and equitable access to nutritious food.

Position Overview

The Central Texas Food Bank (CTFB) is seeking a Research Manager to lead the planning, coordination, and execution of community-based research efforts, with a primary focus on Community Needs Assessments (CNAs) and ongoing community-centered insights work. This role manages mixed-methods research from design through dissemination, facilitating community engagement that elevates diverse lived experiences through surveys, interviews, and focus groups, and ensuring timelines, tasks, and team contributions are clearly defined.

A strong background in community-based participatory research, facilitation, and public-facing communication is essential for success in this role.

Relationships

Reporting to the Director of Research, the Research Manager liaises with a broad group of external, multi-sector stakeholders, and community members with lived experiences to support community-based research initiatives and to elevate community voice. Internally, this role must nurture strong connections with colleagues on various teams and support a rotating group of volunteers and interns to prepare and communicate research findings and connect those findings to actionable solutions.

Requirements

Key Responsibilities

• Lead the planning, coordination, and execution of CTFB's Community Needs Assessments (CNAs) and other community-based research projects, ensuring clarity of scope, timelines, roles, and deliverables.
• Translate findings into actionable insights through clear, compelling presentations, briefs, and reports tailored for community organizations, policy makers, community members, internal staff, and other stakeholders.
• Facilitate community engagement strategies that elevate diverse lived experiences, ensuring meaningful involvement of neighbors and stakeholders in CTFB's research activities based on transparency, trust, and shared learning.
• Cultivate and maintain strong relationships with external CNA partners; navigate disparate viewpoints with diplomacy and respect while upholding principles of equity and fairness.
• Bridge research findings and priorities with emerging community collaboratives work and food-system planning.
• Stay informed about emerging research, best practices, food access trends - including new resources and tools from the Feeding America network - and integrate these insights to strengthen CTFB's research strategies and partnerships.
• Belief in CTFB's mission, vision, values and culture.
• Display a willingness and desire to work with people from diverse ethnic, socioeconomic and religious backgrounds.
• Display a commitment to service above all else.

Qualifications

• Master's degree in a relevant applied research field (e.g., Social Sciences, Public Health, Public Policy, Economics, Epidemiology) or Bachelor's degree with equivalent applied research experience.
• Minimum of 3 years of experience conducting community-based or applied research, preferably in a nonprofit, public sector, or service-delivery environment.
• Experience conducting mixed-methods research, including survey development, interviews, focus groups, and working with public datasets and administrative data.
• Demonstrated commitment to community-based participatory research principles, including centering lived experience, power sharing, and collaborative interpretation of findings.
• Proficiency in qualitative and quantitative analysis tools, particularly advanced Microsoft Excel and Qualtrics-familiarity with other statistical tools like R, SPSS, Stata is an asset.
• Strong ability to translate data into clear, actionable insights through reports, data visualizations, and presentations tailored to diverse audiences.
• Demonstrated skills in organization, project management, and time management, with the ability to coordinate multiple moving parts, manage tight timelines, adapt to shifting priorities, and maintain strong attention to detail.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills, including public speaking and facilitation.
• Verbal and written proficiency in Spanish required.
• Lived experience of food insecurity or…