The Role:  

The Director of Research and Impact will work closely with our Chief Academic Officer to set the long-term research vision for our organization. You will lead the effort in defining and measuring the impact of Newsela’s products and services. You’ll design and implement studies -- from the expected to the ingenious -- to measure the impact on engagement and learning of millions of K-12 students. The quantitative and qualitative results will inform our multi-year roadmap for our products and services. 

Why You’ll Love This Role:

You will have the opportunity to lead the research agenda of one of the most-used and greatly beloved education technology products in US K-12 education. On a daily basis, you will have access to the learning data produced by millions of users and the mandate to run multiple concurrent studies designed to prove-out hypotheses about what kinds of behaviors lead to the highest impact student outcomes. You will also have the opportunity to build a team designed to enable and scale the research agenda to maximum impact in 2021 and beyond.

Why We’ll Love You: 

You have 10+ years experience in learning science research, with numerous examples of how you led the successful design of learning studies that produced valid results, and how you communicated those results to leadership in order to inform product strategy and development. You’ve grown and led a high-performing team that worked in close partnership with stakeholders from across the organization (product, marketing, sales, technology, etc.) at a rapid pace to produce actionable results that were eagerly consumed by partners. Your team’s work has led to measurable improvements in the key outcomes that the product and services teams were responsible for. In addition to developing rich research studies and practices, you’re able to translate key findings and challenges to a variety of audiences, and can skillfully code-switch between technical and non-technical language to communicate product and research needs. You’re also an expert project manager, with a demonstrated ability to handle multiple concurrent workflows with both near- and long-term priorities and deadlines.

About Newsela:

One of the fastest growing tech companies in K-12 education, Newsela was founded on the principle that while every child may have unique learning preferences, they all deserve a rich learning experience that ignites a love of learning. We built our platform based on learning science research to deliver the most engaging, authentic content to modernize how teaching happens in the classroom. Along with interactive assessments and tools, we provide teachers with digital content at five reading levels -- from +100 of the best sources -- that is relevant to the diverse backgrounds and interests of their students. Since we started in 2013, we’ve become an essential solution for 90% of U.S. K-12 schools and serve +25 million users.