ABOUT SWING LEFT

Swing Left’s mission is simple: we make it easy for people to maximize their impact on the most competitive elections to help Democrats win. Since launching in 2017, Swing Left’s one million members have raised more than $140 million for Democratic candidates, civic organizations, and voter mobilization efforts, and engaged more than 50 million voters door-to-door, by phone, and through handwritten letters. What makes us different:

• Swing Left is singularly focused on directing grassroots time and money to help Democrats win close races that will determine the balance of power in our government, from the White House to key state houses.
• We use data and technology to increase volunteer and donor impact by driving the right resources to the right campaigns, at the right time.
• We put people first, delivering a member experience focused on strategic action, not noise—no spam emails, texts, or doomsday messaging.

ABOUT VOTE FORWARD

Vote Forward is a nonpartisan organization that helps grassroots volunteers turn out citizens from underrepresented communities and encourage active participation in our democracy through high-impact voter engagement tactics. Since 2018, more than 250,000 grassroots volunteers have used the Vote Forward platform to send handwritten letters to more than 40 million prospective voters to encourage them to register to vote and turn out for elections. Vote Forward is affiliated with Swing Left.

JOB SUMMARY

The director of data and research ensures the effectiveness of voter-, volunteer-, and donor-facing programs by leading cross-functional and cross-organizational research and analytics projects. This role reports to the head of technology.

In this role you will:

• Directly supervise data and research staff and contractors; oversee their work and development
• Lead the process to set and integrate data & research team goals and to develop, prioritize, implement, and execute a thoughtful quantitative and qualitative research and analytics agenda to increase the efficacy of Swing Left and Vote Forward’s programs over the long term
• Lead research / analytics projects to support the development, execution, and evaluation of high-quality programs, such as randomized trials to evaluate program efficacy, analysis of on-platform user behavior, surveys, reports on program metrics and performance, and other methodologies as needed
• Communicate about findings and their implications to stakeholders, including colleagues, volunteers, partner organizations, and the public
• Prospect, develop, manage, and execute deep research and data partnerships around Vote Forward and Swing Left data, including working with external partners to conduct randomized controlled trials and to leverage data for messaging and other novel use cases
• Collaborate with academic and other external partners to improve the organization’s research and analytics knowledge and capabilities
• Define and oversee the building, testing, maintenance, and documentation of relevant data stores, tools, and infrastructure, in coordination with data and research, product, and engineering teams
• Collaborate with stakeholders in the development and submission of research grant proposals

REQUIREMENTS

We’re looking for someone with:

• A strong interest in and alignment with the distinct missions and values of Swing Left and Vote Forward
• 6+ years of experience in data science, data analysis, statistics, or comparable roles in industry, academic, non-profit, and / or political organizations
• 3+ years of experience leading and managing analysts, data scientists, analytics engineers, or other technical contributors in data disciplines
• Strong cross-functional communication skills, including the ability to explain complex technical concepts to diverse technical and non-technical audiences in written and verbal formats
• Experience and expertise in one or more types of experimental design, including large-scale randomized controlled trials and more rapid research methods (e.g., product A/B testing)
• Experience and expertise in one or more of the following:
  • Conducting polling and survey-based modeling, including advanced sampling / weighting techniques
  • Overseeing product and user analytics for modern web applications
  • Constructing reports and dashboards in modern business intelligence (BI) tools to measure performance of programs
• Experience with modern data science and analytics tools, including cloud data platforms (e.g., GCP / BigQuery, AWS / Azure, Snowflake), SQL, coding languages (e.g., R, Python), pipeline orchestration tools (e.g., Dagster, Airflow), and data transformation tools (e.g., dbt)
• Curiosity about or familiarity with using large language models to derive structured insights from messy, unstructured datasets
• Experience navigating and developing large-scale technical systems and code bases
• Experience with agile project management for small teams
• Experience managing and coordinating external partners and vendors on complex technical projects
• A learning mentality and the ability to pick up new skills quickly
• Commitment to equity and belonging across all identities, including but not limited to race, gender, sexual orientation, age, and ability; ability to hear, reflect, act on, and learn from feedback related to identity and equity
• Excitement about joining and contributing to a culture rooted in impact, innovation, and ambition

LOGISTICS

Hiring Process:

• Applications will be reviewed on a rolling basis
• The priority deadline to apply is February 6, 2026, but applications will be accepted until the posting is closed
• We plan to begin interviews in February and are aiming for a March start date
• We will communicate about our expected timeline as the process progresses, and all candidates will receive communication from our team regarding their application status

Compensation:

• The pay range is $130,000 - $135,000/year

Benefits for Full-Time Employees:

• Medical, dental and vision insurance: 100% of the premium paid for employees and 50% for dependents
• Health and dependent care FSA accounts
• Employer-paid life and disability insurance
• Retirement plan
• Professional development and remote work stipends
• Unlimited time off (with parameters around time off in the time leading up to Election Day) and flexible medical & parental leave policies
• Our office is closed for approximately 25 business days each year

Location and Working Hours:

• This position is a full-time, exempt, and remote position based in the United States. We are an entirely remote team with staff located across the country
• We expect employees to be available for virtual meetings and asynchronous collaboration during normal business hours, and sometimes outside of these hours for events or other peak moments
• Some travel is expected for this position, including for occasional in-person meetings

We are happy to answer any questions you have about our benefits and policies in interviews.

We are an equal-opportunity employer and seek applications from all qualified candidates who are eligible to work in the United States. However, we are not able to sponsor visas at this time. We use E-Verify during onboarding to complete the I-9 Employment Eligibility Verification.

We welcome all applicants regardless of age, citizenship, gender identity or expression, national origin, pregnancy status, race, religion, sexual orientation, veteran status, or any other differences.