Vice President [Slover Linett Audience Research, Chicago, IL]

Description

Job posting              

Vice President (new posting May 2016)

Slover Linett Audience Research—a national social research & consulting firm for the nonprofit cultural sector

About Us

Slover Linett Audience Research Inc. is a leading social research and consulting firm for the cultural sector, broadly defined to include museums of all kinds, performing arts organizations, science communicators, media enterprises, and cultural funders. Based in Chicago, we use the tools of social science research and evaluation to help our clients grapple with strategic questions in areas spanning programming, marketing, experience design, learning outcomes, community engagement, social impact, creative placemaking, and institutional strategy. We are researchers above all, but also consultants and facilitators, and we’re committed to making culture more responsive, relevant, and rewarding to more kinds of people.

For more information please visit our website at sloverlinett.com. (Note: We’re currently developing a new website.)

Job Description

We’re seeking a brilliant, creative, and energetic cultural leader to become a vice president in our Chicago office. You must have significant experience in the arts, the museum field, and/or cultural philanthropy as well as a passion for connecting culture to communities through social research. You may or may not identify as a research professional, but you must be able to help lead our team of social scientists in conducting rigorous, strategic research studies for, and consulting with, some of the most innovative and renowned cultural institutions, funders, and agencies in the US. You’re not just passionate about culture, creativity, informal learning, and community; you’re also excited about mentoring the next generation of game-changing thinkers in the field. You believe that public engagement in culture—from symphonies to science centers, art museums to public media—is a two-way street, and you understand how audience research and evaluation can empower communities to express their needs and ideals and co-create a more relevant future. This is your opportunity to have a national influence on ideas and practices in the nonprofit cultural system.

The vice president’s primary responsibilities will be:

• Conceiving and directing a wide variety of research, evaluation and consulting projects, from initial conversations to final reporting, presentation, and (in some cases) publication. Our process is highly collaborative both internally and with the client or funder; the vice president will work closely with our staff of PhD and masters-level social science researchers to design, implement, and interpret each study.
• Working with the firm’s senior leadership to develop new engagements with past, current, and new clients (including substantial proposal writing) and help set strategy for the firm.
• Playing a visible national role in the cultural sector and shaping and amplifying the firm’s voice in the relevant discourses, including by publishing, blogging, speaking at conferences, etc.
• Collaborating with the firm’s chief operating officer to help lead the Chicago office: managing and mentoring staff, building our knowledge-base across projects, and fostering experimentation and exploration on the foundation of our vision and principles.

Qualifications

The ideal candidate will have abundant experience and/or high-level training in several of the following four areas, and some level of competence and talent in the rest:

1. Cultural sector (museums, arts management, informal science learning, public media, cultural philanthropy, cultural policy, etc.)
2. Research & evaluation (social science methods, audience research, market research, program evaluation, user-experience research)
3. Consulting (working with clients, including senior-level communication; project management, including deliverables, budgets, and timelines; facilitating high-level visioning or brainstorming processes, etc.)
4. Staff management and mentorship

At least 10 years of work experience and a graduate degree are strongly preferred.  The successful applicant will:

• take an entrepreneurial approach and relish new challenges;
• be flexible and comfortable with change;
• have an ability to cultivate lasting relationships with clients and provide outstanding client service and thought-partnership;
• have excellent writing and editing skills, particularly in creating client-responsive, highly useful and readable reports;
• have experience working with diverse and underserved communities;
• have experience managing multiple priorities and negotiating conflicting priorities; and
• enjoy working with others in a collaborative, collegial team environment and be a positive and supportive colleague to others.

This is a full-time position located in Chicago. There will be regular travel for client meetings, research fieldwork, conferences, etc. (approximately 2 trips per month on average, but with significant variation). Salary will be commensurate with experience. In addition, we offer a competitive benefits package of vacation, holidays, sick days, health insurance, disability insurance, and profit-sharing. Our typical work week is 40–50 hours on average.

Other

Although we are seeking a vice president, we are also open to hiring at the senior associate level instead, e.g. for an excellent candidate who doesn’t yet have the leadership experience for the vice president role.

To Apply

Please e-mail a cover letter (within the body of the e-mail) and resume to Chloe Chittick Patton at jobs@slaudienceresearch.com. We are not seeking writing or report samples at this time. Please, no phone calls. We look forward to hearing from you.