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Principal Clinical Research Scientist

Remote

Overview:

Crisis Text Line provides free, 24/7, high-quality text-based mental health support and crisis intervention by empowering a community of trained volunteers to support people in their moments of need.

Our mission is at the intersection of empathy and innovation — we promote mental well-being for people wherever they are.

Our vision is an empathetic world where nobody feels alone.

Our core values are at the heart of all we do: connect with empathy, center equity, get it done together, and reflect and evolve.
 

Why you should join our team: 

  • Our work is transforming the way people in pain access support at their fingertips
  • Our work is innovative in the crisis response space
  • Our dynamic, fun, and diverse culture
  • Our meaningful cause, led by empathy and innovation
  • Our strong values at the center of all we do
  • Our commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion
  • Our commitment to engagement and belonging
  • Our commitment to our employees and their holistic wellbeing
  • Our  value of work/life balance
  • Our growth mindset and prioritize professional development
  • Our leaders who truly care

What you will be doing:

The purpose of the Research & Impact department is to demonstrate and amplify Crisis Text Line’s impact for texters, our volunteer community, and broader society towards our mission of promoting well-being for people wherever they are. It is imperative that we demonstrate impact against our mission, and we consider it our duty to contribute solutions-oriented insights to the field of mental health together with an international network of affiliated partners committed to collective social impact in the context of the global mental health epidemic. The Research & Impact team serves the organization’s mission by championing the generation of compelling, evidence-grounded, data-driven content, resources, and tools for internal stakeholders and the broader mental health field. We achieve this by using AI/ machine learning and natural language processing to analyze our de-identified dataset of over 10 million conversations with texters in the United States; continuously assessing the impact of our efforts on texters, volunteers, and society; and combining our insights with publicly available data sources, to inform policy, practice, and systems change to reduce mental health inequities and improve wellbeing.

As a Principal Clinical Research Scientist within the Research & Impact team, you will contribute to foundational efforts to deliver a consistent flow of high-quality, insightful research aimed at demonstrating and optimizing the impact of Crisis Text Line’s service and improving practice, policy and the broader field of mental health support globally. You will provide subject matter expertise and collaborate with technical colleagues using  Natural Language Processing, Machine Learning, and analytic Artificial Intelligence models to monitor emerging trends and identify novel signals in crisis conversations so that we can generate near-real-time insights with a potential to improve the lives of  people in crisis. Reporting to the Senior Principal Research Scientist, you will have an explicit focus on clinical digital mental health quality assessment and metrics, and evidence undergirding our clinical policy and practice in partnership with the clinical team as well as the Chief Impact Officer. You will also work closely with diverse thinkers  and experts within and outside the organization to leverage the opportunity of more than 10 million crisis conversations to design and conduct research and generate insights to help people thrive. Collaborating with an international technical team, your work will have a clear overall impact through your technical leadership and influence across the organization; institutional research partnerships and collaborations; and cross-functional
internal partnerships with clinical, volunteer, user research, data analytics, engineering, product, and external-facing leadership teams. Promoting equity, diversity, inclusion, and the highest standards in research ethics, as well as deliberately highlighting various identities, particularly those of historically minoritized groups, is an explicit focus of our work.

Crisis Text Line is a fast moving, growing organization with a big vision and a critical mission. To serve our mission and vision, each role must be agile and flexible to meet the needs of the business, aligning their work with priorities as defined by their manager and team leaders.

Contribute to strategic cross-functional internal collaborations

  • Contribute to cross-functional relationships and collaborations to conduct strategic assessments, evaluations, and research. Solve ambiguous and complex problems related to the evaluation and measurement of clinical effectiveness. 
  • Deliver clinical leadership to demonstrate quality and effectiveness of Crisis Text Line’s service in collaboration with clinical team, Senior Principal Research Scientist, and Chief Impact Officer
  • Support strategic funding opportunities (contracts and grants) to optimize Crisis Text Line’s impact for texters, volunteers and society

Deliver clinical scientific research expertise for Crisis Text Line

  • Lead the design, conduct, and reporting of scientific research projects that use custom ML/deep learning/NLP pipelines to analyze conversational data pertaining to mental health crises. This encompasses work that uses Python with frameworks like scikit-learn, spaCy, NLTK, Hugging Face, TensorFlow, PyTorch, Transformers, Spark, and/or similar tools, use traditional ML and Large Language Model (LLM)/transformer architectures and related strategies to analyze large datasets. Provide conceptual leadership to the team to align research efforts toward cutting-edge research topics in the field of crisis intervention. Lead research projects on mental health crises; briefs related to mental health, coping, and volunteering; and mental health and support disparities in the United States and globally.
  • Proactively provide research methods expertise and mentorship across the Research & Impact portfolio, team, and organization. 
  • Conceptualize and write grants and scientific manuscripts that advance the field of NLP-driven research on mental health and crisis intervention. Serve as principal investigator (PI) on NLP/ML related mental health projects. Supervise team members in the production of scientific output including conference abstracts, conference papers, manuscripts, and grants.
  • Write research grants, briefs, memos, technical reports, and scientific manuscripts for peer-reviewed publications.

Qualifications:

  • Advanced training and experience in clinical psychopathology research, suicidology, computational psychiatry, or a comparable social or behavioral sciences field (PhD in research-oriented clinical psychology program strongly preferred)
  • Significant experience in programming languages used for data manipulation and computational statistics (such as Python, R, MATLAB, C++, Java, Go), and with SQL.
  • Deep knowledge and demonstrated experience using rigorous quantitative research methods, analyzing data using multiple approaches, and reporting recommended actions based on research results
  • Comprehensive experience with scientific manuscript preparation
  • Experience designing, writing, and submitting scientific research grants
  • Excellent skills in turning data insights into various formats for broad consumption (e.g. slides, briefs, blog posts, and talking points for executives, funders and the public)
  • Experience designing, implementing and managing complex research and evaluation projects
  • Understanding of qualitative research methods and basic ML theory and practice
  • Experience working in cross-functional or matrix teams
  • Excellent project management, communication, and presentation skills

Reliable High-Speed Internet Required: Must have a stable high-speed internet connection to support seamless remote collaboration, virtual meetings, online job tasks, etc.

The full salary range for this position, across all United States geographies, is $120,120 - $155,000 per year. The upper portion of the salary range is typically reserved for existing employees who demonstrate strong performance over time. Starting salary will vary by location, qualifications, and prior experience; during the interview process, candidates will learn the starting salary range applicable for their location. We pay competitively in the tech-forward nonprofit space and offer a robust benefits package.

Only candidates in the following states will be eligible for employment: CA, CO, CT, FL, GA, HI, IL, IN, IA, MD, MA, MI, MO, NJ, NM, NY, NC, OH, PA, TN, TX, UT, VA, WA.

Benefits:

Crisis Text Line employee  benefits are thoughtfully designed using an equity lens, acknowledging that we are all unique human beings with individual life circumstances that require flexibility and support. 

 Benefits include: 

  • 20 paid holidays including:
    • Federal  holidays like Juneteenth and Labor Day
    • Election day
    • Holiday break from Dec 24  through January 1
    • 2 renewal days 
    • 2 floating holidays  
  • Flexible  paid time off, including: 
    • 15 vacation days
    • 3 personal days
    • 7 sick days 
  • Medical, dental, and vision benefits for the staff member and family at no cost to the employee
  • 403B retirement plan (the nonprofit equivalent of a 401K): 3% contribution by Crisis Text Line to support building financial wellness,  regardless of personal contribution
  • 12 weeks paid parental leave (after 6 months of employment)
  •  Student loan repayment (after 2 years of continuous full time service)
  • Family support through a virtual childcare platform
  • Stipends/Allowances
    • Mental health  (Monthly) 
    • Internet Service (Monthly) 
    • Professional Development (Annual)
    • Wellness (Annual)
    • Home office setup (One time/First year)

(Benefits are only for US-based employees. International benefits may differ).

Crisis Text Line is committed to creating a diverse environment and is proud to be an equal opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, gender, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, national origin, genetics, disability, age, or veteran status. We provide reasonable accommodation to individuals who have a disability and meet the skill, experience, education, and other job-related requirements of the role to allow the individual to perform the essential functions of the job.



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