Ascension is seeking an experienced Research, Audience Engagement & Insights Lead to support strategic communications, audience research, community engagement, and data-driven decision-making for the Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission’s Montgomery Planning Department.

The ideal candidate combines the skills of a communications researcher, audience insights professional, community engagement practitioner, and quantitative/qualitative analyst. This individual will help Montgomery Planning understand who it needs to reach, how different audiences prefer to engage, what barriers may limit participation, and how research findings can be translated into practical communications and engagement strategies.

This position is particularly important because Montgomery Planning communicates complex planning, development, and land-use matters to diverse communities. The Research, Audience Engagement & Insights Lead will help ensure those communications are informed by reliable evidence, representative audience insights, accessibility considerations, and equitable engagement practices.

The successful candidate will be analytical but also highly people-oriented. The role requires someone who can move comfortably between survey methodology, data analysis, focus-group facilitation, stakeholder engagement, executive presentations, and strategic communications recommendations.

The ideal candidate is a detail-oriented and highly organized professional who is self-driven, intellectually curious, responsive, and comfortable working in an environment where individual task orders may have different audiences, schedules, research questions, and deliverable requirements.

Summary of the Contractor Role

The Research, Audience Engagement & Insights Lead will provide senior-level research and audience-insights support across Montgomery Planning communications initiatives.

The position primarily supports Section V.C.1 – Communications Strategy & Support and Section V.C.6 – Data Gathering & Research for Communications Support of the Montgomery Planning On-Call Strategic Communications requirement.

The Lead will design and execute research that helps Montgomery Planning better understand residents, stakeholders, community needs, communications preferences, barriers to participation, and opportunities to broaden engagement in the planning process.

The contractor may be responsible for developing research plans; establishing research objectives and methodologies; determining appropriate sampling approaches; developing surveys; coordinating accessible and multilingual research; conducting quantitative and qualitative analyses; facilitating focus groups and listening sessions; synthesizing findings; and translating evidence into clear, actionable communications recommendations.

This individual must be capable of translating complex datasets and qualitative findings into practical insights that communications professionals, planners, executives, elected officials, and other stakeholders can understand and use.

The position will also support Montgomery Planning’s commitment to equitable engagement, accessibility, plain-language communication, and broader public participation, ensuring that research activities consider traditionally underserved and harder-to-reach audiences.

Because this is an on-call environment, the individual must be comfortable quickly assessing new task-order requirements, developing an appropriate research methodology, establishing timelines, coordinating stakeholders, and producing high-quality deliverables with limited supervision.

Day-to-Day / Task-Order Activities

The Research, Audience Engagement & Insights Lead is expected to:

• DESIGN comprehensive research plans defining objectives, research questions, methodologies, sampling strategies, timelines, stakeholder requirements, and expected deliverables.
• CONDUCT audience research to identify demographics, behaviors, communications preferences, barriers to participation, information needs, and engagement opportunities.
• DEVELOP statistically defensible surveys using appropriate sampling methodologies and question-design practices.
• COORDINATE survey administration across digital, telephone, in-person, or other appropriate channels based on the target population and task-order requirements.
• INCORPORATE accessible and multilingual research approaches to improve participation among diverse communities.
• PLAN focus groups, listening sessions, stakeholder interviews, workshops, and other qualitative research activities.
• DEVELOP recruitment strategies, moderator guides, discussion guides, questionnaires, participant materials, and facilitation protocols.
• FACILITATE focus groups, listening sessions, interviews, and stakeholder research sessions in an objective, professional, and inclusive manner.
• ANALYZE quantitative survey results using appropriate statistical techniques to identify patterns, differences, correlations, trends, and meaningful audience segments.
• PERFORM qualitative and thematic analysis of interview, focus-group, open-ended survey, and stakeholder-feedback data.
• VALIDATE research findings and identify potential limitations, biases, sampling issues, or data-quality concerns before recommendations are developed.
• SEGMENT audiences based on relevant demographic, geographic, behavioral, attitudinal, communications, accessibility, or engagement characteristics.
• SYNTHESIZE quantitative and qualitative findings into concise audience insights, communications implications, and recommended actions.
• TRANSLATE research findings into practical recommendations for messaging, communications strategies, outreach approaches, engagement tactics, campaigns, and content development.
• DEVELOP audience profiles, research reports, executive summaries, findings presentations, dashboards, charts, tables, and decision-support materials.
• PRESENT research findings and recommendations to Montgomery Planning staff, leadership, project teams, community stakeholders, and other audiences.
• COLLABORATE with strategic communications, public relations, planning, digital, creative, outreach, and project-management professionals to incorporate research findings into communications initiatives.
• ADVISE project teams on appropriate research methods, sample design, participant recruitment, survey design, audience segmentation, and interpretation of research findings.
• MONITOR research activities against established schedules, milestones, budgets, quality expectations, and task-order requirements.
• DOCUMENT methodologies, assumptions, research limitations, datasets, findings, and recommendations sufficiently to support transparency and reproducibility.
• PROTECT confidential, restricted, personally identifiable, or sensitive information obtained through research activities.
• CREATE accessible reports and presentations consistent with applicable ADA, WCAG 2.1 Level AA, and Revised Section 508 requirements.
• RESPOND quickly to changing research questions, new stakeholder requirements, emerging communications needs, and short-turn task-order assignments.

Core Competencies and Personal Characteristics

The successful candidate should demonstrate:

• Analytical curiosity and disciplined critical thinking
• Strong attention to detail and data quality
• Excellent organizational and planning skills
• Independent judgment and initiative
• Strong facilitation and active-listening abilities
• Cultural awareness and sensitivity when engaging diverse communities
• Ability to remain objective when collecting and interpreting stakeholder feedback
• Ability to work effectively in ambiguous or rapidly evolving environments
• Ability to anticipate research risks and develop practical solutions
• Ability to manage competing priorities and short-turn deliverables
• Strong professional judgment when handling confidential or sensitive information
• Ability to communicate complex research findings simply and persuasively
• Collaborative working style across multidisciplinary teams
• Commitment to accuracy, accessibility, equity, and high-quality client service

Tools and Processes

Depending upon the task order, the Research, Audience Engagement & Insights Lead may use:

Research & Survey Tools

• Qualtrics
• SurveyMonkey
• Alchemer
• QuestionPro or comparable survey platforms

Quantitative Analysis

• Microsoft Excel
• SPSS
• R
• Stata
• Power BI
• Tableau

Qualitative Research

• Microsoft Teams
• Zoom
• NVivo
• Dedoose
• MAXQDA or comparable qualitative-analysis platforms

Communications & Collaboration

• Microsoft Word
• Microsoft PowerPoint
• Microsoft Teams
• SharePoint
• Microsoft 365

Accessibility

• Microsoft Office Accessibility Checker
• Adobe Acrobat accessibility tools
• Accessible document-development practices
• WCAG 2.1 Level AA / Revised Section 508 principles