Director, RAND Pardee Center for Longer Range Global Policy and the Future Human Condition

Pardee Center Director

In today's world of fast-paced change, good policy analysis is more vital than ever but often more difficult to provide. To help address this challenge, the Pardee Center serves as RAND's laboratory for innovation associated with Decision Making Under Deep Uncertainty (DMDU). The Director uses the Pardee Center's funding to assemble teams and catalyze research into enhanced methods, to seed new projects enabled by these methods, and to disseminate DMDU methods within and outside RAND. The Pardee Center sits within RAND's Global and Emerging Risks (GER) division and engages with the whole of RAND.

The Pardee Center Director position provides an exciting opportunity for a creative, collaboration-oriented researcher to make a major contribution to the future of policy analysis and to further expand the DMDU community of interest within and beyond RAND. The Center's endowment supports about one person year annually of discretionary funding to allocate in pursuit of the Center's goals. Center funds provide about 35% to 40% coverage for the Director for research, outreach, business development, and Center management. The Director allocates the remainder of the Center's annual funding to fellow RAND staff to assist with these goals. The Director is expected to spend the remainder of their time on other research projects, some run by the Center and others run by GER and other RAND divisions. The Center regards DMDU methods as central to GER's and RAND's work in longer-term policy analysis as well as to RAND's research on systems transitions, systemic risk, and analytic deliberative processes of stakeholder engagement. The Center values both conceptual research that advances scientific understanding as well as hands on work with concrete policy impacts.

Specific responsibilities include :

• Proven ability to develop and fund a research agenda
• Conducting pilot research projects
• Scholarly and general audience publications
• Concept development and fund-raising
• Staff development particularly for early career staff
• Holding conferences and workshops
• Liaising with the international DMDU community, and speaker series

Qualifications :

Education Requirements :

Master's or PhD in a related field

Experience :

Equivalent to a RAND senior researcher with experience leading multi-disciplinary research projects, raising project and endowment funding, with teaching, and with outreach to policymakers and the public. Experience teaching and conducting outreach to policymakers and the public strongly preferred.

Location :

Santa Monica, CA; Washington DC; Pittsburgh, PA; Boston, MA

Salary :

Full Researcher : $115,400 - $190,000

Senior Researcher : $152,700 - $262,500

Hiring ranges for Economists, Management Scientists and Physician Researchers are slightly higher than the range shown. At RAND, the research program management role is a termed assignment that is performed by an experienced researcher, but the researcher role is not a termed position. The candidate selected for this role will be offered regular employment with RAND as a researcher. RAND considers a variety of factors when formulating an offer, including but not limited to, the specific role and associated responsibilities; a candidate's work experience, education / training, skills, expertise; and internal equity. Successful candidates will be offered employment as a Full or Senior researcher in a specific title, as determined by the candidate's education and experience. The salary range includes base pay plus RAND's sabbatical pay (which provides compensation above base pay when vacation is taken). This position may also be eligible for additional compensation. RAND provides strong benefits including health insurance coverage, life and disability insurance, savings plan, paid time-off, and more.

Applications will be reviewed starting November 18th, 2025

Equal Opportunity Employer