Wild Student Researcher and Designer at New York Botanical Garden in Bronx, New York

Job description

• The New York Botanical Garden seeks a thoughtful, highly organized, and mission-driven WILD Student Researcher and Designer to support Workforce Innovation and Leadership Development (WILD), a two-year professional development initiative funded through the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) Museums Empowered program. Reporting to the Senior Director of Learning Operations and Strategy, this role serves as a research, evaluation, and program-design partner with primary responsibility for supporting Seeds of Growth and the evidence-gathering activities that help WILD remain responsive to staff needs.
• The Student Researcher and Designer helps translate staff experience into practical program improvements by supporting surveys, interviews, listening sessions, focus groups, microgrant documentation, project tracking, and analysis of participation and feedback data. The role will work with departments receiving Seeds of Growth microgrants, document what they implement and learn, and organize promising practices into clear summaries, reusable resources, presentations, and an end-of-project showcase.
• This position supports WILD's alignment with Museums Empowered Organizational Management Objectives 4.1 and 4.2 by strengthening management practices, evaluation, and workforce development across NYBG. It is well suited to a graduate student who combines applied research and analysis with strong writing, facilitation, project coordination, discretion, and an interest in using evidence to improve learning experiences in a complex, mission-driven cultural institution.

Responsibilities

• Support the WILD Project Lead in coordinating the Seeds of Growth microgrant cycle, including proposal timelines, applicant communications, informational materials, submission tracking, review logistics, award documentation, and follow-up with participating departments.
• Maintain project plans, timelines, trackers, files, and quarterly check-in records for Seeds of Growth projects to help departments meet milestones and document progress, challenges, learning activities, and outcomes.
• Prepare templates, guidance, and practical tools that help department teams define learning needs, articulate intended outcomes, document implementation, and share what they learned with colleagues across NYBG.
• Help design and administer surveys, interview protocols, focus group guides, pulse checks, and other feedback tools used to assess staff learning needs, participation, accessibility, confidence, and application of learning in daily work.
• Conduct and document selected interviews, listening sessions, focus groups, and project check-ins with professionalism, consistency, and appropriate attention to confidentiality and participant experience.
• Collect, clean, organize, and analyze qualitative and quantitative information, including participation data, LMS completion information, survey responses, department updates, manager observations, and other project evidence.
• Identify themes, patterns, participation gaps, and actionable findings, and help translate evidence into concise quarterly summaries, briefings, presentations, and recommendations for the WILD Project Lead and internal partners.
• Document selected Seeds of Growth projects as practical case examples and reusable resources, including project summaries, templates, implementation notes, lessons learned, and materials that can support adaptation by other departments.
• Support the Seeds of Growth end-of-project showcase and collaborate with the WILD Student Instructional Designer so participant feedback and evaluation findings inform revisions to Grow in Minutes and Sprout Library resources.
• Maintain accurate research files, evidence logs, project documentation, and grant-supported time records; handle staff feedback and internal information with care, discretion, and adherence to NYBG policies.

Requirements

• Current enrollment in a graduate program in organizational development, learning sciences, evaluation, social or behavioral research, human-centered design, public administration, museum studies, education, or a related field.
• Demonstrated experience conducting or supporting qualitative and/or quantitative research, including surveys, interviews, focus groups, data organization, analysis, and concise reporting.
• Excellent writing, editing, and communication skills, with the ability to synthesize complex information into clear summaries, presentations, recommendations, and practical resources for nontechnical audiences.
• Strong organizational and project coordination skills, including the ability to manage multiple timelines, follow-up items, records, and stakeholder communications with care and consistency.
• Ability to facilitate or support respectful conversations with staff and managers across varied roles and to gather feedback without over-interpreting or steering participant responses.
• Proficiency with Microsoft Office applications, especially Excel, PowerPoint, Word, Outlook, and Teams; experience with survey, analysis, or visualization tools such as Microsoft Forms, Qualtrics, Power BI, Tableau, SPSS, R, or comparable tools is helpful.
• Demonstrated attention to data quality, documentation, confidentiality, and responsible stewardship of internal information, including the ability to recognize limitations and uncertainty in evidence.
• Experience with program evaluation, organizational learning, employee experience, change management, or applied research in a museum, garden, library, university, nonprofit, public-service, or other mission-driven setting preferred.
• Interest in workforce development, equitable access to professional learning, digital literacy, and responsible use of emerging technologies, including AI, preferred.

Skills

Required

• Qualitative and/or quantitative research
• Survey design and administration
• Interview and focus group facilitation
• Data organization and analysis
• Concise reporting
• Facilitating respectful conversations

Benefits

• Payrate: $30 per/hour