Founding Director, Workforce Intelligence Research (Part-Time)

About the Workforce Intelligence Lab (WIL)

The Workforce Intelligence Lab (WIL) is an applied research initiative focused on workforce intelligence for the construction industry and built environment: labor market visibility, workforce planning, compensation intelligence, labor scarcity analysis, workforce analytics, operational workforce interpretation, and regional workforce intelligence. WIL combines publicly available labor data, compensation trends, contractor growth indicators, workforce demand signals, and construction activity into operational workforce intelligence for construction firms and industry operators.

Learn more: https://wilinstitute.org

We engage experienced practitioners for both full-time employment and project-based contract roles, as applicable to the award and staffing model. Engagements are remote-first with travel as required for partner and field sites. We build ready teams for live grant and sponsored-research pursuits.

This opportunity is contingent upon grant or sponsored-project award and final staffing approval. Permission will be requested before including a candidate's name or resume in a proposal or funding package.

About the role

WIL is seeking a Founding Director, Workforce Intelligence Research to help build the operational and institutional foundation of the lab. This seat is a part-time strategic leadership role, not a traditional academic appointment and not a recruiting role. Full-time employment or a project-based contract may be scoped separately when an award calls for it.

The work focuses on workforce intelligence infrastructure, fellowship coordination, publication processes, research collaboration, methodology systems, institutional partnerships, and future grant and workforce-initiative opportunities.

What you'll do

Help coordinate and support the WIL fellowship ecosystem
Assist with workforce intelligence publication and reporting workflows
Help identify relevant grant, partnership, and workforce initiative opportunities
Support research coordination and contributor organization
Assist with university and institutional outreach
Help establish scalable operational research processes and documentation
Contribute strategic guidance on institutional growth
Support the long-term development of WIL as a workforce intelligence and workforce planning initiative

Requirements

Required

Experience in workforce development, labor market research, workforce analytics, grant coordination, university research programs, economic development, public policy research, research administration, or institutional partnership development
Experience in a workforce research organization, university research environment, workforce development ecosystem, labor market initiative, infrastructure workforce initiative, or economic development organization is highly relevant
Open to full-time employment or project-based contract engagement; remote-first with travel as partner and field work requires

Nice to have

Comfort with a part-time, flexible, remote founding role
Interest in building an applied lab rather than a staffing firm, a SaaS startup, or a purely academic institute