Senior Longitudinal Survey Research & Operations Lead
Location: Remote — United States
Employment type: Contingent contract-to-hire
Anticipated start: Fall 2026, contingent upon federal contract award
Application deadline: July 20, 2026
About AscentCadre
AscentCadre is an SBA-certified Service-Disabled Veteran-Owned Small Business specializing in research analytics, healthcare data, statistical analysis, artificial intelligence, information security, and technical program delivery.
We are assembling a principal-led team for an anticipated federal longitudinal research engagement focused on Veteran outcomes. Our principals bring experience in military and healthcare survey analysis, medical research, statistical modeling, data engineering, artificial intelligence, cybersecurity, program management, and Veteran programs.
We are seeking one experienced longitudinal survey professional to complement that leadership team by owning survey field operations, participant engagement, multi-wave continuity, and research-reporting execution.
Position summary
The Senior Longitudinal Survey Research & Operations Lead will help design, manage, and continuously improve a large, multi-year survey program involving recurring data-collection waves and sensitive participant information.
This person will work directly with AscentCadre’s CEO, COO, CSO, and data science leadership. The role is not primarily a statistical modeling or data science position. Its primary purpose is to ensure that survey instruments, participant tracking, mixed-mode data collection, response management, field procedures, and annual reporting are executed rigorously and consistently.
The selected candidate will be identified as proposed key personnel in a federal contract submission. Selection will initially require a tailored resume, professional references, and a contingent letter of commitment. Employment and ongoing compensation are contingent upon contract award. Limited paid proposal or transition support may be requested before award.
Primary responsibilities
- Lead the operational planning and execution of recurring longitudinal survey waves.
- Manage mixed-mode data collection involving web, mail, telephone, and respondent-support channels.
- Review survey instruments for clarity, measurement validity, respondent burden, accessibility, skip logic, and longitudinal comparability.
- Develop participant-tracking, contact-management, reminder, escalation, and follow-up procedures.
- Establish procedures for preserving participant continuity across multiple years and collection waves.
- Monitor response rates, field progress, survey completion, returned mail, call outcomes, incomplete responses, and respondent inquiries.
- Develop strategies to reduce attrition, survey fatigue, unit nonresponse, item nonresponse, and systematic response bias.
- Coordinate survey programming, usability testing, pilot testing, quality assurance, deployment, and production monitoring.
- Establish consistent disposition codes and reconciliation procedures across web, mail, and telephone records.
- Work with data scientists to prepare survey data for statistical analysis, longitudinal modeling, nonresponse analysis, weighting, and bias testing.
- Support collection and structuring of open-ended responses and call notes for qualitative analysis and natural language processing.
- Develop interview scripts, respondent-support procedures, staff training materials, and escalation protocols.
- Supervise or advise survey coordinators, research assistants, call-center personnel, and temporary field staff as they are activated.
- Document methodologies, operating procedures, quality controls, assumptions, changes, risks, and lessons learned.
- Contribute to annual research reports, technical appendices, executive summaries, findings, recommendations, and presentations.
- Support compliance with applicable privacy, security, records-management, accessibility, and federal research requirements.
- Maintain defensible and reproducible records of survey decisions, instrument changes, field activities, and data-quality reviews.
Required qualifications
- At least seven years of professional experience in survey research, program evaluation, social-science research, public-health research, education research, or a closely related field.
- Direct responsibility for managing at least one longitudinal, panel, cohort, or recurring multi-wave survey study.
- Experience managing survey populations containing at least 1,000 participants, with preference for studies involving several thousand participants.
- Direct experience with mixed-mode survey collection using web, mail, and telephone methods.
- Demonstrated experience with participant tracking, follow-up operations, response-rate monitoring, attrition management, and nonresponse analysis.
- At least three years of experience preparing, managing, or making substantial contributions to annual or recurring research reports.
- Experience converting survey operations and findings into clear written documentation for government, healthcare, university, nonprofit, or executive audiences.
- Experience using at least one established survey platform or survey-management system.
- Strong understanding of survey-instrument design, skip logic, testing, validation, data quality, and longitudinal comparability.
- Ability to work directly with senior data scientists, researchers, technical personnel, and program leadership.
- Strong written communication, organization, documentation, and quality-control skills.
- Authorization to work in the United States.
- Ability to complete applicable background, confidentiality, privacy, and security requirements.
Preferred qualifications
- Graduate degree in survey methodology, sociology, psychology, public health, statistics, political science, program evaluation, education research, economics, or a related discipline.
- Experience supporting a federal agency, Veterans program, military population, healthcare program, disability research initiative, or workforce-development program.
- Experience with federal survey clearance or the Paperwork Reduction Act and Office of Management and Budget review process.
- Experience producing Section 508-accessible reports, tables, figures, surveys, or electronic documents.
- Experience with Qualtrics, Forsta, Confirmit, Voxco, REDCap, QuestionPro, Sawtooth, or comparable platforms.
- Experience managing telephone interviewers, respondent-support operations, print and mail vendors, or survey-processing vendors.
- Experience analyzing open-ended survey responses or preparing text data for qualitative coding or natural language processing.
- Familiarity with weighting, response-propensity modeling, imputation, sensitivity analysis, or longitudinal survey statistics.
- Experience developing reports or briefings for legislative, congressional, executive, or public-sector audiences.
Compensation
Limited pre-award consulting work, when specifically requested and authorized, is expected to pay $75–$105 per hour. No unpaid proposal-development work will be required.
Upon contract award, the anticipated full-time salary range is $120,000–$150,000 annually, depending on directly relevant experience, final responsibilities, and contract requirements.
No benefits are provided during limited pre-award consulting. Details regarding any post-award W-2 benefits will be included in the contingent employment offer before acceptance.
AscentCadre is an equal opportunity employer. Veterans, military spouses, individuals with disabilities, and candidates with experience serving Veteran populations are encouraged to apply.
Pay: $120,000.00 - $150,000.00 per year
Application Question(s):
- Have you managed a longitudinal or multi-wave survey study?
- Have you managed survey collection by web, mail, and telephone?
- Do you have at least five years of experience producing recurring research reports?
- Are you willing to sign a contingent commitment letter for a federal proposal?
Work Location: Remote
