Analyst - Impact Consulting

Rural Innovation Strategies, Inc. (RISI) is a social Impact Consulting firm that helps rural America build strong economies of the future. We partner with private and public sector stakeholders to support their economic development and connectivity goals. This position is within our broadband practice, which aims to ensure quality broadband is built to every home and is accessible to everyone in America.

Job Description

The United States is making a once-in-a-lifetime rural $42.5 billion investment in broadband. The RISI broadband team is at the forefront of ensuring this money creates long-term prosperity and impact for rural communities.

We are seeking strategic, analytical, and impact-driven consultants who want to apply a rigorous problem-solving approach to create impactful social solutions in a growing industry that is facing technological disruption. Analysts typically have at least two to three years professional work experience in consulting or other professional roles like business analysis or project management.

As an analyst, you will work across multiple client-facing projects and service offerings. Responsibilities vary by project but generally include:

• Support development of client deliverables and creation work products including reports, memos, and presentations.
• Gather and analyze data from desk research, client interviews, or senior subject matter expertise to identify gaps and recommendations.

• Research and analyze state and federal policy to extract insights relevant to clients and the practice.
• Monitor emerging trends in broadband technology and broadband enabled applications such as ag tech or utility load management
• Manage small projects, or workstreams, by setting up and tracking milestones and activities
• Practice proactive communication and problem-solving to reduce friction in collaborative projects
• Identify and escalate client project delivery issues and improvement opportunities

Supervisory Responsibilities:

• None

Requirements

Required Skills/Attributes:

• Thrives in fast-paced, ambiguous environments that demand accelerated learning and set high expectations for a professional work product quality
• Strong communication skills, particularly report and presentation writing
• Able to plan and project manage work and support collaborative workflow

• Demonstrates ability to work remotely with strong time management and personal organization skills
• Strong analytical and problem solving skills and can synthesize research targeted at multiple audiences
• Committed to RISI values that support cohesive teams: collaboration, humility, and empathy
• Strong belief that rural America can provide real economic opportunity to all people

Education and Experience:

• 2+ years of experience in professional services, client services, or consulting roles that required direct experience in solution-focused problem solving and working in project teams
• Proven ability to take initiative of projects
• Strong proficiency in productivity tools including presentations (Powerpoint, GoogleSlides), spreadsheets (Excel, Google Sheets), documents (Word, Google docs) and collaboration tools (e.g., Asana, Jira, or others). Technical aptitude to quickly learn new platforms
• Lived experience of the structural and economic challenges of rural America is preferred. Aligned with our mission to empower rural communities and elevate rural voices, we prioritize individuals who come to the work with authentic experience in small town America and ideally those who still live in a rural community. Therefore, Candidates should either currently or previously have lived in a rural area.

Location:

This is a fully remote position with up to 10% travel (6 trips per year on average) to rural communities across the United States, and to RISI headquarters in Hartland, Vermont.

Benefits

• Annual professional development allowance
• 100% employer paid health, dental, vision, and short-term disability insurance
• Five percent employer matched 401k after 90 days
• Home office set-up allowance
• Employee Assistance Program
• 15 days PTO (accrued) plus 8 floating holidays in lieu of Federal Holidays (pro-rated based on start date)
• The salary for this position is $60-70k depending on experience
  
  At this time we are not considering candidates from the West Coast due to time zone scheduling complexities. Must be authorized to work in the US - no sponsorship offered at this time.