Job Description

Position Type: Full-Time, Onsite

Reports to: Director of Community Empowerment and Innovation

Location: SR1 C.O.O.L. Zone, Central Mississippi

Position Summary

SR1, a visionary nonprofit committed to advancing education, health, and technology for community empowerment, is seeking an Onsite Behavioral Scientist to support its SR1 C.O.O.L.™ Zone—a place-based, people-powered initiative that creates pathways to educational success, health equity, and community resilience. This position is fully onsite and rooted in the communities we serve, requiring the candidate to be an active presence across the cities of Forest, Morton, Lake, and surrounding areas in Scott County, Mississippi.

The Behavioral Scientist will work hand-in-hand with community members, students, families, educators, and partners to design, implement, and evaluate behaviorally informed strategies that support youth development, family engagement, health behavior change, and overall empowerment.

Key Responsibilities

Community-Rooted Behavioral Interventions

• Design culturally relevant, behaviorally informed interventions that respond to local needs and target real-world barriers to learning, health, and economic mobility.
• Work directly in SR1 C.O.O.L. Zone communities to build trust, understand context, and co-create solutions with residents, students, and stakeholders.
• Apply behavior change frameworks (e.g., Fogg Behavior Model, Nudge Theory, Social Norms) to community programs that support student success, family wellness, civic engagement, and more.
• Work with Technology Team develop positive technology behavior tools.

Onsite Engagement & Presence

• Maintain a regular and visible presence across key community sites (e.g., schools, neighborhood centers, community events, family homes when appropriate).
• Lead and attend community meetings, focus groups, workshops, and informal gatherings to gather insight and deliver behavioral strategies in a highly relational and accessible way.
• Serve as a trusted liaison between SR1’s strategic teams and the community, translating science into action.

Behavioral Research, Data Use & Evaluation

• Collect and analyze community-level behavioral data through qualitative interviews, observations, rapid-cycle testing, and behavior mapping.
• Monitor intervention effectiveness and iterate based on community feedback and outcome data.
• Produce user-friendly reports, storyboards, and visuals to communicate behavioral insights to non-technical audiences.

Capacity Building & Knowledge Sharing

• Provide training and support to SR1 educators, outreach staff, and local leaders to integrate behavioral science into everyday practice.
• Develop behavior-informed communication materials, nudges, and prompts tailored to diverse literacy levels and languages.
• Partner with internal teams working on health, multicultural services, early childhood, agriculture, and education equity to embed behavioral design across SR1’s ecosystem.

Ideal Qualifications

• Master’s or Ph.D. in Behavioral Science, Public Health, Psychology, Social Work, Behavioral Economics, or a related field.
• Minimum of 3 years of experience implementing behavioral interventions in underserved or rural communities, ideally with youth and families.
• Passion for place-based work and demonstrated commitment to showing up consistently and building local relationships.
• Skilled in behavior-focused data collection, ethnographic methods, or community-based participatory research (CBPR).
• Culturally responsive, multilingual (preferred), and deeply respectful of the lived experiences of marginalized populations.

Why This Role Matters

You will help bridge behavioral science and community empowerment to directly address real challenges and build real opportunity.

You will work on the ground, surrounded by the energy and insight of the families and youth you're impacting.

You will be part of an interdisciplinary and passionate team helping to transform lives through advancing education, health, and innovation.

You will make generational changes.

Compensation & Benefits

• Competitive salary aligned with nonprofit leadership positions
• Comprehensive benefits package including health, vision, dental
• Paid professional development and ongoing training
• Intrinsic compensation of impacting lives of youth and families in Mississippi

Please send a resume, a cover letter explaining your passion for onsite community engagement, and a sample of any behaviorally informed work to [email protected]. Use the subject line: Behavioral Scientist – C.O.O.L. Zone Application.

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