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About the Role
Join the 2025 AIA Firm Award Winner shaping a more sustainable future. LPA is a collective of designers, engineers, and researchers committed to tackling the biggest issues of our time. This role is ideal for someone trained in social science, design research, or another research field related to the built and natural environment who is interested in applying research to real world design challenges. Working across market sectors, the Junior Design Researcher will help interdisciplinary design teams better understand people, behavior, and the built environment and translate those insights into design. We’re looking for a problem seeker as much as a problem solver. This position focuses on research related to the built and natural environment and its application within the Architecture, Engineering, Interiors, and Planning industry.
Responsibilities
- Conduct literature reviews to gather, evaluate, and synthesize multidisciplinary research in response to project and research questions.
- Develop research briefs, presentations, visuals, and other resources that translate research findings into clear, digestible insights and practical implications that designers and clients can easily understand and apply.
- Look across projects and research findings to identify recurring patterns, opportunities, and questions worth investigating further.
- Help build LPA's internal research knowledge base, making previous studies, findings, and resources easier for teams to access and reuse.
- Help develop and refine research tools and methodologies that can be used consistently across projects.
- Support and facilitate pre-design research and stakeholder engagement, including surveys, interviews, workshops, and other methods for understanding user needs and behaviors.
- Support and coordinate post-occupancy evaluations (POEs), including outreach, data collection, analysis, and reporting.
- Analyze qualitative and quantitative data to identify patterns, themes, and meaningful findings.
- Work with design teams to establish measurable project goals and identify ways to evaluate design outcomes.
- Explore creative approaches to investigating research questions when established methods or data are not readily available.
- Communicate research findings and lessons learned through internal presentations and, as experience grows, external publications, presentations, and thought leadership.
- Perform other duties as applicable.
Requirements
- MS or PhD in environmental psychology, applied research, design research, social science, data science, or a related field
- Proficiency in Microsoft Project and Excel.
- Strong written communication and verbal presentation skills
- Experience with mixed-methods research
- Experience with online research tools
- Experience conducting literature searches or literature reviews
- Basic descriptive statistical or data analysis experience
- Data visualization or other graphic skills for communication of data
- Awareness of current research ethics and equity, diversity, and inclusion topics
- Entrepreneurial energy, comfortable with some ambiguity.
- Proactive attitude, prepared to ask questions, and always looking for opportunities to improve.
- Additional Research training or certifications
- Human Subjects Research Training (current certification not required)
- LEED, WELL, EDAC, or similar certifications
- Design or engineering training or certifications
- Experience in any of the following: GIS, Power BI, AI for research, research in AR/VR/XR, grant writing, Adobe Creative Suite
- Experience in or excitement to learn how to facilitate meetings and workshops
- Understanding of a typical architectural design process, from concept and schematic design, design development and construction documentation, construction, and post-occupancy.
- Education in or excitement to learn more about sustainability topics such as energy performance, carbon emissions, material impacts, and resiliency, and find ways for human-environment research to better inform sustainable design.
Skills
- Microsoft Project
- Excel
- Written communication
- Verbal presentation
- Mixed-methods research
- Online research tools
- Literature searches
- Literature reviews
- Descriptive statistical analysis
- Data analysis
- Data visualization
- Graphic skills
- Research ethics
- Equity
- Diversity
- Inclusion
- GIS
- Power BI
- AI for research
- AR/VR/XR research
- Grant writing
- Adobe Creative Suite
- Meeting facilitation
- Workshop facilitation
- Architectural design process
- Sustainability topics
- Energy performance
- Carbon emissions
- Material impacts
- Resiliency
Location
- California
- Texas
Work Type
- Full-time
Experience Level
- Junior
Education Level
- MS or PhD
Salary/Compensations
- Eligible for an annual bonus
Benefits
- Mentorship from Managing Directors, Design Directors, and senior team members across disciplines.
- Career development support, including professional development grants and in-house training.
- Ongoing education through LPA+U courses and Tech Talks focused on innovative, sustainable practices.
- 8 paid hours of volunteer time each year.
- Opportunities to propose and lead projects that impact your local community, including more than $1 million since 2015 in Habitat for Humanity builds, scholarships, and other pro bono community projects.
- Access to our Professional Development Grants program, created to encourage professional development and further LPA's collective knowledge as a firm.
- Health and dental insurance
- Retirement and financial planning
- Wellness initiatives
- Flexible work/life programs
About the Company
- LPA is an integrated design firm with offices in California and Texas, focused on creating forward-thinking, sustainable spaces that make a positive impact.
- We believe great design begins with great people, which is why we foster a supportive, collaborative environment where creativity, curiosity, and professional growth are encouraged.
- Our culture values diversity, promotes wellness, and supports a healthy work-life balance.
Equal Opportunity
- LPA uses E-Verify to confirm the employment eligibility of new hires.