Policy Research Scientist

Flock Safety is an all-in-one technology solution to eliminate crime and keep communities safe. Our intelligent platform combines the power of communities at scale – including cities, businesses, schools, and law enforcement agencies – to shape a safer future together. Our full-service, maintenance-free technology solution is trusted by communities across the country to help solve and deter crime in the pursuit of safer communities for everyone.

Our holistic public safety platform is comprehensive and intelligent, providing the actionable evidence needed to solve, deter and reduce crime across neighborhoods, schools, businesses and entire cities. Without compromising transparency or privacy, we are turning unbiased data into objective answers.

Flock strives to offer a career-defining experience where you can also make an impact on your community. While safety is a serious business, we are a supportive team that is optimizing the remote experience to create strong and fulfilling relationships even when we are physically apart. Our group of hard-working employees thrive in a positive and inclusive environment, where a bias towards action is rewarded. 

We have raised over $700M in venture capital from investors including Tiger Global, Andreessen Horowitz, Matrix Partners, Bedrock Capital, Meritech Capital Partners, and Initialized Capital. Now surpassing a $7.5B valuation, Flock is scaling intentionally and seeking the best and brightest to help us meet our goal of reducing crime in the United States by 25% in the next three years.

As Flock Safety continues to innovate and expand, our development of sophisticated technology—especially in areas like drones as first responder, license plate readers, and other public safety tools—has made it crucial to stay ahead in the policy landscape. Are you a self-motivated research professional who wants to work on innovative technology that helps solve crime? Flock Safety needs someone who will own the numbers – making sure that our work, our products, and our messaging are data driven and backed by research. We want to better understand the impact of Flock on crime and clearance rates for communities and our law enforcement partners. This role will accomplish this by serving as the internal expert on existing research in this field while also partnering with external researchers to help the industry get a better understanding of the impact of public safety technology. If you have experience working with large, complex datasets to tell compelling stories and want to help shape the policy that governs our industry, this role might be the perfect fit for you. This position is based out of your home office with minimal travel required.

• You have a degree in Economics, Public Policy, Statistics, Social Science, or a related quantitative field.

• You are experienced with a data manipulation language, such as R or Python.

• You have 4+ years of experience in data analytics, economic or management consulting, or a related quantitative role, including experience communicating findings and analyses to non-technical audiences.

• You are comfortable conducting statistical analysis (e.g. hypothesis testing, regressions).

• You understand how to create effective data visualizations to present data or findings.

• You have experience deriving insights from large datasets to address ambiguous problems.

• You are interested in public policy issues that affect the public safety technology industry.

Feeling uneasy that you haven’t ticked every box? That’s okay; we’ve felt that way too. Studies have shown women and minorities are less likely to apply unless they meet all qualifications. We encourage you to break the status quo and apply to roles that would make you excited to come to work every day.

We are a results-oriented culture and believe job descriptions are a thing of the past. We prescribe to 90 day plans and believe that good days, lead to good weeks, which lead to good months. This serves as a preview of the 90 day plan you will receive if you were to be hired as a the Policy Research Scientist at Flock Safety. 

Overall Objectives in First 90 Days:

• Research

  • Get a handle on the most up to date research in the field of public safety technology and its impacts on law enforcement solved rates, crime rates, and community safety. 

  • Understand the metrics and studies used by Flock detractors in each area of pushback (privacy, over-policing, equity, AI concerns) and identify gaps in the research and alternative studies.

  • Take control over current research projects (UTC/UT on efficacy, NPI final phase, UT-SA and San Diego)

  • Map out a strategy for future research projects and how to use research to support marketing, communications, and government affairs

• Data Analysis

  • Drive forward the collection of data from our customers about how they’re successful with Flock and use that data to better inform our understanding of success

  • Expand our data-driven metrics of success, ala speed to clearance rate, total clearance rates, clearance rates per devices

  • Set goals for business units to help reach our top level impact targets (i.e. what is our “Path to 50% crime solved”)

• Growth Strategy

  • Identify strategic opportunities for asymmetric impact growth

  • Lead 2-3 cross functional initiatives that drive forward our impact metric

We want our interview process to be a true reflection of our culture: transparent and collaborative. Throughout the interview process, your recruiter will guide you through the next steps and ensure you feel prepared every step of the way. 

1. Our First Chat: During this first conversation, you’ll meet with a recruiter to chat through your background, what you could bring to Flock, what you are looking for in your next role, and who we are. 

2. The Hiring Manager Interview: You will meet with your potential future boss to really dive into the role, the team, expectations, and what success means at Flock. This is your chance to really nerd out with someone in your field. 

3. The Panel: Learn more about the team, responsibilities, and workflows. You should be prepared to speak about past projects, how you collaborate and communicate with others, and how you live our values. Depending on the team and role you are interviewing for, you may meet with several teammates as well as cross-functional partners. 

4. The Executive Review: A chance to meet an executive and view Flock from a different lens. Be prepared to ask well-thought-out questions about the company, culture, and more.

In this role, you’ll receive a starting salary of $140,000 – $160,000 as well as stock options. Base salary is determined by job-related experience, education/training, as well as market indicators. Your recruiter will discuss this in-depth with you during our first chat.

🌴Flexible PTO: We seriously mean it, plus 11 company holidays.

⚕️Fully-paid health benefits plan for employees: including Medical, Dental, and Vision and an HSA match. 

👪Family Leave: All employees receive 12 weeks of 100% paid parental leave. Birthing parents are eligible for an additional 6-8 weeks of physical recovery time.

🍼Fertility & Family Benefits: We have partnered with Maven, a complete digital health benefit for starting and raising a family. Flock will provide a $50,000-lifetime maximum benefit related to eligible adoption, surrogacy, or fertility expenses.

🧠Spring Health: Spring Health offers a variety of mental health benefits, including therapy, coaching, medication management, and digital tools, all tailored to each individual’s needs.

💖Caregiver Support: We have partnered with Cariloop to provide our employees with caregiver support 

💸Carta Tax Advisor: Employees receive 1:1 sessions with Equity Tax Advisors who can address individual grants, model tax scenarios, and answer general questions. 

💚ERGs: We want all employees to thrive and feel like they belong at Flock. We offer three ERGs today – Women of Flock, Flock Proud, and Melanin Motion. If you are interested in talking to a representative from one of these, please let your recruiter know.

💻WFH Stipend: $150 per month to cover the costs of working from home.

📚Productivity Stipend: $250 per year to use on Audible, Calm, Masterclass, Duolingo, Grammarly and so much more.

🏠Home Office Stipend: A one-time $750 to help you create your dream office.

Flock is an equal opportunity employer. We celebrate diverse backgrounds and thoughts and welcome everyone to apply for employment with us. We are committed to fostering an environment that is inclusive, transparent, and collaborative. Mutual respect is central to how Flock operates, and we believe the best solutions come from diverse perspectives, experiences, and skills. We embrace our differences and know that we are stronger working together.

If you need assistance or an accommodation due to a disability, please email us at [email protected]. This information will be treated as confidential and used only to determine an appropriate accommodation for the interview process.

At Flock Safety, we compensate our employees fairly for their work. Base salary is determined by job-related experience, education/training, as well as market indicators. The range above is representative of base salary only and does not include equity, sales bonus plans (when applicable) and benefits. This range may be modified in the future. This job posting may span more than one career level.