Community & Economic Research Analyst

The Opportunity

We're looking for a Community & Economic Research Analyst to support the market, economic, and feasibility work behind our engagements. You'll source and analyze data, build maps and visualizations, design measurement, and prepare the deliverables clients rely on. You'll work most closely with our Director of Digital Innovation, learning our methods and tools and taking on greater responsibility over time. This is a research and analysis role without staff management or a sales target: you'll be the person the team relies on to know whether the data can be trusted and what it means for a project.

Key Responsibilities

• Source, evaluate, and analyze data. Demographic, economic, real estate, and market data from public sources (Census/ACS, assessor and public records, GIS), proprietary platforms (Esri Business Analyst, CoStar), and primary research; flag reliability, gaps, and limitations.

• GIS and spatial analysis. Build maps, market and site geographies, and spatial analysis across the Esri/ArcGIS suite, and produce the mapping and site-analysis components of our studies.

• Dashboards and data visualization. Present findings clearly and interactively for the people who act on them, building in various environments to fit project needs: from business-intelligence platforms such as PowerBI or Tableau, Esri suite of products, or even custom and no-code tools.

• Measurement and evaluation. Build measurement frameworks and KPIs, perform economic impact analysis (IMPLAN), and, where no metric exists yet, design the primary measures themselves, so that clients can quantitatively measure their plans or initiatives.

• Feasibility and real estate analysis. Work with our consulting lead on the numbers behind feasibility studies and redevelopment strategy: the market demand, pro formas, cap rates, capital stacks, and financing tools that determine whether a project pencils.

• Reporting and communication. Looking at the full picture - understanding what story the data is telling, who the audience is, and how to say it – then preparing the reports, memos, presentations, and community-facing materials that carry it (which can include surveys, or digital engagement tools).

• AI-supported work. Use LLM-based tools and agents to accelerate the work, including scripting and automating data work, assisting creation of internal tools and dashboards, and standing up repeatable analytical workflows and pipelines

Qualifications: Required

• Bachelor's degree in data analytics, economics, geography, urban studies, real estate, or a related field

• 2-4 years of experience in research, data, or market analysis (strong internship and academic experience considered)

• Proficiency with GIS (Esri/ArcGIS)

• Proficiency with a data visualization or business-intelligence platforms (such as PowerBI or Tableau) or Esri ExperienceBuilder, and the ability to assess data quality across sources

• Working comfort with AI tools and interest in applying them to research, analysis, and tool development

• Strong written communication and the ability to tailor analysis to different audiences

Qualifications: Preferred

• Economic impact modeling (IMPLAN) and measurement and evaluation design

• Real estate finance and feasibility (pro formas, cap rates, capital stacks, financing tools)

• Esri Business Analyst and CoStar

• Report and graphic design

• Familiarity with community and real estate market dynamics

• Interest in developing AI-supported data products

About Us

Altair Consulting Group provides data-driven advisory services to the developers, institutions, municipalities, and community and economic development organizations that shape places and economies. We help clients understand their markets, test feasibility, and build the analysis behind investment and redevelopment decisions. Our roots are in community and municipal planning, and that foundation informs a practice now centered on market and feasibility analysis, economic impact and measurement, and the data products and visualizations our clients use to act.

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