Position: Researcher – Agricultural and Resource Economics – UTIA
Job Description
Responsible for planning, maintaining, and completing all phases of research programs and projects focused on economic impact, feasibility studies, and economic development. This position requires research knowledge, skills and abilities focused on input-output analysis, IMPLAN, feasibility analysis, economic impact analysis, and data dashboard development and maintains.
Responsibilities of the position include:
Support Extension personnel and internal stakeholders with research for their programs
Ability to be self-motivated, well-organized, detail-oriented, and independently perform duties;
Ability to work independently or in a team environment on grant proposals, reports, and other analysis
Provides professional contributions to complex research programs, projects, and grant proposals through the applications of economic analysis, including the design and analysis of economic impact analysis, input-output analysis, feasibility analysis, economic development, and maintaining interactive dashboards on county level agricultural statistics.
Authors reports for grant projects, journal articles, Extension publications, research reports, and other briefs independently and as a team.
May independently develop and submit research proposals acting as lead principal investigator in seeking grant and contract funding from external agencies.
Collaborate with principal investigator(s) in grant proposal
Communicate findings of research to key stakeholders included Extension Agents, government agencies, policy makers, researchers, and others through presentations and publications.
Required Qualifications
Education: Master’s degree in agricultural economics, or a related field.
Experience: Experience in: IMPLAN, Dashboard databases, Excel, and 1-3 years experience doing economic impact analysis is required
Knowledge, Skills, Abilities:
Advanced writing/communication skills
Ability to be self-motivated, well-organized, detail-oriented, and independently perform duties or in a team environment;
Ability to oversee and direct work of project specific designated personnel and/or students;
Ability to oversee research projects;
Ability to allocate and coordinate resources;
Ability to multi-task;
Ability to interact effectively with federal/state/local agencies and decision-makers, as well as federal and state agency administrators and technical staff;
Statistical knowledge pertaining to research methodology and design, database management, and ability to learn new software quickly;
Ability to understand, construct, and apply economic models;
Knowledge of programming skills for manipulation of large databases; and
Preferred Qualifications
Education: PhD degree in agricultural economics
Experience: 3-5 years experience doing economic impact analysis, feasibility studies, and dashboard development is preferred
Knowledge, Skills, Abilities:
Familiarity with USDA agricultural and forestry statistical databases. Strong skills with Excel, IMPLAN, statistical software, dashboard platforms, and other software to collect data, merge and analyze data
Work Location
Location: Knoxville, TN
ONSITE
Compensation and Benefits
UT market range: MR09
Application Instructions
To express interest, please submit an application with the noted below attachments. To be assured of full consideration, completed applications with all requested materials should be submitted on or before June 18, 2026.
Resume
Cover Letter
List of 3 Professional References