Internship: Research

General position summary: The NCAA research intern will join a collaborative, interdisciplinary team whose goals are to:

• Produce high-quality research for use by NCAA staff, member colleges and universities, scholars and the media.
• Enhance the NCAA’s ability to make data-driven policy decisions.
• Evaluate the full student-athlete experience and determine how to improve academic, social, athletics and health outcomes.
  

The research intern will engage with a variety of projects throughout the 2027-28 academic year and will contribute to survey design, data analyses, data visualization, membership-facing research presentations, and engagement with external scholars. The intern will have the opportunity to work with multiple members of the research team and, depending on the intern’s personal interests and skill set, will contribute to team-level, independent, and cross-functional research projects. This intern will gain insight into how research and data-informed decisions shape NCAA policy and processes. This internship is supervised by the managing director of research.

Essential duties:

• Contribute to the design, analyses and sharing of a range of NCAA research data, which will include survey research on the student-athlete experience; demographics, participation and sports sponsorship data; and surveys designed to gather membership feedback on current or future policies.
• Research and identify opportunities to improve data gathering, analyses or visualization that enhance research projects or communication of findings.
• Collaborate with internal NCAA departments and external partners on research projects and survey requests.
• Responsibilities may vary based on team needs and project timelines and may include additional duties as appropriate.

Desired knowledge, skills and abilities:

• Bachelor’s degree, master’s degree or Ph.D. in a social sciences-related discipline such as data analytics, education, psychology, public health, public policy, sociology, sport management or a related field.
• Experience in research design, survey development and/or quantitative data analyses.
• Proficiency in descriptive and inferential statistics, survey design and prior use of statistical software packages (e.g., SPSS, SAS or Stata). 
• Strong written and verbal communication skills. 
• Strong organizational and analytical skills, with the ability to manage multiple assignments.
• Interest in and familiarity with automation tools, emerging technologies, including statistical software and data visualization tools, and their application to advancing organizational goals. 
• Proficiency with Microsoft Office. 
• Curiosity about the intersection of student-athlete well-being, higher education and sport, and a commitment to contributing to a collaborative team environment. 

For more information and to apply: https://www.ncaa.org/what-we-do/programs/postgraduate-internships/research/