About Careertakes

👉 Important disclosure: Careertakes is a third-party recruiting platform supporting this hiring process. If selected, you will be employed directly by our client, Scientific & QA.

Applicants for this role may also receive access to additional matched opportunities through the Careertakes platform.

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What You’ll Do

This entry-level, full-time Public Policy Researcher will work hybrid from the Reston, VA office to support federal clients on regulatory, policy, and economics projects. Typical responsibilities include:

• Participating on short- and long-term engagements that support federal clients in developing policies and drafting regulations
• Supporting transparent management and analysis of public comments on proposed rules
• Assisting in drafting and editing documents for federal rulemakings
• Rapidly learning and contributing across varied projects and clients
• Providing regular verbal and written progress updates to project teams
• Synthesizing information from rulemaking documents, literature, and technical reports
• Collecting and analyzing qualitative and quantitative data to support recommendations
• Drafting reports and preparing presentations
• Interacting with clients to discuss analysis and findings

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Minimum Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in public policy, government, environmental science, natural or physical science, political science, or a related field
• U.S. Citizenship required per federal contract requirements
• Ability to obtain and maintain a government security clearance

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Preferred Qualifications

• Understanding of the federal rulemaking process and regulatory analysis
• Ability to obtain and maintain a moderate-level government security clearance
• Strong analytical, writing, and organizational skills
• Ability to prioritize and manage multiple projects under strict deadlines
• Excellent written and oral communication skills
• Detail-oriented, collaborative, and team-focused
• Proficiency with MS Office (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook) and Adobe

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Workplace, Pay & Other Info

• Work model: Hybrid — based from the Reston, VA headquarters
• Employment type: Full-time
• Pay range (full-time): $50,386.00 - $85,656.00 per year
• Applicants needing accommodations for disability or religious purposes during the application or hiring process should notify the hiring organization (contact information provided during application)
• Note: direct applicant submissions are required; third-party submissions may not be considered

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Why This Role

• Early-career opportunity to work on high-impact federal regulatory projects across multiple agencies
• Hands-on experience with federal rulemaking, comment analysis, and policy development
• Collaborative, multidisciplinary team environment with mentorship from regulatory specialists, economists, and attorneys

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Equal Opportunity & Hiring Transparency

Careertakes and our client are Equal Opportunity Employers committed to building a diverse and inclusive workforce. We prohibit discrimination or harassment of any kind. To support a fair and efficient hiring process, AI tools may be used to assist with application review or resume screening. These tools do not replace human decision-making. Final hiring decisions are made by people.

If you have questions about how your data is used, please contact us directly.