Project Associate

ShadowBox LLC is a growing company based in Dayton, Ohio, with a distributed team across the United States. We specialize in research and development of scenario-based training exercises that accelerate expertise in high-stakes, fast-paced environments.

Our work is grounded in decades of research on Naturalistic Decision Making (NDM), pioneered by ShadowBox founder Dr. Gary Klein and collaborators. We help organizations improve decision making, accelerate expertise, and strengthen critical cognitive skills.

Our clients span government and commercial sectors, including defense, healthcare, social services, law enforcement, financial services, and petrochemical industries.

The Role

We are seeking a Project Associate to support training development, research, and project management. This role is ideal for someone who aspires to lead research and training projects across a wide range of industries and domains and is comfortable working in ambiguous, loosely defined problem spaces.

The role requires contributing both intellectually and operationally: helping shape ideas while also turning them into concrete deliverables across independent and collaborative work environments. This is a remote position that requires occasional travel.

Key Responsibilities

• Manage multiple projects and move work forward even when goals or requirements are not fully defined
• Support research project design, data analysis, and report writing
• Develop scenario-based training and related materials (e.g., narratives, technical reports, workshops)
• Communicate effectively with clients via email and phone
• Contribute to proposal development
• Conduct cognitive interviews with subject‑matter experts across a variety of domains
• Coordinate project teams that are geographically distributed

Qualifications

Required

• Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in psychology, cognitive science, or human factors, with interest or experience in expertise, training, decision making, I/O psychology, or related fields
• 3–5 years of relevant experience
• Experience conducting cognitive task analysis or similar interview‑based research methods
• Experience developing training programs or instructional materials
• Familiarity with Naturalistic Decision Making principles
• Strong writing and analytical skills

Preferred

• High level of intellectual curiosity
• Familiarity with domains involving high‑stakes decision making (e.g., military, healthcare, emergency response, aviation)
• Exposure to government proposal or grant writing
• Experience working with the U.S. military in classified environments (or willingness to obtain a security clearance)
• Familiarity with marketing strategy or content development (e.g., video, social campaigns)
• Ability to contribute to business growth by identifying new opportunities and supporting marketing efforts

Why Join ShadowBox?

• Work at the forefront of Naturalistic Decision Making and applied research
• Collaborate with experts in high‑impact, real‑world domains
• Contribute to meaningful projects that improve performance in critical environments
• Flexible remote work with a mission‑driven team

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