We’d love to work with you.

We review applications on a recurring basis. You will hear back from our team within a few weeks, and if you are accepted, you will join a cohort to work alongside. We onboard a new cohort approximately every quarter and the onboarding process lasts about two weeks.

While we typically onboard every three months, there are special occasions where long-term research fellows working directly with New Story team members on a specific topic will be onboarded during a different time frame.

The fellowship is typically three to five months long but can be adjusted pending circumstances.

You sure can! Here are the steps for a New Story R&D Fellow Volunteership:

1. Select your topic. 

Select your topic related to your biggest interests in architecture, engineering, construction and/or as part of your graduate thesis. Please reference ‘How do I select my thesis?’. This topic should align with our top three R&D priorities to have an impact on housing:

1. 1. Lower cost of construction and materials;
   2. Decrease time of design and/or construction;
   3. Increase QA/QC of design, construction, and/or inspections.

2. Review

Review your topic, deliverables, and timeline with our Head of R+D, Julieta, over a video-call.

3. Begin research!

New Story R&D Thesis Selection

Please provide the following information (in a document/form?):

1. Scope of work:
   • What is the high-level thesis topic?
   • What type of research thesis would this be (i.e. literature review, collection of case studies, interviews of experts, etc..)?
   • How does this topic relate to New Story’s top R&D priorities to:
     1. Lower cost of construction and materials;
     2. Decrease time of design and/or construction;
     3. Increase QA/QC of design, construction, and/or inspections.
2. Learning objectives and research goals:
   • What is the main research question you are trying to solve for?
   • What are the top learning objectives by the end of this research thesis?
3. Timeframe
   • Please develop a quick schedule of your time commitment, including:
     1. Roughly how many hours per week would you allocate to research?
     2. Do the bi-weekly email updates and monthly calls align with this schedule? Please indicate if you would like to have more frequent check-ins, and which days work best for these updates.

The commitments we expect as part of the Research Fellowship include, but are not limited to:

• Enthusiasm and respect for the project and cohort
• Consistent and open communication and collaboration
• Approximately 5-10 hours/week of research on a topic of personal interest
• Biweekly deliverables summarizing current research and high-level trends
• Monthly video calls to check in with Project Managers and other members of the cohort
• Selection of top innovations and/or case studies from your final thesis that you propose New Story should pursue as an R&D pilot
• Approval for New Story to post your bio and picture of the New Story website in the future as part of the Research Fellowship team

You must have…

• Experience in construction management, structural engineering, civil engineering, architecture, affordable housing, housing finance, housing policy, or related field
• Minimum 3 years of university experience
• Professional fluency in English (required) and Spanish (preferred)
• Sophisticated communication, organization, creativity and interpersonal skills

At New Story, you can expect to find a culture that reflects our values:

• Humble Pursuit of Excellence. A combination of personal humility and intense professional will.
• Express Gratitude and Empathy. How would you like to be treated? That’s how we strive to treat others. Always go above and beyond to do for others what you’d like them to do for you.
• Improve Through Learning and Feedback. Learn why something worked or didn’t work, then implement the learning into future actions.
• Team of Founders. An extreme ownership mindset where you see a problem, take action, and go above and beyond to help the team.
• Think Big, Breakdown, and Execute. Set big measurable goals, formulate a plan, then execute the plan with relentless focus.
• Simplify. Do more with less. This applies to everything: marketing, design, team meetings, writing, operations, and beyond.