Economist / Senior Economist

JOB TITLE: Economist / Senior Economist

LOCATION: Johns Creek, GA

MANAGER TITLE: President, Veterinary Management Groups

SUMMARY:

We are seeking a talented and experienced Economist to join our team at Veterinary Management Groups. This new position will play a pivotal role in analyzing veterinary market and industry trends, evaluating economic factors, and providing strategic insights to support the business decision-making for our members’ veterinary practices. This role will craft economic reports, author academic quality economic research for publication, and be active developing content that provides cutting-edge economic insights. You will also oversee VMG DATALINK, the financial benchmarking program for VMG membership (>2,000 practices) and lead current and future projects affiliated with DATALINK and related programs and partners. You will report directly to the VMG President and be a member of the Thought Leadership & Membership Experience team.

This position is remote/virtual and can work from anywhere in the United States.

DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES:

• Contribute to thought leadership initiatives through research papers, articles, and presentations at industry conferences to foster VMG’s share of voice and elevate our reputation as an economic thought leader in veterinary medicine.
• Build cross-industry partnerships to extend the scale and scope of research, insight and foresight, alongside economic and business leaders across the veterinary profession.
• Collaborate with internal teams and external partners on topical economic research projects. This includes data analysis, report authorship, and interviews for print, online and broadcast media.
• Serve as an expert spokesperson to media and to industry stakeholders on specific research studies, market statistics, and VMG’s point of view on veterinary market & economic trends.
• Contribute to the roadmap for innovative economic insights and data products, publish unique content on myVMG.com and other websites, including regular and ad-hoc reporting, and drive ideas for future analyses.
• Work with other members of the Thought Leadership & Membership experience team and other VMG teams to extract key trends impacting veterinary practices.
• Build econometric models to help explain and predict veterinary market conditions, including time-series, causality and machine learning methods.
• Collaborate with analysts, researchers and veterinary professionals and others to construct and automate economic data series, proprietary indices, and other market insights.
• Extract data, conduct complex analyses, and communicate results such that they can be easily understood by an audience of non-economists.
• Designing and executing industry surveys and membership surveys and managing the VMG Economic Dashboard and Veterinary Economic Barometer.
• Communicate with VMG members, prospective members and external stakeholders on the economic outlook for the veterinary profession through a variety of means, including written materials and virtual and in-person presentations.
• Maintain strong working relationships with academic colleagues, relevant experts, and influential stakeholders at other institutions to exchange information, share resources, and generally strengthen VMG’s leadership role in veterinary economics.
• Manage the DATALINK 2.0 Project and liaise between our Software/Systems Development partner, our CPA firm (Katz, Sapper and Miller – KSM) and VMG management.
• Act as liaison between members, the DATALINK Advisory Committee and KSM (CPA firm which administers DATALINK). Duties may include assisting members in determining classification of general ledger accounting codes and field definitions, how to run and interpret benchmarking reports, etc.
• Work with VMG group DATALINK representatives to drive participation of their members in the DATALINK program.

REQUIRED QUALIFICATIONS:

Education

• Master’s degree in economics or related field required. A Ph.D. degree is viewed favorably.

Work Experience

• Minimum 5 years of experience conducting economic research post graduate degree.

Technical Skills

• Significant research contributions as evidenced by record of publications in high-quality, peer-reviewed academic journals.
• Experience with researching issues impacting the practice of veterinary medicine is strongly preferred but not required.
• Substantive experience in the analysis of primary and secondary data including panel, cross-sectional, and multivariate statistical techniques.
• Strong research and analytical skills evidenced by dissertation work, publications or other professional activities.
• Strong programming skills in a major statistical or econometric program (R, Stata, SAS, etc) and a solid ability to use Tableau or PowerBI.
• Strong writing and verbal communication skills, including demonstrated ability to communicate about complex economics and other social scientific matters to general audiences.
• Proven collaboration and relationship-building skills, both within immediate team and with external and diverse stakeholders.
• Project management skills, including ability to effectively prioritize and accomplish both larger and smaller, often rapid response, projects while maintaining high quality of work.

Certification

• None

Travel

• 15% – 20%

Compensation

• Salary: $110,000 - $145,000 depending on experience
• Annual cash bonus target of 15% depending on company performance

Salary may vary depending on factors such as confirmed job-related skills, experience, and location.

However, the pay range for this position is as follows.

We offer the following benefits for you to take advantage of while you are here provided you meet the eligibility requirements under each governing program:

• 401k savings & company match

• Paid time off

• Paid holidays

• Maternity leave

• Parental leave

• Military leave

• Other leaves of absence

• Health, dental, and vision benefits

• Health savings accounts

• Flexible spending accounts

• Life & disability benefits​

• Identity theft protection

• Pet insurance

• Sales Positions are eligible for a Variable Incentive

• Certain positions may include eligibility for a short term incentive plan

Covetrus is an equal opportunity/affirmative action employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, race, color, religion, national origin, disability, protected Veteran status, age, or any other characteristic protected by law.