Data Scientist

Department

AI RISC

About the Department

Foster Insights is an exciting new project out of the University’s Center for RISC, an innovation lab for social good led by Freakonomics economist Steve Levitt. We help state child welfare agencies and NGOs use data to deliver better outcomes, ensuring that children in foster care remain connected to their families and communities whenever possible. With a fast-growing list of clients, we are seeking team members ready to wear multiple hats and support building Foster Insights from the ground up.

Job Summary

As a Data Scientist at Foster Insights, you will lead a team of data analysts in conducting complex data analyses to support the enhancement of child welfare systems. Utilizing your expertise in data manipulation and visualization with R, Python, and other tools, you will mentor team members and ensure the delivery of high-quality data products. You will convert intricate data into actionable insights and communicate these findings to child welfare leaders across the country, ultimately helping to improve outcomes for children and families.

Responsibilities

• Leads and mentors junior team members, ensuring the delivery of impactful data analysis to child welfare system leaders, including state directors, NGO executives, and program staff.
• Transforms complex datasets into analyzable formats using tools like R, such as dplyr and data.table, and Python, including Pandas.
• Develops clear and reproducible code, and maintains version control using systems like Git. 
• Creates and maintains technical documentation for code and data elements to ensure team-wide understanding and consistency. 
• Engages with external leadership to identify and capitalize on opportunities for impactful data analysis. 
• Utilizes statistical techniques to analyze large datasets and derive significant insights. 
• Visualizes data using appropriate tools , such as R's ggplot2 and Highcharts, to create compelling, actionable presentations for external leadership. 
• Collaborates with software engineers to enhance data pipelines and guarantee the availability of high-quality datasets. 
• Stays updated on policy changes and new research in the child welfare sector to integrate relevant findings into analyses. 
• Has a deep understanding of methods to analyze complex data sets for the purpose of extracting and purposefully using applicable information. May develop and maintain infrastructure that connects data sets. 
• Calibrates data between large and complex research and administrative datasets. Guides and may set the operational protocols for collecting and analyzing information from the University's various internal data systems as well as from external sources. 
• Designs and evaluates statistical models and reproducible data processing pipelines using expertise of best practices in machine learning and statistical inference. Provides expertise for high level or complex data-related requests and engages other IT resources as needed. Partners with other campus teams to assist faculty with data science related needs. 
• Performs other related work as needed.   

Minimum Qualifications

Education:

Minimum requirements include a college or university degree in related field.

Work Experience:

Minimum requirements include knowledge and skills developed through 5-7 years of work experience in a related job discipline.

Certifications:

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Preferred Qualifications

Education: 

• Bachelor's degree in data science, computer science, economics, or similar field.  

Experience: 

• Handling and presenting high stakes and sensitive data. 
• Managing data projects with littl