Data Scientist III

Department: Office of Data Governance and Analysis
Employment Status: Regular/Full-Time/Exempt

ABOUT LSC:

Established by Congress in 1974, the Legal Services Corporation (LSC) is the country’s single largest funder of civil legal aid for low-income Americans. LSC currently funds 131 independent nonprofit legal aid organizations with more than 800 offices throughout the nation. LSC’s mission is to promote equal access to justice and provide grants for high-quality civil legal assistance to low-income Americans.

BASIC FUNCTION:

Under the direction of the Director of the Office of Data Governance and Analysis, or his or her designee, the Data Scientist III will be responsible for the development, analysis, and visualization of data to enhance the quality and quantity of available data related to civil legal services. Through the formulation of research questions, design of robust analyses, and translation of complex findings into actionable programmatic and policy insights, the Data Scientist will create accessible tools and products that encourage the use of empirical evidence to drive decision-making by practitioners, researchers, policymakers, and others in the field. This position is included in a collective bargaining unit represented by the International Federation of Professional & Technical Engineers, Local 135.

PRINCIPAL DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES:

• Under the direct supervision of the Director of the Office of Data Governance and Analysis (ODGA), performs applied research and conducts data analyses to detect and predict patterns, answer complex questions, and extract insights. Develops a deep understanding of needs across all levels of the organization, as well as the landscape of civil legal issues in the United States.
• Works with internal and external partners to identify, collect, process, explore, analyze, and interpret a variety of data including, but not limited to, administrative, demographic/socioeconomic, geospatial, and survey data, with an eye for accuracy, reliability, and quality assurance.
• Working with colleagues, leads the creation, maintenance, and optimization of data, data architecture, APIs, and automated ETL data pipelines for internal and external resources.
• Programs SQL and SOQL queries to access data from data lake and database.
• Codes using R and Python to extract, transform, clean, validate, and analyze data for analysis, visualization, and reporting.
• Applies substantive knowledge of LSC and grantee needs and services to anticipate the data, analyses, and tools that will enable departments and grantees to make data-driven planning and service delivery decisions.
• Translates findings and applies to substantive knowledge of LSC and LSC grantees to create actionable programmatic and policy insights.
• Using best practices in user-centered design, develops a wide range of innovative visualizations, dashboards, web applications, and analytical and other tools that make data accessible to internal and external audiences using enterprise software, custom JavaScript development, and cloud-based (AWS) services. Liaises with LSC’s communications team to ensure products conform with LSC’s brand and communications strategy.
• Engages and iterates with internal and external stakeholders throughout the UI/UX development process to ensure products fully address their research, visualization, and reporting needs.
• Evaluates and improves the accessibility, responsiveness, and UX/UI design of existing resources.
• Promotes the uptake of these products by diverse audiences through the provision of training and technical support, education on best practices, and knowledge exchange. Identifies and resolves impediments to user adoption of these products through timely communication with end users.
• Collaborates with ODGA colleagues to evaluate the effectiveness and efficiency of methodologies used by the team, experiment with new approaches, and develop office-wide standards for processes and project documentation that ensure high-quality, replicable work using tools like Trello, Jira, and Git/GitHub. Contributes to the Office’s collective quality assurance and data stewardship responsibilities.
• Synthesizes findings into clear and concise reports, briefs, white papers, fact sheets, literature reviews, blog posts, presentations, and other written/verbal products for technical and non- technical audiences.
• Skillfully navigates organizational structures and relationships within and outside of LSC to establish open and inclusive partnerships with stakeholders.
• Assists with other LSC initiatives and related job duties as assigned.

COMPETENCIES REQUIRED:

General:

• Must demonstrate strong initiative and be a proactive self-starter; strong critical and strategic thinking.
• Strong attention to detail and effective problem solving; demonstrates accuracy, thoroughness and a commitment to high-quality work.
• Strong and effective organizational and time-management skills with ability to manage multiple complex tasks simultaneously under tight deadlines and adjust to shifting priorities.
• Works well independently and collaboratively with others as a team member.
• Makes sound, well-informed, and objective decisions; influences, motivates, and challenges others; excellent customer- service focus.
• Strong oral and written communication skills with demonstrated ability to clearly and concisely synthesize and present information in an engaging and effective manner to a broad and diverse audiences including staff, grantees, and applicants.
• Curious and forward-thinking.
• Unimpeachable integrity and personal ethics and demonstrated commitment to intellectually honest work.
• Ability to systematically organize and file documents and information.
• Understands LSC’s mission, functions, and operations.
• Identifies and understands trends that affect access to legal services for low-income persons.

Technical/Specialized:

• A Bachelor’s degree and a minimum of six years of professional experience related to quantitative and qualitative research and data analysis.
• Design-oriented, with demonstrated experience in distilling large amounts of information into creative, sustainable products that facilitate user-directed exploration of complex concepts.
• Minimum of four years of recent coding experience in R, Python, or JavaScript in a professional or academic environment.
• Exposure to data science methods–such as machine learning, natural language processing, web scraping, and synthetic data—using version control and automated testing environments.
• Demonstrated expertise with Tableau, Microsoft Power BI, or business intelligence tools.
• Demonstrated expertise using ArcGIS, Mapbox, QGIS, or other GIS software. Demonstrated expertise with statistical software, such as, R, SAS, Stata, SPSS. Familiarity with the use of HTML5, CSS3, and JavaScript libraries for mapping and visualization (i.e. D3.js, Leaflet) to develop web applications, tools, or pages.
• Experience with modern web development techniques and best practices, including accessibility, responsive design, asynchronous programming, and REST API based serverless architectures.
• Experience using SQL to extract data from data storage systems for analysis.
• Familiarity with APIs and interacting with cloud-based computing environments (i.e., AWS) to access, manipulate and store large volumes of data.
• Familiarity with Git and GitHub (or similar tools) and dedication to using these tools to conduct peer code reviews and uphold coding standards.
• Advanced proficiency in Microsoft Excel.
• Knowledge of best practices in quantitative and qualitative research, including but not limited to research/study design, survey design, and interview techniques.
• Foundational understanding of statistical analysis.
• Eager to explore and learn new technological tools, programming languages and software

SALARY AND BENEFITS:

Data Scientist III Salary: $110,376; Step 1

Salary range: $110,376 – $114,836

LSC has a competitive market-based salary structure that establishes a specific salary range for this position. The salary range has eight pay levels separated by seven steps. A new employee will be hired at Step 1 and must wait two years to advance to each of the next three steps (Steps 2 through 4), and one year to advance to each of the next four steps (Steps 5 through 8).

Excellent benefits package.

APPLICATION PROCEDURE:

Please apply through LSC’s online application portal at www.tinyurl.com/applytoLSC. A cover letter and résumé must be included. To have your application considered, please answer all application questions and provide all requested information. 

Note: If you need an accommodation during the application process, please notify OHR at jobapplicant@lsc.gov.  

DIVERSITY, EQUITY, AND INCLUSION STATEMENT:

We are committed to diversity, equity and inclusion. Our differences fuel excellence, and we strive to create an environment where every individual is valued and feels empowered to bring their full, authentic self to work. We are building a community rooted in openness and trust where colleagues have the resources to grow, thrive and fully contribute to achieving equal access to justice.

LSC is an equal opportunity employer.