Data Scientist

Overview

The New York City Council, an equal opportunity employer, seeks an experienced professional to serve as a Data Scientist in the Legislative Division.

The New York City Council is the New York City’s legislative body. The Council drafts & votes on proposed laws, negotiates the City’s budget with the Mayor, monitors City agencies to make sure they’re effectively serving New Yorkers and reviews and makes land use policies on the growth and development of our city.

SALARY RANGE:

$75,000 to $85,000

DATA TEAM

The Data Team is committed to providing a data-driven approach to the Council’s law-making process to improve the lives of New Yorkers. The Data Team assists legislative staff in developing policy ideas that are influenced by data, technology, & science. The Data Team is also responsible for reviewing proposed laws that report data and for leveraging data to create powerful visual narratives used in oversight hearings. The Data Team is in the initial stages of building data products & tools for Council staff. The Data Team’s main data sources are open datasets (NYC Open Data Portal, Census, USGS, etc.). Other sources include data reporting requirements and data requested from agencies.

Visit https://council.nyc.gov/data/ to learn more about their work.

KEY RESPONSIBILITIES:

• Work closely with legislative attorneys and policy analysts to research policy issues, and suggest recommendations.

• Support the team in building & deploying data products & tools.

• Perform data cleaning & validation, conduct exploratory analysis, provide statistical inferences, develop models, and visualize and present findings and insights.

QUALIFICATIONS:

• Bachelors degree from an accredited university in a quantitative discipline or 2+ years of quantitative experience.

• Strong quantitative and problem-solving skills.

• Candidates must have 2+ years experience with Python or R.

• Agility to adjust priorities and ability to work on multiple projects simultaneously while addressing ad hoc data requests.

• Ability to work independently, exercise initiative and follow through to accomplish tasks.

• Communicate and visualize scientific and technical results to both technical and non-technical audiences.

• Experience with interactive visualizations (Dash, RShiny, etc.).

• Experience building/deploying data products with open source tools (SQL, Unix, etc.).

• Strong desire to improve the community and interest in policy and/or how the city and government works.

• Ability to work collaboratively with other data scientists and lay persons.

• Graduate degree from an accredited university in statistics, a physical science, computer science or other quantitative discipline preferred.

• Experience with web scraping.

• Experience in government and/or with policy.

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION:

New York City residency is required within 90 days of appointment.

For eligible employees, health, dental and vision insurance coverage are offered upon hire. Retirement plans, deferred compensation plans, group life insurance, paid time off and paid holidays, training resources, health & fitness reimbursement and wellness programs are also available.

The New York City Council makes reasonable accommodations for applicants and employees with disabilities. If reasonable accommodation is needed to participate in the job application or interview process, to perform essential job functions, and/or to receive other benefits and privileges of employment, please contact EEOOfficer@council.nyc.gov.

HOW TO APPLY:

Qualified candidates should forward a cover letter and resume to:

E-MAIL:        counciljobs@council.nyc.gov

Attn: Personnel Services/Recruiting (DS)

250 Broadway, 26th Floor

New York, New York 10007

FAX: 12124014711

While we sincerely appreciate all applications, only those candidates selected for an interview will be contacted.

The New York City Council is an inclusive equal opportunity employer committed to recruiting and retaining a diverse workforce and providing a work environment that is free from discrimination and harassment based upon any legally protected status or protected characteristic, including but not limited to an individual’s sex, race, color, ethnicity, national origin, age, religion, disability, sexual orientation, veteran status, gender identity, or pregnancy.