"Senior Data Scientist"

Department Summary

American prisons are deadly but opaque places. In 2019, the federal entity charged with collecting and reporting carceral mortality data stopped performing these critical functions. This abdication left the public without access to even the most basic facts about life and death behind bars, including how many people die each year in state and federal prisons; who is dying in prison, and why; and what disparities-racial, gender, and geographical-exist in mortality outcomes. This informational void makes it difficult if not impossible for policymakers and other stakeholders to identify what actions carceral agencies can take to reduce preventable deaths and improve conditions inside. It also makes it hard for members of the public to see the contours and impacts of the carceral penalties imposed on people convicted of crimes. The UCLA Law Behind Bars Data Project's carceral mortality database is the only comprehensive, public accounting of the most basic fact about mortality behind bars: how many people died across state and federal prisons in recent years. The Project obtains and cleans data from public records requests, death certificates, and other data sources; compiles and publishes the data, and employs established data protocols and research methodologies to understand its implications. In addition, the Project collaborates with advocates, reporters, researchers, litigators, policymakers, and other stakeholders to make sure that data is available, intelligible, and usable for their purposes.

Position Summary

While the Senior Data Scientist (Supervisor) will learn from the Project’s previous iterations, the new carceral mortality and morbidity agenda will be a significant expansion for the team. As such, in addition to being a core member of our Data Team performing a proportionate share of the Data Team’s work, the Senior Data Scientist (Supervisor) will be responsible for crafting new data project plans and methodological approaches, strategizing incorporation of outside datasets, and managing the data team along with internal collaborations to maximize impact on policy and practice. They will also articulate, in consultation with the Project’s Faculty Directors, a strategic vision for the expanded collection, processing and analysis of carceral morbidity data. The Senior Data Scientist (Supervisor) will supervise the team’s Data Analyst, Data Scientist, Senior Research Scientist, and several student research assistants.

Salary & Compensation

*UCLA provides a full pay range. Actual salary offers consider factors, including budget, prior experience, skills, knowledge, abilities, education, licensure and certifications, and other business considerations. Salary offers at the top of the range are not common. Visit UC Benefit package to discover benefits that start on day one, and UC Total Compensation Estimator to calculate the total compensation value with benefits.

Qualifications

• Substantial research experience. (Required)
• Prior building or maintaining productionized ETL pipelines in R or Python. (Preferred)
• Experience planning and executing quantitative research including data collection, cleaning, analysis, and publication (Required)
• Experience working with datasets that include missing, unstructured, and/or incorrect data. (Required)
• Experience establishing relationships and working with diverse collaborators (e.g., local advocates, government officials, and journalists) with varying levels of technical literacy. (Required)
• Strong organizational skills for project planning, data collection procedures, and complex research activities. (Required)
• Experience with public record requests and creating impactful data visualizations for social media and news reports. (Preferred)
• Proficiency using R or another programming language to manipulate data and draw insights from large, complex datasets. (Required)
• Strong writing skills, including experience with peer-reviewed manuscripts. (Required)
• Experience using git/GitHub to track tasks and data acquisition processes, and regularly update data on GitHub. (Required)
• Experience creating impactful data visualizations for social media and reports. (Preferred)
• Experience developing open-source datasets and GIS platforms. (Preferred)
• Experience planning and executing quantitative data projects including collection, cleaning, analysis, and archiving. (Preferred)
• Experience supervising similarly sized data teams and working with diverse collaborators with varying levels of data literacy. (Required)

Education, Licenses, Certifications & Personal Affiliations

• Master's Degree in Data science, quantitative social science, or related field OR 5+ years working experience as a data or research scientist or equivalent combination of education and experience. (Required)

Special Conditions for Employment

• Background Check: Continued employment is contingent upon the completion of a satisfactory background investigation.
• Live Scan Background Check: A Live Scan background check must be completed prior to the start of employment.
• Age Requirement: Candidate(s) must be 18 years or older to be eligible to be hired.
• Compassion, empathy, and a sense of humor. (Required)
• Lived experience with and/or knowledge of the criminal legal system. (Preferred)
• Experience working with remote teams. (Preferred)
• Ability to prioritize and effectively manage a workload with multiple deadlines. (Required)
• Familiarity or interest in working with public health and/or criminal justice data. (Required)
• Outstanding leadership, judgment, attention to detail, and the ability to foster a collaborative remote working environment. (Required)

Schedule

Monday - Friday | 8am-5pm PST

Special Instructions to Applicants
Please include a cover letter with your application submission.
This is a 1 year contract with the possibility of extension and/or conversion to a career appointment.