[Hiring] Senior Data Scientist @Skylight

Role Description

At Skylight, data scientists organize, synthesize, visualize, and analyze data to help government stakeholders and product teams make informed decisions. They apply a variety of analytical models to find meaningful insights in both structured and unstructured data, and they communicate these insights in an easily digestible format.

The Administration for Children and Families (ACF) is expanding surge support and capacity for its new Data Capacity and Digital Services organization within the Office of Administration. The team works with enterprise-serving organizations like ACF Tech and the Office of Grants Management to help programs deliver on ACF’s mission, including priorities focused on:

• Reducing grantee burden
• Reducing waste, fraud, and abuse
• Modernizing legacy systems

You’ll help answer hard questions with data. This role also flexes into lightweight engineering: when a problem calls for a small tool or automation built with AI, DataBricks, or Power Apps rather than a model, you build it.

This work calls for a consultant’s skill set: you’ll interface directly with senior leaders, and much of the work isn’t scoped in advance. This isn’t a team where you take tickets off the top of a backlog. Alongside delivery, we do a lot of technical consulting and capacity building, so people who take initiative and are comfortable with uncertainty and ambiguity tend to do best here.

While the scope of this role is likely to evolve over time, the majority of this work may not focus directly on predictive analytics or statistical analysis. Rather, the majority of your work would be focused on:

• Data ingestion
• Data storage and processing
• Data visualization

Qualifications

• Can think about and use data strategically to identify the right questions to ask, communicate ideas, surface opportunities to create business value and drive decisions
• Familiar with modern data engineering, including techniques for cleaning and preprocessing data from a variety of sources
• Ability to analyze a data set using the appropriate analytical method and can design, prototype, and build statistical models that are credible, effective, and accessible
• Ability to preserve privacy and security when performing data analysis
• Can articulately communicate your data, models, and findings to technical and non-technical audiences
• Ability to use the appropriate visualization tools to highlight actionable insights, trends, and recommendations from data
• Champion leading practices within data science to your team and others
• Ability to flex into lightweight engineering, building small tools and automations with low-code and AI platforms such as Credal, DataBricks and Microsoft Power Apps
• Experience working on cross-functional teams (product, design, engineering, ops) in iterative delivery
• A mindset and work approach that aligns with our core values

Requirements

• Some of our available roles are on federal contracts that require a degree or additional years of experience as a substitute.
• All work must be conducted within the U.S., excluding U.S. territories.
• You must be legally authorized to work in the U.S. now and in the future without sponsorship.
• An existing clearance isn’t required to apply, but as a government contractor, anyone hired into this role must be able to obtain a Tier 2 public trust background investigation.
• You must complete a company background check successfully.

Benefits

• Medical insurance, dental insurance, vision insurance
• Short-term and long-term disability insurance
• Life and AD&D insurance
• Dependent care FSA, healthcare FSA, health savings account
• Dollar-for-dollar 401(k) match up to 10% of your salary with no vesting period
• Flexible paid-time-off policy (generally around 25 days per year), plus 11 paid federal holidays
• Up to 12 weeks paid-time-off for all eligible new birth, adoption, or foster parents
• Performance rewards, including annual salary increase, annual performance bonus, spot bonuses, and stock options
• Business development / sales bonuses
• Referral bonuses
• Annual $2000 allowance for professional development
• Annual $750 allowance for tech-related purchases
• Annual swag budget of $100 to display your Skylight pride with some merchandise (hoodies, hats, and more)
• Flexible, remote-friendly work environment
• An environment that empowers you to unleash your superpowers for public good