At the nonprofit Urban Institute, we believe in the power of evidence to improve lives and strengthen communities. Our employees are empowered to open minds, shape decisions and offer solutions. We encourage intellectual honesty, innovation, diversity, and mutual respect, and our analysis elevates the debate, wherever it takes place.
Urban’s greatest asset is our people. We strive to attract and cultivate a vibrant, creative, and diverse community. Our employees drive Urban’s mission through entrepreneurship, innovation, leadership, effective communication, results-orientation, and relationship cultivation. Our success depends on engaging individuals who possess and value these attributes.
The Center on Nonprofits and Philanthropy (CNP) at the Urban Institute strives to link policy evidence and insights to the nonprofit and philanthropic sectors to advance social impact. CNP has launched a new initiative, which aims to provide data, performance measurement and evaluation technical assistance to nonprofit cohorts to support and develop robust, effective and sustainable organizations that have the capacity to drive change and achieve greater impact.
How you’ll contribute: CNP is looking for a data science and research associate with a demonstrated commitment to advancing social sector effectiveness and racial equity. The candidate will play a key role in building out the data infrastructure and advanced data science/analytics that will enable us to effect social change through data-informed insights and research in support of CNP’s programmatic work. The candidate will play a leadership and entrepreneurial role in projects within CNP that use open-source programming, machine learning, data linkage, statistical analysis, and big data to inform nonprofit and philanthropic action.
The data scientist/researcher will also champion the National Center for Charitable Statistics (NCCS), an open data portal for nonprofit practitioners, researchers, and policymakers to download and explore data. NCCS was re-designed in 2015 to make nonprofit data, code, and research products transparent, reproducible, and accessible to all users. The successful candidate will be the go-to person representing NCCS, acting as an internal and external resource on anything nonprofit-data related.
The candidate will have excellent research and communication skills, and broad understanding of the nonprofit and/or philanthropic sectors. Background in using IRS 990 or NCCS data is preferred, but not required.
Responsibilities:
Manage the National Center for Charitable Statistics, acting as the internal and external resource for nonprofit data housed at Urban. Responsibilities include::
Build and manage data pipelines to clean/validate raw 990 data from the IRS annually and synthesize findings into the annual Nonprofit Sector in Brief report.
Develop opportunities to leverage NCCS to strengthen and advance cross-sector or Urban-wide research projects, building institutional knowledge within Urban on use cases for the data.
Conceptualize and manage implementation of changes to the current website to streamline user experience (e.g. development of FAQs, streamline data dictionaries, etc.)
Act as NCCS champion to external partners, showcasing the power and utility of the data for different use cases.
Field questions from nonprofit researchers and journalists interested in using NCCS data, directing them to the correct resources and preforming ad-hoc data analys
Lead quantitative research in the Center for Nonprofits and Philanthropy (CNP); mentor and/or help manage early career research and data science staff in the CNP and across centers.
Lead projects that use innovative data science methods (such as open source programming, machine learning; data linkage; statistical analysis; and big data analysis) to combine multiple sources of data and build cutting-edge data products to help tackle pressing issues from a new angle and inform policy research.
Identify new funding sources and cultivate new funder relationships; Develop new research proposals and communicate findings clearly both verbally and in written products
Participate as lead author or coauthor in academic research papers suitable for publication in peer-reviewed journals; Author papers, blogs, visualizations, and other dissemination materials
Provide intellectual leadership in project development and execution
Present published work and participate in public events in the field of expertise
What you’ll bring: The successful candidate will
Possess a master’s degree or the combination of equivalent academic and professional experience working with data collection, processing, and analysis in Python, R, and SQL.; in computer science, data science/analytics, quantitative or computational social sciences, applied mathematics, public policy, economics, In addition, at least three years of work experience is required, with preference for those who have experience leading and/or conducting research
Demonstrate in-depth experience and mastery applying data science methods – including open source programming; machine learning; data linkage; statistical analysis; econometrics; and big data analysis. Ability to develop and oversee automated recurring tasks (e.g., web scraping, dashboarding, using 3rd party APIs).
Build and manage complex data pipelines, including ability to work with large relational datasets.
Exhibit fluency in programming and statistical software languages, such as Python, R, and SQL; Working knowledge of the AWS data product ecosystem (e.g., S3, ECS, Athena) or similar cloud-based products is preferred.
Build repeatable and well-documented processes and tools that can be used by other analytics team members; Demonstrate proficiency with version control such as Git.
Display stellar technical skills, strong project management and supervision experience, and an enthusiasm for Urban’s mission to create evidence-based research to enable informed policy debate.
Show a strong interest in the social sector
Be creative, intellectually curious, communicate and collaborate well, and have excellent interpersonal skills
Translate complex concepts and write technical research papers and nontechnical communications aimed at a more generalist audience.
Communicate effectively with researchers, policy experts, and decision makers
What you’ll experience: Working in the Nation’s Capital, the epicenter of public policy among a network of policy experts, you can expect to have an impact on policy areas you care about and work with great colleagues who are smart, mission-driven, and collaborative. You will blend academic rigor with on-the-ground collaboration, be encouraged and supported to fulfill your potential through meaningful work that matters, and enjoy a welcoming workplace free from harassment, discrimination and intolerance.
In addition, we offer a comprehensive benefits package that includes: medical, dental, disability, and life insurance coverage. Competitive paid time off allowance, and eligibility to participate in a generous retirement savings plan and reimbursable commuting expense program.
The Urban Institute is committed to Equal Employment Opportunity without regard for race, ethnicity, gender, protected veteran status, disability, sexual orientation, gender identity or any other protected status under applicable law.
The Urban Institute is an Equal Opportunity/Affirmative Action Employer Minorities/Women/Disabilities/Veterans.
What URL should people go to for more information?: https://urban.wd1.myworkdayjobs.com/en-US/Urban-Careers/job/The-Urban-Institute-DC/Data-Science-Associate--Center-on-Nonprofits-and-Philanthropy-_R-800967
