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Senior Data Scientist, In Our Backyards - Brooklyn, NY or Remote

Who we are

The Vera Institute of Justice, founded in 1961, envisions a society that respects the dignity of every person and safeguards justice for everyone. Vera is committed to securing equal justice, ending mass incarceration, and strengthening families and communities. 

  • We study problems that impede human dignity and justice. 
  • We pilot solutions that are at once transformative and achievable. 
  • We engage diverse communities in informed debate. 
  • And we harness the power of evidence to drive effective policy and practice. 

We work with others who share our vision to tackle the most pressing injustices of our day—from mass incarceration, racial disparities, and the loss of public trust in law enforcement to the unmet needs of people who are vulnerable, marginalized, and harmed by crime and violence. Vera has offices in New York City, Washington, DC, Los Angeles, and New Orleans. Vera is an equal opportunity employer with a commitment to diversity in the workplace. We hire employees that reflect our values: respect, independence, collaboration, commitment, and race equity. If you want to learn more about life at Vera click here

 

What you’ll do

The Senior Data Scientist will lead data engineering, collection and analytics for the In Our Backyards (IOB) team. They will manage at least two data engineers and work closely with other researchers, policy advocates, and communications colleagues. Their work will leverage and improve Vera’s existing repository of incarceration data, including the public-facing Incarceration Trends Project, and include maintaining web scrapers, developing new ways of collecting information about the criminal justice system, processing that data, and publicly sharing results. Their work products will also support the analytics needs of our network of community grantees, published reports, and campaigns to shape federal, state and local policy and practice changes (currently with a particular emphasis on Indiana, Kentucky, and Tennessee).

 

The Senior Data Scientist’s responsibilities include:

  • Maintain and optimize a large data collection project on jails and prisons in the United States
  • Support quantitative analysis of incarceration data and public spending to support policy change.
  • Clean and format data for analysis and visualization
  • Analyze the impact of criminal justice policy and the impact of other social and economic policies on incarceration.
  • Manage at least two data engineers
  • Collaborate with and train community and coalition partners, including grantee network.
  • Collaboratively identify research questions and priorities that support our work.
  • Support other team tasks, as required

 

What qualifications you will need

The Senior Data Scientist candidate will have the following qualifications:

  • A personal and professional dedication to issues of race, equity, and fairness, and a commitment to grappling with creative and concrete ways to use data to shift power and advance equity and inclusion.
  • At least three years of related work experience
  • At least one year management experience.
  • Bachelor's degree preferred. Advanced degree, a plus. 
  • Demonstrated proficiency working with data collection, processing, and analysis in Python, with preference for experience with web scraping and using Python Pandas library.
  • Experience maintaining and optimizing large and complex software projects.
  • Experience maintaining and optimizing SQL databases in a cloud-based environment.
  • Full-stack development experience, with preference for software engineering experience.
  • Experience or familiarity conducting analysis of social policy or legal regulation is preferred.

 

The Nitty – Gritty

  • This is a full-time position located at Vera’s Brooklyn, New York office
  • The salary for this position is approximately $100K annual, plus excellent benefits

How to apply

Please submit a cover letter and resume. Applications will be considered on a rolling basis until the position is filled. Online submission in PDF format (through Vera’s career page) is preferred.  No phone calls, please. Only applicants selected for interviews will be contacted.  

 

ATTN: Human Resources / Senior Data Scientist, In Our Backyards
Vera Institute of Justice
34 35th St, Suite 4-2A, Brooklyn, NY 11232
Fax: (212) 941-9407
Please use only one method (online, mail or fax) of submission.
No phone calls, please. Only applicants selected for interviews will be contacted.

 

Vera is an equal opportunity/affirmative action employer.  All qualified applicants will be considered for employment without unlawful discrimination based on race, color, creed, national origin, sex, age, disability, marital status, sexual orientation, military status, prior record of arrest or conviction, citizenship status, current employment status, or caregiver status. Vera works to advance justice, particularly racial justice, in an increasingly multicultural country and globally connected world. We value diverse experiences, including with regard to educational background and justice system contact, and depend on a diverse staff to carry out our mission. 

 

For more information about Vera, please visit www.vera.org

 

 

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