Data Scientist

Location and hours:
This position is remote. Remote workers may be required to come on-site an average of 0 to 12 days a year for work meetings, trainings, or for any other reasons that their supervisor may deem necessary (may include additional days for onboarding and new employee training). Supervisors will provide as much advance notice as practicable.

New employees who are hired into remote or hybrid positions between January 2, 2022 to December 31, 2024, will receive $500 toward the cost of establishing consistent internet connectivity, payable upon completion of 6 months of employment.

About the position type:
This is a limited duration (temporary), grant funded benefit earning position. This position is internally classified as a Planning Analyst, Principal. Click here to view the job classification specification.

Effective September 1, 2021, all new job offers are conditional based on the candidate being fully vaccinated for COVID-19. “Fully vaccinated” means 14 days after receiving the second dose in a two-dose vaccination series approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on a full or emergency-use basis, or 14 days after receiving a single-dose vaccine approved by the FDA on a full or emergency-use basis. After a conditional job offer is made, the candidate must show proof of full vaccination prior to their start date. A COVID-19 vaccination card from the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), a vaccination record from your doctor’s office or a personal digital vaccination record constitutes sufficient “proof.” The candidate must also attest they are vaccinated by completing a form on the first day of employment. Reasonable accommodations to this vaccination requirement will be considered upon request by a candidate for medical or religious reasons as required by applicable law.

In this position, you will:

• Develop data science and advanced analytics projects from concept to production, based on business need.
• Query, transform, and clean data from a variety of state and county databases, for use in data science and analytics projects.
• Identify new datasets and approaches for mining existing data.
• Execute ad-hoc analyses, ongoing models, and report development to solve various problems and meaningfully impact county strategies.
• Analyze, interpret, and present data to meet the needs of multiple stakeholders and diverse audiences.
• Advance practices related to report automation, data processes, and data-ops.
• Provide leadership and insight to support data informed decision making and promoting data culture.

Need to have:

• One of the following:
  • Bachelor's degree or higher in any field and a minimum of two courses in data science, research methods, data analytics, or statistics and four years or more of relevant data analyst, data science, or applied research experience.
  • Bachelor's degree or higher in one of the fields listed below and three years or more of relevant data analyst, data science, or applied research experience.
  • Master's degree or higher in one of the fields listed below and two years or more of relevant data analyst, data science, or applied research experience.
  • Ph.D. degree in data science, data analytics, business analytics, business administration, public administration/policy, research/evaluation methods, statistics, behavioral/social science, public health, computer science/MIS, management science, urban/city planning, or any field appropriate to the area of specialization.

Nice to have:

• Ability to:
  • Gather and analyze information, design and test solutions to problems, and create and revise models.
  • Present and communicate complex analyses to a variety of stakeholders.
  • Identify data and analytics opportunities that help solve business problems.
  • Build and nurture collaborative relationships with a variety of customers/partners, both internal and external.
  • Successfully manage multiple priorities and projects, and work independently.
• Knowledge of:
  • Data science processes and principles (i.e. business/data understanding, data preparation, modeling, data visualization, evaluation, and deployment).
  • Statistics, quantitative research principles, and/or machine learning (e.g., descriptive and inferential statistics, prediction and forecasting, classification, clustering).
  • Advanced skills using programming languages for data science and/or applied research (R, Python).
  • Intermediate skills using with business intelligence tools (e.g., Power BI, SSRS, Tableau, QlikView) and/or cloud computing platforms (Azure, Databricks, Spark, Hadoop).
  • Data-ops, dev-ops, or similar data project and life-cycle management approaches.
  • Cloud based data science, big data, and analytics tools (e.g. DataBricks, data factory, synapse, etc.)
• Experience of:
  • Statistics, quantitative research methods, and/or machine learning to solve real-world problems.
  • SQL to query from large and complex databases.
  • Experience working with data lake architectures and/or other cloud based data structures.
  • Experience working with graph databases.
  • Familiarity with county government processes and data.

About the department:
The Strategic Planning Department guides and coordinates enterprise and cross line-of-business strategic plans, initiatives, and priorities to help ensure the successful integration of data, projects, and investments into countywide strategies.

About Hennepin County:
Hennepin is the largest county government organization in Minnesota. Our employees work every day to improve the health, safety and quality of life for our residents and communities. All of our jobs align to one or more of our overarching goals - that Hennepin County residents are healthy, protected and safe, self-reliant, assured due process, and mobile.

Our employees receive a combination of generous benefits and positive workplace culture not found at other organizations. This includes meaningful work that impacts our community, competitive pay, work-life balance, a variety of benefits and opportunities to grow. Learn more at www.hennepin.us/employees.

Hennepin County envisions an organization where our commitment to diversity and the reduction of disparities is fundamental in providing excellent service to our community.

Your future. Made here.

This posting may be used to fill current and future vacancies.

This position will have access to systems or other documentation that contains HIPAA data.

Invitations to interview will be based upon an assessment of education and experience.
Final candidates may be required to complete a drug test and/or background check.

If you have any questions, please contact:
Jessica Damm
[email protected]

Why work here?

Hennepin County embraces the Total Rewards philosophy. We want our employees to succeed – not only at work but as they move through life and its milestones. We offer advantages and opportunities others can't – including:

• Meaningful work
• Public service
• Competitive pay
• Work-life balance
• Generous benefits
• Opportunities to grow
• Commitment to your success

By working in public service, we are a part of something larger than ourselves. Together, we support those in need. We help people access information and services. We empower vibrant and diverse communities. We serve residents.

Employee Benefits Summary

Visit our benefits page to learn more: www.hennepin.us/employees

If you are a current Hennepin County employee please be aware that any change in job classification may affect your current benefits (such as a conversion from Vacation/Sick Leave to Paid Time Off and/or enrollment in a Health Care Saving Plan.) .