Data Scientist Research Fellow

In the face of the increasing danger posed by Covid-19 to people held in jails and prisons, the UCLA Prison Law and Policy Program launched the UCLA Covid-19 Behind Bars Data Project. The Project tracks Covid-19 conditions in jails and prisons and the efforts, both in and out of court, to decrease jail and prison populations and improve conditions to ensure the safety of residents and staff. UCLA School of Law seeks Data Scientist Research Fellow to track viral spread, screening procedures, testing, and analyze COVID-19 infections and deaths in carceral facilities (prisons, jails, immigration detention centers, and juvenile detention centers).

Appropriate candidates will have significant experience with data science and the criminal justice system, alongside skills in Python, R, or a similar language. In particular, they should have proficiency in: (1) scraping and compiling data from a range of web sources, (2) data management and cleaning, (3) statistical methods, (4) data visualization, (5) drafting and organizing public records requests to gather relevant documents from state agencies, and (6) carrying out optical character recognition on differently formatted government documents to centralize requested data into a machine readable format.

Percentage of Time:
100%

Shift Start:
8:00 am

Shift End:
5:00 pm

Qualifications for Position

9
Records

Qualifications

Required/Preferred

Bachelor's degree in a related field or equivalent combination of education and experience.

Required

Familiarity with the criminal justice system.

Required

Experience with Python, R, or a similar statistical computer languages to manipulate data and draw insights from large data sets.

Required

Experience managing large and diverse research teams with varying levels of data science literacy.

Preferred

Desire to work in a collaborative and diverse environment.

Required

Outstanding initiative, judgment, attention to detail, ability to work independently and problem solve creatively.

Required

Exceptional analytical, writing, and editing ability.

Required

Demonstrated ability to present research findings in written, verbal, or electronic formats to be understood by various audiences to arrive jointly at decisions, conclusions, or solutions.

Required

Ability to work after hours or evenings and weekends, as needed, to fulfill job responsibilities.

Required

Additional Posting Information

Bargaining Unit:
99-Policy Covered

Application Deadline:
02-23-2021

External Posting Date: