Data Scientist

Salary : $113,103.36 - $152,409.84 Annually
Location : Los Angeles County, CA
Job Type: Full time
Job Number: PH1763B
Department: PUBLIC HEALTH
Opening Date: 02/27/2025

Position/Program Information
THIS ANNOUNCEMENT IS BEING REPOSTED TO REOPEN THE FILING PERIOD TO ALLOW ADDITIONAL

APPLICATION FILING AND UPDATE BULLETIN LANGUAGE.
EXAM NUMBER:

PH1763B
TYPE OF RECRUITMENT:

We welcome applications from anyone.
FIRST DAY OF FILING:

The application filing period will begin on Monday, March 3, 2025 at 8:30 a.m. Pacific Time (PT) - Continuous.

We will keep accepting applications until the position is filled. The application window may close unexpectedly once we have enough qualified candidates.
No out-of-class experience will be accepted.
DEFINITION:

Under general supervision, develops and applies methods to identify, collect, process, organize, and analyze structured and unstructured data using statistical prediction, inference, and optimization; effectively communicates results to County, departmental, and divisional decision makers to support data-driven program design and management.
CLASSIFICATION STANDARDS:

This is the second working level in the professional data science/analysis series. Positions allocable to this class work under the general direction of a Data Science Supervisor or supervisor or manager responsible for the data analytics, research, or statistical function of a department, independently performing duties of considerable difficulty to complete moderately complex projects or major aspects of large/complex projects that may be divisional, departmental, or Countywide in scope. Incumbents deploy techniques such as data extraction, transformation, and loading; classical statistical analysis and machine learning, including predictive and prescriptive modeling and optimization; and data visualization, to generate critical information and knowledge and effectively communicate findings to technical and nontechnical stakeholders to support data-driven program design, management, and decision-making. Incumbents work with data sets characterized by large volume, moderate complexity, and significant heterogeneity, integrating data from various sources, requiring direct collaboration with data engineers and other IT staff to design and provide feedback on data systems and processes necessary to support their work.
Data Scientist is distinguished from the Senior Data Scientist in that the latter applies subject-matter expertise to identify new and emerging business problems, whereas the Data Scientist works under general supervision to develop methods of interrogating data in order to solve previously identified business problems. The Data Scientist is distinguished from the Predictive Data Analyst in that the latter applies well-established analytic principles, methods, and procedures within existing data systems and architectures to complete well-defined, routine to moderately difficult functions and projects, whereas Data Scientists may develop or assist in developing new analytic methods, functions, and data architectures as necessary to complete complex projects, including those involving unstructured data.

Positions in this class differ from those that plan, design, conduct and evaluate research projects involving complex experimental designs and data analysis, programming and processing of data, and preparing reports and recommendations based on research findings, in that these classes do not employ machine learning or big data as part of their analyses.

Essential Job Functions

• Collaborates with division, department, and countywide stakeholders to solicit, define, and manage data science projects from conception through implementation, including identifying and developing statements of business problems; conducting exploratory data analysis and data mining; developing model specification requirements; and conducting advanced statistical analyses.
• Develops and presents visualizations of findings and recommendations that can be used to support business decisions and allocate resources.
• Works with departmental stakeholders to document business requirements and helps frame business problems so that appropriate corresponding data science techniques can be identified and applied.
• Collaborates with department subject matter experts to understand, identify, and select available and relevant sources of data for use cases, including internal, external, structured, and unstructured data sources.
• Works with departmental Information Technology organization to support collection, integration, and retention requirements for large sets of structured and unstructured data from various sources and consults with data engineers and architects on the design and architecture of relevant data systems and processes.
• Collaborates with other Data Scientists, Analysts, and IT staff to select, evaluate, improve, and document tools and systems in order to strengthen divisional and departmental analytic capacity.
• Independently conducts advanced analytical studies for the resolution of business problems and transfigures data into critical information by selecting and deploying appropriate advanced statistical techniques such as machine learning, bivariate and multivariate analyses, predictive/prescriptive analytics, and optimization.
• Uses statistical computer scripting, domain-specific, and programming languages and other software and tools to digest, manipulate, prepare, augment, evaluate, analyze, summarize, and visualize data.
• Plans, designs, and manages experiments, consumer surveys, and other data collection projects to augment existing sources of data as necessary to solve business problems.
• Reviews the work of Predictive Data Analysts and other lower-level analysts assigned to project for quality-control purposes.
• Conveys findings and conclusions of work orally, in writing, visually, in presentations, and by developing interactive tools as appropriate to communicate effectively with a wide range of audiences, including technical and nontechnical staff, stakeholders, and members of the public.
• Works with program staff to understand the implications of analyses and to ensure that findings are actionable and support data-driven program, policy, and operational decision-making.
• Assists in implementing recommended business process changes in ways that both retain fidelity to best practices identified through the analysis and recognize the operational realities underlying existing business processes.
• Works with functional teams to develop and implement products, services, and tools, such as dashboards and reports, emerging from the analysis.
• Contributes to advanced analytic products (e.g., Recommender Engines, Auto Classification algorithms, Predictive Scoring, geo-spatial clustering, NLP classifier, etc.) and helps place them in production.
• Recommends ongoing improvements to methods and algorithms that lead to findings, including new information.
• Provides business metrics for departmental projects to show improvements both initially and over multiple iterations. Provides ongoing tracking and monitoring of performance of decision systems and statistical models and troubleshoots and implements enhancements and fixes to systems as needed.
• Accesses ongoing training and professional development to maintain familiarity with current industry and academic research to apply the latest and most useful statistical learning techniques to help extract pattern and trends from data.
• Develops relationships with local academic data science programs to foster recruitment of data science interns and is responsible for overseeing their work on departmental data science projects.

Requirements
SELECTION REQUIREMENTS:

Two (2) years of experience applying machine learning, predictive analytics, data management, and hypothesis-driven data analysis to produce actionable recommendations to support data-driven program, policy, and operational decision-making.
LICENSE:

A valid California Class C Driver License or the ability to utilize alternative method of transportation when needed to carry out job-related essential functions.

PHYSICAL CLASS:
Physical Class II - Light: This class includes administrative and clerical positions requiring light physical effort that may include occasional light lifting to a 10 pound limit and some bending, stooping, or squatting. Considerable ambulation may be involved.

DESIRABLE QUALIFICATIONS:
Credit will be given to applicants who possess the following desirable qualifications:

• Additional experience beyond the Selection Requirements.

Additional Information

EXAMINATION CONTENT:
This assessment type will evaluate the experience you list on a questionnaire and assign a score based on a standardized scoring system.

This part of the assessment is worth 100% of your total score and assesses: Selection Requirements and Desirable Qualifications.
Candidates must meet the Selection Requirements and must achieve a passing score of 70% or higher on the examination in order to be added on the Eligible Register.
Passing this examination and being added to the Eligible Register does not guarantee an offer of employment.
ELIGIBILITY INFORMATION:
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