Democratic National Committee

Washington, DC

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Data Science Lead

Democratic National Committee

Data Science Lead

Data Science • Nonprofit

This job is no longer open

The Democratic National Committee’s Tech Team is hiring a Data Science Lead to head up our data science team and ensure the excellence of our data science models and offerings. The DNC’s data science models will help Democrats win elections all across the country by providing foundational guidance on strategy, resource allocation and effective voter outreach.

In this role, you will be a people and project manager, responsible for coaching and developing a team of data scientists and managing strategic data science initiatives to completion. You will also partner closely with Product Managers, Engineers and your Data Leads peers (Strategic Analytics, Analytics Engineering) to elevate our strategic impact and empower Democratic initiatives.

We’re looking for a strong technical leader, who can drive the development of best-in-class models, has ample experience working on social science, can coach and motivate a diverse team and is adept at managing relationships with stakeholders.

You can read more about the work we do on our Tech Team's blog.

Who we are:

The DNC Data Team team, which you will be a part of, is a team of analysts, analytics engineers and data scientists focused on providing best-in-class data products and insights that help Democrats up and down the ballot win elections. The three verticals of the Data team are Strategic Analytics, Data Science and Analytics Engineering. This role will lead the Data Science group and report into the Director of Data and Analytics.
As part of the DNC Tech team, you will be collaborating with Product Managers, Engineers, Security and IT to build and deliver technology used by candidates and organizers in all 50 states and 3,413 counties across the United States to analyze data, organize campaigns, raise money, and get out the vote on election day.
We are a fully remote, distributed team living in 19 states and from a variety of backgrounds. Some of us have worked in political campaigns, others in public sector tech, and others in industry. We value diversity in perspective, lived experience, and the many paths one may take into working in political technology. We believe deeply in the promise of breaking the boom-bust cycle of political tech work and building technology infrastructure that will support campaigns from cycle to cycle and will improve with every iteration.

What you'll do: Responsibilities

We're focused on equipping Democratic candidates and campaigns around the country with the data science models they need to win, and are looking for a Data Science Lead with a wide range of skill sets from statistical and technical proficiency to people management and strategic decision-making. Good candidates are willing to get nerdy about the details while staying focused on our goal of electing Democrats. Among other things, in this role you could help us:
Technical Leadership: You will lead a team focused on developing and delivering data science products to thousands of political campaigns. Major (but not exhaustive) areas of work include:
Overseeing and advising on the building and validation of multiple machine learning models per cycle to inform resource allocation and targeting of voter outreach,
Being well-versed and opinionated on best practices for all stages of the model development process
Collaborating on machine learning infrastructure and the design of statistically rigorous metrics to evaluate, release, maintain, and monitor those models.

Team Management: You will be a people and project manager, responsible for coaching and developing a team of data scientists and managing strategic data science initiatives to completion. Responsibilities here would include:
Partnering with Product to establish compelling and impactful roadmaps for data science work, aligned with organizational priorities and Tech Team mission
Managing projects to ensure proper scoping and delivery on time with all requirements met or exceeded
Coaching and developing direct reports in technical and behavioral skills to grow their career at the DNC or beyond
Ensuring high levels of job satisfaction from direct reports, manifesting in high morale and low attrition
Representing and advocating for direct reports’ needs and perspectives in cross-functional conversations

Strategic Data Science Vision: You will be the data science leader on the DNC data team (and the ecosystem at large) and will advance our holistic mission of providing data products that help Democrats win up and down the ballot. Areas of specific support here look like:
Having a vision for how data science can improve the effectiveness of candidates and state parties, and the ability to communicate that vision -- to the data science team, other internal stakeholders, field organizers, statisticians, candidates, and non-technical leadership.
Working with data science vendors to support both DNC modeling needs by managing relationships and contracts and advocating for users as well as encouraging vendor adoption of best practices throughout the Democratic ecosystem.

Other duties as assigned to support the department and the DNC's mission.

Some things that might make you right for this role: Qualifications

Good candidates might check many of these boxes, but don’t let this list stop you from applying:
You should:
Have minimum 2 years of experience managing technical data science/engineering teams including project management, professional coaching and culture management
Have extensive experience building and deploying high-impact machine learning pipelines into production
Have experience doing data science or statistics in a social sciences or business context, which may include electoral politics, but definitely includes familiarity with survey-based modeling and advanced sampling/weighting techniques
Be confident using one or more of the following scripting languages: Python (pandas, matplotlib, sklearn), R
Be confident using SQL (BigQuery familiarity is a plus)
Have experience using cloud computing platforms and their ML services (such as BigQuery ML/Vertex AI on GCP, Sagemaker on AWS, or Azure) or using machine learning infrastructure built on open-source tools (e.g. MLflow)
Have experience using pipeline orchestration tools (e.g. Airflow)
Have experience using data analysis/visualization tools (e.g. Excel/Sheets, Tableau, Looker)
Have strong written and verbal communication skills, and experience explaining technical concepts to both technical and non-technical audiences. You won’t just be building data science products, but you’ll be helping us ensure our diverse users trust them and know how to use them for their individual needs.
Be curious, collaborative, and humble – ready to work with a diverse, distributed team to solve interesting problems together.
You may:
Have a PhD or MS in a relevant discipline (statistics, data science, machine learning, mathematics, information science, computer science, political science, demography, etc.)
Have a keen understanding of the importance of process automation and reusable tools to a data science team (having engineering skills or experience in this area yourself is a significant plus);
Improving and extending our internal record linkage tooling
Have experience working with data vendors including relationship management, technical validation and budgetary oversight
Have experience working with political data like state voter files, election results, or data on voter, volunteer, or donor engagement and/or the DNC’s data and analytics tools, including experience doing analysis in our BigQuery-based data warehouse (Phoenix) or exposure to political CRMs (e.g. VoteBuilder, NGP VAN, BSD)
Understand the role data can play in strategic program planning; you think of analysis through the lens of the decisions it will inform, and are deeply focused on asking the right questions before you dive into the weeds of any particular analysis

This is a remote position that can be based anywhere in the United States. This is a full-time, exempt position, that may require work on weekends. The Data Science Lead position will require travel, which could be up to 15% of the time. The salary for the Data Science Lead position is $130,000 on an annualized basis, commensurate with experience and qualifications.

Benefits:

The DNC offers a generous benefit package, including:

- More than 30 days of paid time off, including Federal holidays, open leave, and personal days;

- Health and dental insurance for employee and dependents;

- 90% paid by the DNC, 10% paid by employee;

- Supplementary vision plans available to employees for purchase;

- Up to a 5% employer match DNC 401(k) plan;

- Employee Assistance Program (EAP) available to DNC employees and their dependents at no cost to staff;

- Pre-tax Flexible spending account benefits available to employees and dependents.

This job is no longer open