Job Information
City of New York SENIOR RESEARCH ASSOCIATE in New York, New York
Job Description
The Mayor’s Office for Economic Opportunity (NYC Opportunity) helps the City apply evidence and innovation to reduce poverty and increase equity. We work to improve the systems of government by advancing the use of research, data, and design in program and policy development, service delivery, and budget decisions. Our work includes analyzing existing anti-poverty approaches, developing new strategies, facilitating the sharing of data across City agencies, and rigorously assessing the impact of key initiatives.
NYC Opportunity manages a discrete fund and works collaboratively with City agencies to design, test, and oversee new programs and digital products. NYC Opportunity also produces research and analysis of poverty and social conditions, including its influential annual Poverty Measure, which provides a more accurate and comprehensive picture of poverty in New York City than the federal rate. NYC Opportunity is active in making equity a core governing principle across all agencies.
The Poverty Research Unit (PRU) publishes the NYCgov poverty measure for New York City that is a nationally recognized metric for evaluating and targeting policies intended to reduce poverty. The NYCgov poverty measure has become an important tool for evaluating policies, assessing the progress the city has made over time in reducing poverty, and designing new policies to reduce current levels of economic deprivation. NYC Opportunity also releases an annual brief on the economic condition of immigrants in New York City, connecting economic outcomes to legal status.
We are seeking a qualified candidate to fill a permanent, full-time Senior Research Associate position. The position involves both data management and data analysis tasks. Data management includes streamlining the production of poverty metrics with version control, managing query efficiency, and adjusting data structures and toolsets as needed to meet evolving requirements. Data analysis that will be related to poverty metrics, anti-poverty policies, and equity issues.
The position includes primary responsibility for maintaining and advancing NYC Opportunity’s poverty metrics, and assisting in production of the NYCgov poverty measure. The position requires collaboration within the team and with cross-functional teams to extract insights from various data sources, build and maintain data pipelines, and develop impactful visualizations.
The Mayor’s Office for Economic Opportunity (NYC Opportunity) is looking to hire one (1) City Research Scientist III to function as a Senior Research Associate who will:
Data Architecture Leadership:
Structuring and cleaning data for Poverty Research Unit
Coordinate and manage data across income-components and version control of poverty metrics
Streamlining production of poverty research data to ensure fast access to metrics
Documenting research databases including description of content, context, and changes; enhancing ability to promote discovery through use of data
Reviewing annual releases of American Community Survey for data changes, implementing compatibility with existing data and code, advising on potential impact in production of poverty metrics
Data Analysis and Visualization:
Contributing to annual production of the NYCgov poverty measure
Responding to rapid data requests
Supporting modeling of policy alternatives and their comparative outcomes (anti-poverty impacts and distributional consequences)
Identifying key stories (e.g., disparities in economic well-being across population cohorts) to drive engagement and decision-making across city agencies
Hands-on leadership in applied statistics:
o Actively participating in technical projects and providing guidance to other team members including semi-parametric modeling, missing data imputation, principal components analysis techniques.
Data Insights and strategies:
Formulate hypotheses and economic measures to drive insights and value creation.
Collaborate with the product team to create user-friendly applications to help the city agencies use our data products.
Data pipeline management and collaboration:
Build and maintain various indicator data pipelines with city agencies and external partners, ensuring efficient data flow and integrity.
Own the development and maintenance of data pipelines including new data on economic security and risks
Efficiency Optimization
Guide data architecture towards modern and efficient approaches
Manage query efficiency and adjust data structures and toolsets as needed to meet evolving requirements
Work Location: 253 Broadway, New York, NY
Hours/Schedule: Monday-Friday, 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.
Qualifications
- For Assignment Level I (only physical, biological and environmental sciences and public health) A master's degree from an accredited college or university with a specialization in an appropriate field of physical, biological or environmental science or in public health.
To be appointed to Assignment Level II and above, candidates must have:
A doctorate degree from an accredited college or university with specialization in an appropriate field of physical, biological, environmental or social science and one year of full-time experience in a responsible supervisory, administrative or research capacity in the appropriate field of specialization; or
A master's degree from an accredited college or university with specialization in an appropriate field of physical, biological, environmental or social science and three years of responsible full-time research experience in the appropriate field of specialization; or
Education and/or experience which is equivalent to "1" or "2" above. However, all candidates must have at least a master's degree in an appropriate field of specialization and at least two years of experience described in "2" above. Two years as a City Research Scientist Level I can be substituted for the experience required in "1" and "2" above.
NOTE:
Probationary Period
Appointments to this position are subject to a minimum probationary period of one year.
Additional Information
The City of New York is an inclusive equal opportunity employer committed to recruiting and retaining a diverse workforce and providing a work environment that is free from discrimination and harassment based upon any legally protected status or protected characteristic, including but not limited to an individual's sex, race, color, ethnicity, national origin, age, religion, disability, sexual orientation, veteran status, gender identity, or pregnancy.
