Blue Star Families

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Data Scientist

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Security Clearance: None

Job Title: Data Scientist
Department: Social Impact
Location: Remote/Virtual
Reports to: EVP of Social Impact
Classification: Exempt
Position Type: Full-Time
Pay Band: $79,632 - $119,448

Blue Star Families:

We're a growing non-profit (Military Service Organization (MSO)) with a history of delivering innovative solutions. We're the team that senior DoD leaders seek out when they want ground truth on issues facing our military families. Our team members are motivated individuals that help each other do remarkable things for military families to bridge the civilian-military divide every day. We deliver first-class solutions that transform the military experience for military family members. We operate in an agile, highly caffeinated arena where great minds come together to make life better for military members and their families. We focus on data-driven insights while understanding the value of spirited storytelling. And we do all this in a highly flexible, virtual environment with unlimited PTO, time off for military moves, paid holidays, 403b match, and benefits! Our diverse and inclusive environment fosters a sense of belonging among our team resulting in innovative and creative decision-making.

Are you ready to make a difference for the families of those who serve our great nation? We are the ideal match for the innovator, the out-of-the-box, strategic thinker who understands the value of social impact. You are self-motivated, curious, and have a passion to do good. Challenging objectives, pivoting priorities, and the ability to react to an ever-changing environment that allows your true strengths to shine.

General Description:

Blue Star Families is embarking on an organization-wide digital transformation in 2023. We will be creating an integrated, flexible, and personalized mobile system tailored to meet the needs of the current and future generations of service members and their families. We will also be revamping our internal data collection practices and supplementing our current social impact research portfolio with data science and social network analysis methodologies. This Data Science position will sit at the intersection of those efforts.

In partnership with the EVP of Social Impact and the VP of Tech, this Data Scientist will be one of the internal drivers behind the integration of technological adoption across our programs and internal teams to create a holistic, structured, and clean data repository across the organization. They will also help to design and implement best practices around data measurement and longitudinal social impact tracking with the Programs and Applied Research teams.

This position requires a strategic thinker, with keen analytical skills, and a commitment to ethical AI practices – and who genuinely enjoys working across diverse teams and translating data insights to non-data scientists. Additional tasks and projects that the Data Scientist will be a key stakeholder in are: As-needed data product development to support internal team needs, contributing to impact reports, supporting outcome measurement, and generating actionable data within our Programs, Chapters, and Membership teams.

If you are passionate about creating data pipelines, cleaning up raw datasets, discovering user trends and patterns, and being part of a team looking to bridge military and civilian divides and create a greater sense of social cohesion at a national scale: We want to hear from you!

Key Job Functions:

Workflow Design - Scope and manage end-to-end data collection pipelines and analysis

Maintain and optimize large data collection projects on membership, volunteer engagement, and programmatic participation. (In time, this could include both scraped public datasets and datasets provided by partner organizations.)

Undertake exploratory analyses to inform plans for delivering new AI/ML-based features

Develop tools to monitor our models and ensure their performance

Write Python code for training, evaluating, deploying, and monitoring machine learning models

Design data architecture to collect, clean, and format data for end products in analysis and visualization.

Serves as a collaborative thought partner to both the EVP of Social Impact and the VP of Tech on best practices and digital adoption needs across the organization.

Contribute to the team’s knowledge and help us come up with the best processes for our team

Advocate for best data practices including thinking about what data we should be collecting

Impact Analysis - Collaborate with Programs and Applied Research Teams

Lead quantitative analysis of membership engagement and programmatic outcomes in order to discover trends over time – then can in turn inform programmatic offerings and outreach strategies.

Develop new data and research projects collaboratively with colleagues on the Social Impact team.

Support report writing with contributions on analytical methods and results.

Serve as resident Data Science and/or Social Network Analysis advisor for Applied Research and Program Evaluation teams

Cross-Functional Engagement - Collaborate and support teams across Blue Star Families’ teams

Develop data collection and analysis products to serve departmental (Chapters, Comms, Membership) needs.

Support teammates on site-based work with skill development and adoption of best practices on data collection.

Required skills, experience, and background:

Advanced degree required

Prior experience within the social good/social impact data science space (course work, fellowships, work experience all apply)

Understanding of and deep commitment to ethical practices and data science best practices, especially as they relate to the public, non-profit, and government sectors

Knowledge of advanced statistical techniques

Academic or applied experience with social network mapping and analysis

Experience building dashboards in Tableau

Experience building data models in Tableau Prep

Programming knowledge in Python and SQL

Strong analytical and critical thinking skills

Strong written, and verbal communications as well as presentation skills.

Proactive self-starter who can work collaboratively

Solid knowledge of Google Analytics

Experience working with Salesforce or similar platforms

Excellent project management and organization skills

2-3+ years of relevant experience

Desired experience, skills, background:

PhD preferred

Experience with membership-driven organizations

Familiarity with the military community

About Blue Star Families:

Blue Star Families empowers military and Veteran families to thrive by connecting them with their civilian neighbors — both people and organizations — to create strong communities of mutual support. We believe we're all stronger when we take care of one another.

Our groundbreaking research is raising the nation's awareness of the unique challenges of military family life. With the help of neighbors across the country, Blue Star Families is overcoming the isolation and alienation of frequent moves, deployments, and reduced support from the government. Our innovative programs are solving specific challenges for military families, including fighting economic insecurity with resources that foster spouse career development, creating family strength with rich family programming, and providing critical peer support for caregivers, whose numbers are only increasing.

Blue Star Families is a registered 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization.

EEO Policy:

Blue Star Families is an equal opportunity employer and all qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation.