We are looking for a full-time data scientist/visualization specialist to work with the ZevRoss Spatial Analysis (ZRSA) team to transform, visualize, and communicate data for a wide range of innovative projects and clients. This position could be filled by a junior-, mid- or senior-level candidate and can be local in Ithaca or fully remote. This position is open to candidates qualified to work in the United States and is ineligible for visa sponsorship.
The ideal candidate would be someone with experience in data analysis and visualization with both non-geographic and geographic data. Skills in design are a plus.
We are prioritizing candidates with R experience but those with other software backgrounds (SAS, Stata, Python) will be considered.
What You Will Do:
- Make sense of data. In other words, really think about the data and the story the data can tell.
- Work with (and tame!) often messy data from a wide variety of sources—this includes, for example, Excel, JSON, CSV, databases.
- Process data into meaningful structures so that it can be communicated in graphics, maps, and dashboards. Propose, create, and iterate data visualizations for a diversity of formats—from dynamic views on public websites to graphics for scientific papers and beyond.
- Work with the ZRSA team to develop and complete dozens of projects per year, often focused on environmental and health topics.
- Prepare static and interactive data visualizations.
- Work with clients to realize their vision for data analysis and visualization, often shepherding a project from start to finish.
An example of a real project the Data Analyst might work on
For many years we have worked with a public health research organization. On their behalf we often create a combination of static and interactive charts and static and interactive maps. We tend to use R (ggplot2, highcharter), highcharts.js and D3.js for these. We also often create a larger interactive, data-driven web application for them and may programatically create a series of reports with Rmarkdown – perhaps one for each state, or one for each country.
In order to produce all these products we work directly with the client to determine the full set of materials required. In some cases, this might also involve some super-quick proof of concept charts to give the client some ideas. Generally, the client might provide 5-10 different input datasets in CSV and Excel – some of which need cleaning and many need to be joined/merged together. Each of the different products requires a different set of technical skills and each might require a different data input.
On a project like this, the Data Scientist/Visualization Specialist is expected to organize and process the data, propose visualization and design options, create visualizations or work with our software engineer to dynamically display data on the web. They will also project manage, by communicating with the client, keeping track of deliverables and GitHub issues and iterating to realize the client’s goals.
Required experience for all candidates
- Proven experience with data management and analysis software, preferably R. We would expect all applicants to know how to programmatically read data, join tables and restructure data.
- Experience with data visualization. At its most basic, this would be preparing plots with ggplot2 or other tools to highlight data. The candidate must be able to create data visualizations with a programming language.
- Strong organizational skills. This is a truly important skill. Our projects often involve hundreds of GitHub issues with alterations to deliverables and other requests and these need to be carefully organized and addressed.
- Strong communication skills in English
Qualifications for the junior-level position
This list of qualifications is for guidance but there is no strict delineation between junior-, mid- and senior-level. More experience in one area might offset less experience in another.
Junior-level qualifications include all qualifications listed above for “all candidates” plus:
- 1-3 years of experience analyzing and visualizing data
- Experience with Git/GitHub (or Bitbucket) preferably with a record of commits
Qualifications for the mid- or senior-level position
This list of qualifications is for guidance but there is no strict delineation between junior-, mid- and senior-level. More experience in one area might offset less experience in another.
Mid- and Senior-level qualifications include all qualifications listed above for Junior candidates plus:
- More than 3 years of experience analyzing and visualizing data
- Significant programming experience. In R this might mean experience with, for example, purrr, haven, DT, leaflet/tmap, sf, data.table, tidyr packages.
- Experience working with geographic data
- Experience working with databases such as PostgreSQL and some experience writing SQL
Experience that would strengthen your application
We can benefit from a variety of technical skills. None of these are required, but if you have any they will help your application.
- User experience (UX/UI), wireframing or prototyping (in, for example, Figma)
- Experience with CSS
- Experience developing R packages
- Data journalism
- Experience developing R/Shiny applications
- Experience working with AWS or other cloud services and/or experience working with Docker
- JavaScript experience (D3, React, etc.)
- Tableau, PowerBI or related experience
- Experience with design using products such as Photoshop and Illustrator
- Some statistical experience. For example, experience running regression or random forestmodels.
Design skills would also strengthen your application
We would love to find someone with an eye for design. Data visualization is a key component of this role and default ggplot2 charts are often not good enough! We create custom static and interactive data visualizations for clients so someone with some design experience (Adobe, Figma etc) would be helpful, but it’s not required.
Expected salary
For the benefits and details about the company see the bottom of this page.
- For a junior-level position the salary range is $60,000-$75,000 USD
- For the mid- to senior-level position the salary range is $75,000-$90,000 USD
To apply for the Data Scientist/Visualization Specialist position
Please send a cover letter and a CV/resume to jobs@zevross.com.
In your cover letter please include:
- An explanation for why you are interested in this position and why you would be a goodfit.
- A link to your GitHub, LinkedIn and Twitter accounts if you have one. Showing a history of GitHub commits would be helpful. Note that even if many of your repositories are private you can set GitHub to show a history of your commits to these repositories.
- An explanation of how you might keep the work organized in a project like the one described above or in a project you’ve actually worked on.
- Links to any examples of your work. These can include scripts, graphics, reports.
- Include details on whether you would prefer to work remotely and let us know if you would only consider the position at the mid- to senior-level.
We are committed to equal employment opportunity regardless of race, color, ancestry, religion, sex, national origin, sexual orientation, age, citizenship, marital status, disability, gender identity or Veteran status.
About Us:
We are a data science shop focused on working with and visualizing data. A significant chunk of our work involves creating rich data-driven and interactive web apps usually with maps and other graphics to help clients tell a story.
We built, for example, the Health Equity Assessment Toolkit (HEAT), a Shiny application, for the World Health Organization and we built the Incarceration Trends data tool for the Vera Institute of Justice – this one is non-Shiny using React.js.
The data science industry has been growing dramatically over the past several years and you’ll have an opportunity to be part of projects that combine modern data analysis and visualization tools in an effort to make sense of data and convey key messages.
Our office is in the heart of downtown Ithaca, NY; a vibrant college town in the Finger Lakes of New York State. Ithaca is consistently listed as a great place to live due to its walkability, lively downtown and proximity to natural features (waterfalls!). For example, Ithaca was ranked:
- Best college town in America (Business Insider)
- 2nd Best Small College Town in the US (USA Today)
- Top 25 Youngest Best Places to Live (CNN Money)
- Top 10 Great Places to Live (Kiplinger’s Personal Finance)
Benefits:
- Competitive salary, commensurate with experience
- Health and dental benefits
- SIMPLE IRA with matching contributions up to 3%
- Flexible Spending Account
- Performance-based end of year bonus
- Paid vacation and additional paid sick/personal time off (3 weeks in your first year and 4 weeks thereafter)
- Paid maternity and paternity leave
- A strong commitment to work-life balance. Seriously