Senior Data Scientist

About CDI

The Constructive Dialogue Institute (CDI) is a non-partisan non-profit dedicated to equipping the next generation of Americans with the skills to communicate and collaborate across lines of difference. We work with U.S. colleges and universities by providing co-curricular programming for students professional development for faculty and staff and strategic guidance to leadership. Our goal is to foster constructive dialogue at every level of the institution and to create the conditions for lasting organizational change. CDI was co-founded by psychologist Jonathan Haidt the bestselling author of The Righteous Mind and The Anxious Generation.

About the Role

CDI is looking for a Senior Data Scientist to own the data foundations that power our analytics reporting and research workflows. This is a high-leverage role for someone who wants to do meaningful systems-level work building the infrastructure pipelines and reporting tools that CDIs team and partners rely on every day.

This is not primarily a machine learning product analytics or pure research-design role. It sits at the intersection of data infrastructure reporting systems and applied evaluation. The right person is a strong hands-on practitioner who takes pride in clean reproducible reliable work and who is excited to grow into new territory alongside the organization.

Two major near-term priorities will shape this role from day one: rebuilding and modernizing CDIs analytics and reporting ecosystem and co-leading evaluation work for our AI dialogue coach.

If youre energized by building things that last working across research product and implementation teams and doing data work that genuinely connects to mission this role is for you!

Responsibilities

• Own CDIs research and analytics data infrastructure including core data models schemas documentation data quality checks and analysis-ready datasets.

• Build and maintain data pipelines using reproducible ETL/ELT practices producing standardized analysis-ready datasets from key sources.

• Lead the rebuild and modernization of CDIs analytics and reporting layer as part of a platform and data transition.

• Design build and maintain dashboards recurring reporting and self-serve tools for both internal teams and partner-facing deliverables.

• Establish and steward trusted metric definitions documentation and governance practices across reporting and research workflows.

• Co-lead the data and evaluation work for our AI dialogue coach including building the measurement reporting and analysis workflows needed to assess learner experience safety and appropriateness reliability and outcomes.

• Support quantitative data preparation analysis and reproducible code workflows for efficacy and impact studies.

• Partner cross-functionally with colleagues on the Research & Evaluation team as well as those from Implementation Operations and Product/Technical teams.

About You

• 6 years of relevant professional experience in data science analytics engineering data engineering or a similarly hybrid role.

  • Strong hands-on experience with SQL Python and R. Experience building and maintaining data pipelines and reproducible workflows that other people rely on.

• Experience working in cloud-based data environments including AWS.
  Experience designing and maintaining dashboards recurring reporting and BI tools for nontechnical users.

• Experience using Git and documentation/testing practices to make data work maintainable and reproducible.

• Strong judgment about data quality metric definition and governance.

• Prior experience using AI tools in data science workstreams

• Comfort working with messy ambiguous data problems and translating them into clear deliverables.

• Ability to develop practical measurement approaches for new or evolving features tools or interventions.

• Strong written and verbal communication skills especially with nontechnical internal collaborators.

• Experience working cross-functionally with stakeholders from multiple teams.

We also value (but do not require) the following:

• Advanced degree in data science statistics social science computer science or a related field; familiarity with survey data and/or higher education data is a plus.

• Experience supporting impact efficacy or evaluation work through data preparation and analysis.

• Experience in a nonprofit EdTech or mission-driven setting; familiarity with bridgebuilding dialogue or civic learning is a bonus.

Benefits

• Compensation $135000-$145000

• A Mission-Driven Culture we practice what we preach so our work culture is characterized by intellectual humility continuous improvement and open-mindedness

• Remote-First CDI was founded as a remote-first organization and we work hard to maintain a strong team culture across vast distances

• Unlimited PTO as well as 13 company holidays

• Remote Work Support up to $500 reimbursed for home office equipment (like desks chairs or webcams) and up to $50/month reimbursed for home internet or cell phone expenses

• Other Benefits employer-supported health vision and dental plans subsidized parental leave 3% 401k match short- and long-term disability insurance life and AD&D insurance $1000 annual professional development budget

Role Specs

• Reports to: Senior Director of Research and Evaluation

• Schedule: Full-time flexible within U.S. time zones

• Target start date: ASAP

• Location: Remote must be based in the U.S.