Data Specialist
Job Location:
Houston, TX - USA
Monthly Salary:
Posted:
Application Deadline:
Vacancies:
Job Summary
- Position Description
About theHarris County Public Defenders Office:
The Harris County Public Defenders Office is committed to providing high-quality client-centered representation to individuals accused of criminal offenses who cannot afford counsel. Our office works collaboratively across legal and support teams to advocate for our clients protect constitutional rights and promote fairness within the legal system. We value professionalism integrity teamwork and compassionate public service.
Position Overview:The Harris County Public Defenders Office seeks a full-time Data Specialist to help build and maintain the offices law enforcement accountability database through Techtivist. This is a data-focused position requiring strong skills in data collection organization quality control and analysis.The Data Specialist will work with complex records and bulk data related to law enforcement accountability. This position is responsible for transforming large inconsistent and often fragmented sources of information into accurate structured and searchable data. This work is critical to supporting attorneys investigators and policy staff in identifying officer credibility issues patterns of misconduct impeachment information and other data that assists in client representation and broader efforts to improve the criminal legal system.
Duties and Responsibilities:
Maintain and update the offices Techtivist database.
Collect clean structure and validate data from public records court records civil lawsuits agency rosters disciplinary records attorney submissions case materials and online sources.
Work with spreadsheets databases PDFs scanned records and other structured and unstructured data sources.
Extract and parse information from documents using OCR PDF extraction and other data-processing tools.
Identify and resolve duplicate records inconsistent officer names missing identifiers conflicting information and other data-quality issues.
Link records across datasets including rosters lawsuits complaints disciplinary records Brady disclosures and case-related information.
Write or run scripts when appropriate to clean transform match or import data into usable formats.
Assist with database structure data-entry protocols source tracking confidentiality designations and quality-control workflows.
Prepare track and organize public information requests for law enforcement rosters command structures policies misconduct records and related data.
Query data and prepare reports spreadsheets summaries visualizations and other work products for attorneys and staff.
Protect confidential privileged sealed or otherwise sensitive information.
Assist with user support troubleshooting documentation and other Techtivist-related tasks.
Perform other tasks as assigned.
Harris County is an Equal Opportunity Employer
you need special services or accommodations please call or email.
This position is subject to a criminal history check. Only relevant convictions will be considered and even when considered may not automatically disqualify the candidate.
- Requirements
Supporting Documents:
Applicants should submit a resume and cover letter describing their interest in the position.
Applicants are also encouraged to submit a data project code sample dashboard spreadsheet research memo writing sample or other work product demonstrating relevant skills.
Education and Experience:
Bachelors degree from an accredited college or university in data science computer science statistics information science public policy sociology criminology criminal justice journalism public administration or a related field.
At least two (2) years of experience working with databases spreadsheets public records research data or other structured datasets.
Knowledge Skills and Abilities:
- Interest in using data to support public defense law enforcement accountability racial justice or criminal legal system reform.
- Strong attention to detail and ability to work with large complex and inconsistent datasets.
- Ability to conduct factual research using public records court records online databases and internal records.
- Ability to work carefully with confidential and sensitive information.
- Strong written and verbal communication skills.
NOTE: Qualifying education experience knowledge and skills must be documented on your job application. You may attach a resume to the application as supporting documentation butONLY information stated on the application will be used for consideration. See Resumewill not be accepted for qualifications.
- Preferences
Preference may be given to candidates with experience in:
- Python R SQL Stata Tableau Power BI or similar tools.
- Data normalization records linkage fuzzy matching probabilistic matching or deduplication.
- OCR PDF extraction web scraping text parsing or document automation.
- Relational databases data schemas database imports or data integrity protocols.
- Creating reports dashboards data visualizations or other tools for non-technical users.
- Public records criminal defense civil rights litigation Brady/Giglio issues law enforcement data or court records.
- A public defender office legal services organization civil rights organization policy organization newsroom academic research setting or government accountability project.
- General Information
Position Type and Typical Hours of Work:
Regular Full-time The anticipated start date is October 2026 - Subject to final fiscal year funding. A contingent offer may be extended prior to that date
Monday - Friday 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.
Salary:
Depends on qualifications
Based on 26 pay periods
Employment may be contingent on passing a drug screen and meeting other standards.
Due to a high volume of applications positions may close prior to the advertised closing date or at the discretion of the Hiring Department.
Required Experience:
IC
