Data Scientist

Job Description

Job Description

Unissant, Inc. delivers innovative capabilities to the agencies that keep our nation healthy and safe. We apply our domain expertise, data acumen, and technology know-how to achieve breakthrough results for our clients. Working collaboratively, we advance missions and careers through a focus on honesty, integrity, and dependability. We continuously look for talent, excited to join that effort. To learn more about our exciting organization, please visit us at

We are seeking a Data Scientist to join our team in Washington, DC, in support of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), Law Enforcement Systems and Analysis (LESA) program within the Strategy and Operations Analysis (SOA) Unit.

The SOA Unit provides planning, analysis, and technical support spanning the entire Enforcement Lifecycle, delivering advanced analytics, visualization, and modeling capabilities to inform ERO and ICE management decisions at headquarters and field levels, including responses to congressional inquiries and interagency working group collaborations. SOA utilizes advanced predictive analytics, simulation, and modeling to forecast implications of resource needs, policy shifts, and migration changes. The ideal candidate is an analytically rigorous data scientist with experience applying machine learning and statistical modeling to complex law enforcement and operational datasets.

Essential Duties and Responsibilities:

• Develop, maintain, and enhance predictive models and machine learning solutions, including supervised and unsupervised methods, to support ICE/ERO mission analytics, resource forecasting, and operational decision-making within the SOA Unit.
• Contribute to the development and maintenance of LESA's suite of Discrete Event Simulation (DES) models to capture components of the Immigration Enforcement and Removal Lifecycle.
• Perform data wrangling and ETL operations to acquire, clean, integrate, and transform complex datasets from flat files, data warehouses, and external/academic sources into formats suitable for modeling and analysis.
• Design and develop data visualizations, dashboards, and analytical products using standard and non-standard datasets to identify patterns, insights, and geospatial trends in support of SOA reporting.
• Maintain and improve LESA-related geospatial capabilities and Logistics Optimization Decision Support Tools.
• Assess and apply current and emerging AI, visualization, modeling, and business intelligence technologies, including Python, GitHub, Qlik, Tableau, ArcGIS, Databricks, and Palantir Foundry.
• Streamline reporting on key performance indicators across the data and visualization enterprise; promote information sharing among field and HQ stakeholders.
• Support DHS model accreditation processes, including drafting model documentation covering design methodology, requirements, decision-making applications, and stakeholder engagement.
• Support ad-hoc activities, model and tool enhancements, and special projects including congressional inquiries, policy change analysis, and ERO strategic logistics initiatives.
• Integrate structured and unstructured data from disparate sources; implement data cleaning, validation, and quality review processes; implement security measures for sensitive law enforcement data.

Work Experience and Job Skills:

• 3+ years of experience in data science, machine learning, advanced analytics, or related analytical disciplines, preferably supporting federal law enforcement, DHS/ICE/ERO, or national security missions.
• Demonstrated experience developing and applying predictive modeling and machine learning techniques, including regression, classification, clustering, time series, and ensemble methods.
• Experience with Discrete Event Simulation (DES) modeling or operations research methods is a strong plus.
• Hands-on data wrangling and ETL experience using Python, R, and/or SQL; familiarity with federal government categorical datasets and data warehouses.
• Proficiency applying statistical methods including multiple correspondence analysis (MCA), principal component analysis (PCA), and association rule mining.
• Experience building dashboards, visualizations, and geospatial analytical products using tools such as Tableau, Qlik, Power BI, ArcGIS, matplotlib, or seaborn.
• Familiarity with machine learning and AI libraries such as TensorFlow, PyTorch, Keras, h2o, mlr, mpi4py, or scikit-learn.
• Experience working in secure government data environments and preparing executive-level analytical reports using tools such as RMarkdown or Jupyter Notebook.

Education:

• Bachelor's Degree required. Preferred fields: Computer Science, Data Science, Statistics, Mathematics, Operations Research, or related discipline.
• Master's Degree or PhD in a quantitative field preferred.

Certificates, Licenses and Registrations:

• Data science or machine learning certifications such as AWS Certified Machine Learning, Google Professional ML Engineer, or Databricks ML Associate preferred.
• Tableau, Qlik, or ArcGIS certifications are a plus.

Communication Skills:

• Excellent verbal and written skills; able to present technical findings and performance data to non-technical audiences including federal leadership.
• Ability to write clear, concise reports and briefings consistent with FOUO/LES handling requirements.

Clearance Requirements:

• Active ICE clearance required; preference for candidates currently cleared or cleared within the last two years.
• Ability to obtain and maintain required clearance level is a condition of employment.

Travel:

• Minimal travel expected.
• On-site in Washington, D.C. Metropolitan area.

Environmental Requirements:

• Mainly a routine office environment.
• May be required to lift up to ten (10) pounds.
• Flexible in working extended hours.

The above statements are intended to describe the general nature and level of work being performed by the individual(s) assigned to this position. They are not intended to be an exhaustive list of all duties, responsibilities, and skills required. Unissant management reserves the right to modify, add, or remove duties and to assign other duties as necessary. In addition, where applicable and available, reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions of this position.

Please note: Candidate(s) will be required to go through pre-employment screening.

Unissant, Inc. is a proud Equal Opportunity Employer (EOE; M/F/Disability/Vets).