Staff Data Scientist

Code for America believes government can work for the people, by the people, in the new digital age, and that government at all levels can and should work well for all people. For more than a decade, we’ve worked to show that with the mindful use of technology, we can break down barriers, meet community needs, and find real solutions.

Our employees build and transform government and community tools and services, making them so good they inspire change. We merge the best parts of technology, nonprofit, and government to help support the people who need it most.

With a focus on transparency and fairness, and deep empathy for partners in government and community organizations and the people that our partners serve, we’re building a movement of motivated change agents driven by meaningful results and lasting impact.

At Code for America, you contribute to exciting work while learning and developing in a supportive and flexible environment. Our compensation and benefits are holistic and thoughtfully curated to represent our employees and our mission. Help us drive real generational change that lasts.

Code for America is seeking a talented Staff Data Scientist to play a pivotal role in maximizing our organization-wide impact. In this role, you will manage and analyze the complex data our products collect, design and evaluate advanced AI- and data-driven solutions, and rigorously measure the effectiveness of our programs. By answering quantitative questions clearly and intuitively, you will bridge the gap between technical data and both internal and external audiences.

Grounding your work in real-world impact, you will utilize data and analysis to identify user needs, better informing product development. You will work cross-functionally across the organization to clearly communicate insights that support continuous service improvement and ensure our tools deliver meaningful value.

Beyond your technical contributions, you will serve as a collaborative leader on the Data Science team. You will actively contribute to a successful team environment and champion data science best practices, ensuring high standards for data integrity and innovation across all of our initiatives.

About the role: 

Code for America’s Data Scientists bring analytic and modeling expertise to drive meaningful improvements in outcomes across the tax, criminal justice, and safety net services that Code for America delivers. In this role, you will lead complex, high-impact projects from end to end - applying rigorous data analysis, developing predictive models, and collaborating closely with cross-functional teams to drive data-informed decisions. To do so, you will work closely with cross-functional teams including qualitative researchers, designers, software engineers, product managers, program managers, and client success staff, ensuring that insights translate into actionable improvements. You will play an important part in shaping how we use data to design equitable, effective government services that meet people where they are.

The ideal candidate will have a strong background in data science and analytics, generative AI, and experience leading projects in cross-functional, mission-driven environments.

This role will report to the Data Science Manager and is expected to travel no more than 10% of the time. 

Code for America is based in California and can employ those who reside full-time within the United States. This is a remote position.

Code for America seeks a talented Staff Data Scientist who will help rigorously measure our impact, manage and analyze the data our products collect, and answer complex quantitative questions clearly and intuitively for internal and external audiences. 

In this position you will:

• Core Data Science Work 
  • Conduct descriptive data analysis using case, survey, and event data to identify and size problems. Collaborate with cross-functional partners to identify potential improvements
  • Develop and implement key metrics to measure the effectiveness and impact of our products and services
  • Apply AI/ML techniques in collaboration with cross-functional teams to improve the delivery of products and services
  • Analyze administrative and public data to estimate the impact of proposed changes.
  • Create and maintain dashboards and visualizations to communicate key insights to stakeholders
  • Build and maintain evaluation pipelines to monitor AI system performance and turn results into prompt, model, and design improvements 
  • Clean, combine, and make sense of diverse administrative data.
• Understanding Stakeholder Needs 
  • Investigate the barriers people face in applying for and keeping benefits.
  • Work with qualitative researchers to generate hypotheses about how to help our users.
  • Make use of past findings internally, from agencies, and from outside researchers to help strategically guide projects.
  • Work with program, product, engineering, and design to identify where our analytics and AI capacity will be most impactful.
• Project Management and Documentation
  • Break down, estimate, and prioritize tasks with a good architectural/systems perspective
  • Lead and deliver on medium to large size projects
  • Create and maintain technical documentation for data science projects and models
  • Communicate project status, risks, and outcomes to technical and non-technical stakeholders
• Coaching and Mentoring 
  • Mentor other data scientists on the team
  • Contribute to the development of data science best practices and standards
• Other duties as assigned 

About you:

This position is a perfect fit for a highly analytical, collaborative data scientist who is passionate about using data to drive social impact and is comfortable leading complex projects, mentoring others, and working closely with cross-functional teams.

• At least 6 years as a data scientist or equivalent
• Expert in Python or R, SQL
• Fluency with product analytics - defining, implementing, analyzing and communicating software product metrics.
• Experience with collaborative coding tools such as Github or notebooks (RMarkdown, Hex, Google Collab, Jupyter)
• Experience with Metabase or similar business intelligence tools (e.g., Tableau, Power BI, Looker) for creating dashboards and reports for the organization
• Experience with machine learning frameworks and libraries such as PyTorch, scikit-learn, Tensor Flow, etc.
• Experience with large language models, knowledge of prompt engineering and working with APIs of large-scale generative AI models
• Solid understanding of a wide range of statistical concepts and methods.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills, with the ability to clearly communicate findings to both technical and general audiences
• Excellent collaboration skills, with a demonstrated ability to manage cross-functional relationships, respond to external stakeholders needs, and facilitate effective decision-making conversations
• Proven ability to work through ambiguous problems, breaking them down into their component steps
• Curiosity about emerging AI tools and a commitment to using them responsibly and effectively

It’s a bonus if you have:

• Personal experience with the justice system, social safety net, workforce training, or other mission-relevant government services.
• Fluency in languages other than English.
• Experience with tax policy and data
• Knowledge of dbt for data transformation and modeling with data warehouses
• Experience with Postgres and cloud-based data warehousing (e.g. BigQuery, Snowflake)

What you’ll get -

Salary: 

Code for America’s salary bands are transparent as a part of our commitment to transparency and fairness. As part of our hiring practices, we aim to target the midpoint of the 2nd quartile of the range for all new hires.

Offer targets vary based on market / geographic location. The offer targets for this role range from $128,945 - $157,850,  annually. Your Recruiter will discuss compensation in more detail & answer any related questions, during the initial Recruiter phone screen.

Benefits and perks: 

This role includes a comprehensive benefits package including the following:

• Values:
  • Leadership and teammates who share a strong work ethic and values, and who respect and care for one another
  • A collaborative, cross-functional, hardworking, and joyful environment
• Employee Enablement Support: 
  • Laptop provided
  • A one-time $700 payment for remote environment setup; $200 stipend (in first paycheck) and up to $500 reimbursement, in accordance with our equipment policy
  • Cell phone and/or internet reimbursement of $50 per month 
• Professional Development:
  • $500 annual (per calendar year) stipend towards professional development; prorated at time of hire
  • Up to $500 of professional development funds can be rolled over each year, up to a maximum of $1000
  • Training / guidance for staff required to utilize AI as part of their role, plus opportunities for employees to gain AI-related skills to support job and career growth
• Retirement & 401k Plans:
  • Employees receive a 100% employer match on the first 3% of contributions.
  • Employees with 3+ years of service receive an additional 50% match on contributions between 3% and 5%, for a maximum employer contribution of 5%
• Medical:
  • At least one no cost health insurance option for full-time employees for employee-only coverage
  • A minimum of 80% of the cost of dependent coverage
• Remote Work:
  • Code for America employees may work remotely across the US
  • Code for America employees main residence must be within the US
  • Full-time employees work 40 hours per week, Monday - Friday
  • Collaborative working hours: we aim to hold all internal meetings between 10 AM - 3 PM PT. We expect all Code for America staff to be available during these set working hours
• Time Off: 
  • Open personal time off ( subject to manager approval ), a minimum of 14 paid holidays, and an org-wide closure from Christmas Day through New Year's Day
  • Paid sick time; up to 96 hours annually
  • 17 weeks of paid parental and family leave
  • 3 weeks of paid sabbatical after 5 years of service

Timeline:

From the time you are contacted by a Recruiter, you can expect a 1-2 month, or longer, hiring process. The specific hiring process and timeline goals for this role will be covered during the initial Recruiter phone screen. Code for America's standard interview process details are also available on our careers page.

Equal Employment Opportunity: 

Code for America is an equal opportunity employer. Applicants will not be discriminated against because of race, color, creed, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, age, religion, national origin, citizenship status, disability, ancestry, marital status, veteran status, medical condition or any protected category prohibited by local, state or federal laws.

Code for America Workers United:

This position is covered by a Collective Bargaining Agreement between Code for America and Code for America Workers United, affiliated with OPEIU, Local 1010. The agreement was ratified on January 13, 2026, and is currently in effect.

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