SENIOR DATA SCIENTIST

Position/Program Information

EXAM TITLE:
SENIOR DATA SCIENTIST

EXAM NUMBER:
EW1764A-EA

JOB TYPE:
PERMANENT

TYPE OF RECRUITMENT:
OPEN COMPETITIVE - EMERGENCY APPOINTMENT

FILING DATES:
Applications will be accepted starting at 5:00 p.m. (PT) on March 27, 2026, until the needs of the service are met. The application filing period is subject to closure without notice.

ABOUT THIS EMERGENCY APPOINTMENT:
The LA County Board of Supervisors recently declared a local state of emergency for homelessness , and the County is working to revise and expand our response to help all who are affected. We are looking for qualified and passionate individuals to help us in the mission of addressing issues like housing, mental health, and substance use. If you are looking for a new career that will directly benefit the population of LA County, this may be the opportunity for you.

Department of Economic Opportunity is seeking qualified candidates to fill a Senior Data Scientist vacancy.

Under the emergency order, applicants who meet the requirements may be hired for an initial period of up to 90 days, with an opportunity for permanent County employment.

During your initial work period, you will be assessed on your work performance. This assessment will be weighted 100%.

Those who successfully pass the assessment will be considered for permanent appointment to Senior Data Scientist.

ABOUT THE DEPARTMENT:
The Department of Economic Opportunity (DEO) is LA County’s central economic and workforce development hub helping residents connect to new career pathways, start and certify a business, and access life-changing opportunities. We’re working to advance equity and inclusive, sustainable growth through all DEO programs and services by targeting economic benefits to the most vulnerable and marginalized communities, small businesses and residents in LA County.

Our Vision: An equitable economy with thriving communities, inclusive and sustainable growth, and opportunity and mobility for all.
Our Mission: DEO creates quality jobs, helps small businesses and high-road employers start and grow, and builds vibrant local communities and spaces.

ABOUT THE POSITION:
The Senior Data Scientist will serve as a technical and strategic lead, leveraging advanced analytics to integrate and interpret workforce, employment, and housing data to drive meaningful change for individuals at risk of homelessness in Los Angeles County. Working closely with programs such as WIOA, LA:RISE, and other programs, this position will design predictive models and outcome tracking systems that identify vulnerable populations, recommend targeted employment interventions, and measure the impact of workforce development initiatives on housing stability and prevention. By synthesizing insights across economic support domains, the Senior Data Scientist enables the development of data-driven strategies, improve service delivery, and implement proactive solutions that foster self-sufficiency and lasting housing security for those most in need.

WORK LOCATION:
Economic Opportunity Headquarters
510 S Vermont Ave 11th Fl
Los Angeles CA 90020

Economic Opportunity offers a hybrid telework schedule subject to the needs of the department.

Essential Job Functions

• Collaborates with division, departmental, and countywide stakeholders to solicit, define, and manage highly complex data science projects from conception through implementation; ensures that projects result in actionable insights and recommendations that can be used to support business decisions and allocate resources; and provides ongoing consultation during program implementation of recommendations as necessary to ensure program fidelity.
• Provides technical oversight to small teams of Data Scientists and Predictive Data Analysts as necessary to ensure project success.
• Leads the discovery process with departmental stakeholders to document business requirements and frame business problems so that appropriate corresponding data science techniques and products can be identified and deployed.
• Collaborates with other department subject matter experts to understand, identify, and select available and relevant sources of data for use cases, including internal, external, structured, and unstructured data sources; and provides guidance to other department data experts in the selection and transformation of such sources.
• In conjunction with the Information Technology organization, supports collection, integration, and retention requirements for large sets of structured and unstructured data from disparate sources; acts as a resource for senior data engineers and architects in the selection and design of systems for use by the data science team.
• Reviews proposals by Data Scientists and analysts regarding selection and improvement of data science tools and ensures that the team’s tools and systems are well documented.
• Conducts and coordinates statistical inference of data and conveys findings and conclusions orally, in writing, visually, in presentations, and by developing interactive tools as appropriate to
communicate effectively with a wide range of audiences, including technical and nontechnical staff, stakeholders, and members of the public. • Works with program staff to understand the implications of analyses and to ensure that findings are actionable and support data-driven program, policy, and operational decision-making.
• Assists in implementing recommended business process changes in ways retain fidelity to best practices identified through the analysis and recognize the operational realities underlying existing business processes; provides ongoing consultation as recommended changes and new programs grow and evolve, including recommending modifications to adopted goals and metrics.
• Coordinates with various functional teams to develop and implement products, services, tools, or business process changes resulting from the analysis.
• Creates and validates advanced analytic products (e.g., Recommender Engines, Auto Classification algorithms, Predictive Scoring, geo-spatial clustering, NLP classifier, etc.) and places them in production; works with nontechnical program managers and staff to understand analytic products and to integrate them into departmental programs.
• Recommends ongoing improvements to methods and algorithms that lead to findings, including new information.
• Creates and monitors performance of automated-detection systems and provides business metrics for overall project to show improvements initially and over multiple iterations. Provides ongoing tracking and monitoring of performance of decision systems and statistical models and troubleshoots and implements enhancements and fixes to systems as needed.
• Develops and maintains a high level of expertise in statistical programming languages and packages and other software tools; provides training and support to Data Scientists and Predictive Data Analysts as necessary; and ensures the quality of code and programming logic generated by the data science team.

Requirements

Option I:
Two (2) years of experience carrying out complex data science projects that included independently developing and applying methods to identify, collect, process, structure, and analyze data using statistical prediction, inference, and optimization to support data-driven program design and management, at a level equivalent to the Los Angeles County class of Data Scientist .

Option II:
A Bachelor’s degree from an accredited college or university in a field of applied research such as Data Science, Machine Learning, Mathematics, Statistics, Business Analytics, Psychology, or Public Health that included 12 semester or 18 quarter units of coursework in data science, predictive analytics, quantitative research methods, or statistical analysis -AND- Six (6) years of experience, including two (2) years in a lead capacity, applying and overseeing the application of machine learning, predictive analytics, data management, and hypothesis-driven data analysis to make actionable recommendations to support program, policy, and operational decision-making. A Master’s or Doctoral degree from an accredited college or university in a field of applied research such Data Science, Machine Learning, Mathematics, Statistics, Business Analytics, Psychology, or Public Health may substitute for up to two (2) years of experience.

SPECIAL REQUIREMENT INFORMATION:
Experience is evaluated on the basis of a verifiable 40-hour week. Prorated part-time experience will be accepted. Include the number of hours worked per week for each position. To receive credit for the required education, a legible copy of the diploma or official transcript for each degree that displays the degree awarded and date conferred must be submitted as proof of meeting the educational requirement. The official diploma or transcript can be attached to the application or emailed to DEORecruitment@opportunity.lacounty.gov . Please reference exam number EW1764A-EA in the subject line . International degrees in a foreign language must be translated to English and evaluated for equivalency to U.S. standards.

Additional Information

DESIRABLE EXPERIENCE AND SKILLS:
• Proven ability to lead and execute complex projects involving machine learning, statistical inference, predictive modeling, and data-driven program design especially as applied to workforce, or housing domains.

• Experience integrating and analyzing large, diverse datasets from employment, housing, social services, and health sectors, and generating actionable insights to inform and improve workforce and housing interventions.

• Demonstrated success providing technical oversight to teams of data scientists or analysts, collaborating with stakeholders from workforce agencies (like WIOA, LA:RISE), and housing organizations to achieve measurable population-level outcomes.

• Strong written, visual, and oral communication skills, with the ability to translate complex analytical findings into clear recommendations for nontechnical program managers, operational staff, and policymakers.

• Hands-on experience creating predictive scoring systems, automated flagging systems for risks (eviction/housing instability), and other production-level analytics tools that directly support program staff and client-facing interventions.

LICENSE:

A valid California Class C Driver License or the ability to utilize an alternative method of transportation when needed to carry out job-related essential functions.

PHYSICAL CLASS II - LIGHT:

This class includes administrative and clerical positions requiring light physical effort that may include occasional light lifting to a 10-pound limit and some bending, stooping, or squatting. Considerable ambulation may be involved.

EXAMINATION CONTENT:
During your initial work period, the appointing department will evaluate your performance. Those who achieve a passing score on this evaluation will be considered for permanent appointment.

APPLICATION AND FILING INFORMATION:

Applications must be filed online only.

Apply online by clicking on the "APPLY" button for this posting. You can also track the status of your application using this website. All information is subject to verification. We may reject your application at any time during the examination and hiring process, including after an appointment has been made. Fill out your application completely. The acceptance of your application depends on whether you have clearly shown that you meet the requirements.

Provide all relevant training and experience in the spaces provided to assist in evaluating your qualifications for the job. For each job held, give the name and address of your employer, your job title, beginning and ending dates, number of hours worked per week and description of work performed.

Applicants must provide a legible copy of the diploma or official transcript from an accredited institution (the transcript must display the degree awarded and date conferred). If you are not able to submit the required copy of your diploma or official transcript with your application at the time of filing, you may email a copy to DEORecruitment@opportunity.lacounty.gov . Please reference exam number EW1764A-EA in the subject line. If your application is incomplete, it will be rejected.

Many important notifications will be sent electronically to the email address provided on the application, so it is important to provide a valid email address. Please add DEORecruitment@opportunity.lacounty.gov as well as noreply@governmentjobs.com , and info@governmentjobs.com to your list of approved senders to prevent email notifications from being filtered as spam/junk/clutter mail. You may opt out of emails from LA County. However, if you unsubscribe, you will not receive any email notification for any examination for which you apply with Los Angeles County.

You may be required to verify your email address so plan to submit your online application well in advance of the deadline. This is only required once per email address, and if you already have a job seeker account on www.governmentjobs.com/careers/lacounty , you can verify at any time by logging in and following the prompts. This is to enhance the security of your online application and to ensure you do not enter an incorrect email address.

FAIR CHANCE INITIATIVE:

The County of Los Angeles is a Fair Chance employer. Except for a very limited number of positions, you will not be asked to provide information about a conviction history unless you receive a contingent offer of employment. The County will make an individualized assessment of whether your conviction history has a direct or adverse relationship with the specific duties of the job, and consider potential mitigating factors, including, but not limited to, evidence and extent of rehabilitation, recency of the offense(s), and age at the time of the offense(s). If asked to provide information about a conviction history, any convictions or court records which are exempted by a valid court order do not have to be disclosed.

ANTI-RACISM, DIVERSITY, AND INCLUSION (ARDI):

The County of Los Angeles recognizes and affirms that all people are created equal and are entitled to all rights afforded by the Constitution of the United States. The Department of Human Resources is committed to promoting Anti-racism, Diversity, and Inclusion efforts to address the inequalities and disparities amongst race. We support the ARDI Strategic Plan and its goals by improving equality, diversity, and inclusion in recruitment, selection, and employment practices.

SOCIAL SECURITY NUMBER:

Please include your Social Security Number for record control purposes. Federal law requires that all employed persons have a Social Security Number.

COMPUTER AND INTERNET ACCESS AT PUBLIC LIBRARIES:

For candidates who may not have regular access to a computer or the internet, applications can be completed on computers at public libraries throughout Los Angeles County.

NO SHARING OF USER ID AND PASSWORD:

All applicants must file their application online using their OWN user ID and password. Using a family member or friend's user ID and password may erase a candidate's original application record.

DEPARTMENT CONTACT INFORMATION:

For any questions regarding this examination, please send an email to DEORecruitment@opportunity.lacounty.gov . Please reference exam number EW1764A-EA in the subject line .

California Relay Services Phone: (800) 735-2992

Teletype Phone: (800) 899-4099

ADA Coordinator Phone: (213) 418-7145

For detailed information, please click here

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• Los Angeles County

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