SENIOR DATA SCIENTIST/EMERGENCY APPOINTMENTS HOMELESSNESS

Position Overview

The Department of Mental Health is urgently seeking qualified and passionate professionals for the emergency Senior Data Scientist vacancies to address the county’s escalating homelessness crisis. In response to a declared local state of emergency, successful candidates will work on high-impact projects ranging from housing and mental health to substance use. Under the emergency order, hires will be appointed initially for up to 90 days with the opportunity for permanent County employment upon a successful performance assessment.

Key Responsibilities

• Collaborate with division, departmental, and countywide stakeholders to solicit, define, and manage highly complex data science projects from conception through implementation.
• Provide technical oversight to small teams of Data Scientists and Predictive Data Analysts to ensure project success.
• Lead the discovery process by documenting business requirements and framing business problems to determine appropriate data science techniques.
• Coordinate with subject matter experts to identify, select, and transform relevant data sources, including internal, external, structured, and unstructured data.
• Partner with the Information Technology organization to support the collection, integration, and retention of large data sets from disparate sources.
• Review proposals and ensure that data science tools and systems are well documented and maintained.
• Conduct statistical analyses and effectively communicate findings through oral, written, and visual presentations.
• Assist in implementing recommended business process changes while ensuring adherence to best practices and operational realities.
• Create, validate, and monitor advanced analytic products (e.g., recommender engines, predictive scoring, geo-spatial clustering, NLP classifiers) and oversee their deployment into production.
• Continuously recommend and implement improvements to methods and algorithms for enhanced actionable insights.
• Develop and maintain expertise in statistical programming languages and provide training and support to team members.

Required Qualifications

• Option I: Two (2) years of experience carrying out complex data science projects—developing and applying methods for collecting, processing, analyzing, and interpreting data at a level equivalent to the LA County class of Data Scientist.
• Option II: A Bachelor’s degree in Data Science, Machine Learning, Mathematics, Statistics, Business Analytics, Psychology, Public Health or a related field plus six (6) years of experience applying and overseeing data science projects, including at least two (2) years in a lead capacity. For Option II, a Master’s or Doctoral degree may substitute for up to two (2) years of the required experience.
• Valid California Class C Driver License or the ability to utilize an alternative method of transportation when needed.

Benefits & Perks

• Initial appointment under an emergency order for up to 90 days with the potential for a permanent appointment based on performance assessment.
• Opportunity to work on critical projects that address homelessness, mental health, and substance use in LA County.
• Collaborative work environment with countywide and departmental stakeholders.
• Eligibility for competitive benefits as per County employment policies.