Statistician, Immediate Office of the Attorney General (#34-2018, Closing: 10/24/18)

GOVERNMENT OF THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA

OFFICE OF THE ATTORNEY GENERAL

                                                POSITION VACANCY ANNOUNCEMENT

This position is not in the collective bargaining unit.

DESCRIPTION OF DUTIES:  The Office of the Attorney General for the District of Columbia (OAG) seeks a Statistician with a policy or social science background to work with its policy team within the Immediate Office of the Attorney General.  As the chief legal office for the District of Columbia, OAG enforces the laws of the District, defends and provides legal advice to the District’s government agencies and protects the interests of the District’s citizens.  In this new position, the Statistician will, under the guidance of the Senior Counsel for Policy, develop a program of research and analytics work to support the core mission of the agency.  

The first priorities for the position will focus on juvenile and criminal justice: using agency data to evaluate the effectiveness of the office’s criminal and juvenile justice reforms; looking at data from the juvenile justice, abuse and neglect, and child support systems to inform the work the office does with vulnerable youth; and making appropriate aggregate public safety data available to the public in line with open and transparent government.  Future projects might include incorporating predictive analytics into the office’s criminal justice, child support, and litigation work, and spearheading projects to use data analytics to initiate or support public interest litigation.  The Statistician will also seek out opportunities for learning that will complement the office’s existing capabilities, provide expert guidance to other senior members of the OAG team, and assist in training, mentoring, and hands-on assistance as needed. Specific near-term duties include: 

• Collaborating with internal partners to evaluate the effectiveness of juvenile and criminal justice reform initiatives within OAG;
• Collaborating with internal and external partners to create accessible open data platforms for public safety and other agency data;
• Working with OAG IT staff to design and create dashboards, maps, or other data visualizations;
• Contributing to interagency data efforts sponsored by the Office of the Chief Technology Officer and the Criminal Justice Coordinating Council;
• Writing or contributing to white papers and other reports for public consumption;
• Cultivating partnerships with universities and technology start-ups to enhance the office’s technological capacity;
• Consulting on statistical and research matters relevant to OAG’s work;
• Training staff on clean data collection, entry and storage;
• Participating in relevant academic and professional conferences; and
• Otherwise designing and consulting on OAG priorities and projects that involve data and statistical analysis.

Future duties could include:

• Designing and consulting on open source intelligence research and big data analysis projects in order to support OAG’s public interest litigation and proactively identify new arenas for investigation or analysis; and
• Designing and consulting on predictive analytics projects to help guide OAG’s work. 

QUALIFICATIONS: Candidates must possess a bachelor’s degree and have at least three (3) years of specialized experience. A master’s degree in statistics, economics, or a related field and at least one year of experience, or a Ph.D. in statistics, economics, or a related field is preferred. Specialized experience is experience that equipped the applicant with the knowledge, skills, and abilities to perform successfully the duties of the position, and that is typically in or related to the work of the position to be filled. 

The ideal candidate will also have the following qualifications/skills:

• Expertise with common statistical analytical tools
• At a minimum, strong interest in common program languages, data visualization software and mapping tools
• Considerable experience evaluating program effectiveness and using data for continuous program learning
• Experience working with data scientists and technical staff to create and support business intelligence or other technology programs
• Significant project management experience, from the inception and design phase through to full implementation
• Willingness to tackle data collection and management challenges with an eye toward moving the agency to best practices
• Curiosity and interest in public policy and public interest work, particularly in the criminal justice realm
• Excellent communication skills, including with people who do not have an analytics background
• Comfort working in a fast-paced, deadline-oriented environment
• Self-starter with a desire to design and launch new initiatives
• Experience working with lawyers, law offices, and/or in District of Columbia public policy is a plus.

SUBSTITUTION OF EDUCATION:  A substitution of education for required experience will be allowed as defined in OPM’s Qualification Standards. However, in order to receive credit, applicants must submit official proof of educational attainment at the time of application. 

SUBMISSION OF RANKING FACTORS:  The following ranking factors will be used in the evaluation process.  All applicants MUST respond to the ranking factors by submitting responses in the relevant area provided on the DC 2000 Employment Application.  Please describe specific achievements, experience, education, training, etc. that demonstrates the degree to which you possess the job-related knowledge, skills, and abilities described in the ranking factors.  The information given in response to the ranking factors should be complete and accurate to the best of your knowledge.   

FAILURE TO RESPOND TO ALL RANKING FACTORS WILL ELIMINATE YOU FROM CONSIDERATION.  

Ranking Factor #1: Mastery of and skill sufficient to visualize statistical and analytical methodology in relationship to the broad research, investigative or policy problem at hand.  Ability to advise on the optimum use of and possible expected contributions of statistics and analytics, as well as the limitations of those methods, to the initiatives of the office.

Ranking Factor #2: Mastery of statistical and analytical theories, principles, concepts and practices, and skill in applying statistical procedures, data or quantitative analysis, data collection techniques, and reduction of data from multiple sources. Mastery of statistical methods to include data experimental design, analysis of variance/regression, logistic regression as well as cost benefit analyses.

Ranking Factor #3: Significant project management skills and experience in planning, organizing and directing a program of work.  Demonstrated skill in problem solving, multitasking, and marshalling resources to design and conduct in-depth research and analysis and successfully complete complex projects. 

Ranking Factor #4: Superior skill in oral and written communication to prepare and present recommendations and solutions regarding complex issues based on analysis and evaluation, including the preparation and presentation of reports and proposals. Ability to interact well with and maintain strong working relationships with internal and external stakeholders.

Ranking Factor #5: Demonstrated curiosity and interest in public policy and public interest work and applying statistical and analytical methods to public policy problems.

OTHER INFORMATION:  A background investigation will be conducted.

Please see below attachment for details.