Public Relations Data Scientist
Prenda, United States
Job Description
Public Affairs Data Scientist, Full Time, Remote
Prenda is on a mission to empower learners. We help people run microschools, where small groups of kids meet, often in a home, and own their education. The model is helping light a fire for kids like Mo (https://youtu.be/g4nLjauGM3U), and we want to empower many more. Imagine a world where kids grow up as empowered learners - they choose to learn, develop their gifts, and apply their passion and grit to solve the world’s big problems!
Our Public Affairs team is looking for a Data Scientist to measure the impact of our learning model on the students we serve. Ultimately, we want to quantitatively assess the degree to which we are fulfilling our mission: empower learners. We have broken this out into two categories: traditional measures of academic progress (state tests, periodic benchmark assessments, formative assessments from day-to-day learning software) and non-cognitive measures like engagement, mindset, and grit. This person will utilize data from academic tools, our own learning software, as well as observation and survey data.
Skills:
- Strong competency in managing and interpreting data (thousands to millions of records)
- Technology: Scripting software (e.g. python) and statistics suite (e.g. R, Stata), with bonus points if you know MongoDB and React, which are core to our software stack.
- Past experience in educational data is a bonus. Either way, plan on lots of learning.
- Ability to hone in on the key insights and messages in the data, elementary storytelling skills.
- Strong collaborator and communicator - you’ll be supporting the CEO and others communicating externally.
Responsibilities:
- Thorough understanding of all the data in our system, including the nuances of measurement and data collection, implicit biases, etc. You will not own/manage the data (there is a team handling the logistics), but you will understand it better than anyone.
- Apply data science best practices to develop a quantitative measure of how we are doing in our mission to empower learners.
- Develop relationships and coordinate with external researchers to ensure appropriate comparison to control populations.
- Collaborate with senior leadership and external consultants to ensure accurate external messaging.
- Engage with external researchers (e.g. academics) for independent validation and verification of data claims.
- Support and mentor Prenda colleagues developing data science skills.
Education/Experience Requirements:
- Mid-senior level data scientist with experience owning projects. We don’t have a hard number, but we expect that qualified candidates will have at least five years of relevant experience, and competitive candidates will have closer to ten.
- Experience analyzing educational data and engaging in relevant public policy discussions
- Strong technical skills and experience discerning signal from noise
- Experience in dynamic, collaborative settings (read: things are moving fast, and you will be helping build a new data science practice by working with other amazing people)
- Not a firm degree requirement, but we expect your technical skills to rival an economics PhD researcher.
Benefits:
- Competitive salary combined with potential equity
- Tax-advantaged health insurance reimbursement
- Work-from-home stipend
- Entirely remote team