Data Science Lead

Job description

The Democratic National Committee’s Tech Team is hiring a Data Science Lead to head up our data science team and ensure the excellence of our data science models. The DNC’s data science offerings enable Democrats to run winning campaigns all across the country by providing foundational guidance on strategy, resource allocation and effective voter outreach.

In this role, you will be a people manager and technical lead, responsible for coaching and developing the data science team and managing strategic data science initiatives to completion. You will partner closely with our data Product Manager, Analytics Engineering Lead and the rest of our data team to design, deploy and drive trust in our best-in-class predictive models.

About the Role

• We’re looking for someone who wants to nerd out over new statistical methods as much as electing Democrats. We’re a small team working on some of the hardest problems in demography and politics and believe that the best way to solve them is by working together. You’ll be a thought leader in the Democratic ecosystem, enabling campaigns from school boards to the presidential to have access to world-class predictive models. If you want to work on diverse and challenging problems from record linkage to predicting volunteer propensity, you’ll fit right in.
• Your leadership responsibilities will span:
•  Technical:  You will serve as a technical lead for the design, implementation and continuous improvement of the DNC’s predictive models that enrich the database of voters across the country. From statistical methodology to machine learning infrastructure, you will be the subject matter expert on production-level data science for the Democratic party.
•  People and Culture: You will be the people manager for the Data Scientists on our team (currently one Senior Data Scientist) responsible for coaching and development. Where the Product Manager will be responsible for the “what” of our work, you will be responsible for the “how”. As a manager on the Tech team, we will look to you to advance a healthy, inclusive, and user-centric team culture.
•  Strategy: As a data science leader for the ecosystem at large, we’ll look to you to develop and execute on a vision for how data science can improve the effectiveness of Democratic candidates and state parties. You’ll also work with data science vendors to support both DNC modeling needs by managing relationships and contracts.

About the Team

• This is high-impact, mission-centered work: ideal for someone who’s energized by progressive tech and wants to build systems that make a difference.
• We’re a fully remote team that values clarity over complexity, curiosity over ego, and sustainability over burnout. We believe good ideas can come from anywhere, that accountability and empathy can coexist, and that work should feel meaningful without consuming your whole life. Our team is unafraid to chart a path forward, even in the face of ambiguity.
• In this role, you’ll be part of the Data team and report into our Director of Data and Analytics. You will be the people manager for our data science team (currently one Senior Data Scientist) and a technical lead for our LABS team, our crossfunctional data team.

About You:

• We don’t need candidates to check every box on this list. Think of these qualifications as a guide rather than a strict set of requirements. If you’re excited about the role and feel like you can thrive on our team, we want you to apply!
• You’ve led data science humans, offering both technical mentorship and strategic direction
• You’ve deployed machine learning or statistical models into production environments at scale and can articulate benefits and tradeoffs of different approaches
• You have experience doing data science or statistics in a social sciences or business context, which may include electoral politics
• You value collaboration and work best when you’re partnering with a diverse, distributed team to solve interesting problems together
• You code comfortably in Python and/or R, and know how to leverage standard libraries/ modules (eg: ggplot2, matplotlib) or develop a custom approach
• You’re fluent in SQL and have worked in modern cloud data environments (GCP, BigQuery, Airflow, dbt, etc.)
• You have experience using cloud computing platforms and their ML services (such as BigQuery ML/Vertex AI on GCP, Sagemaker on AWS, or Azure) or using machine learning infrastructure built on open-source tools (e.g. MLflow or Tensorflow)
• You’re an excellent communicator and have experience explaining technical concepts to both technical and non-technical audiences. You won’t just be building data science products, but you’ll be helping us ensure our diverse users trust them and know how to use them for their individual needs.

You may also:

• Have a PhD or MS in a relevant discipline (statistics, data science, machine learning, mathematics, information science, computer science, political science, demography, etc.)
• Have experience in expertise with polling or survey-based modeling and advanced sampling/weighting techniques
• Have experience using pipeline orchestration tools (e.g. Airflow, Dagster)
• Have experience using data analysis/visualization tools (e.g. Shiny, Excel/Sheets, Tableau, Looker)
• Have experience working with vendors including relationship management, technical validation and budgetary oversight
• Have experience working with political data like state voter files, election results, or data on voter, volunteer, or donor engagement and/or the DNC’s data and analytics tools, including experience doing analysis in our BigQuery-based data warehouse (Phoenix) or exposure to political CRMs (e.g. VoteBuilder, NGP VAN, BSD)
• Understand the role data can play in political program planning; you think of analysis through the lens of the decisions it will inform, and are deeply focused on asking the right questions before you dive into the weeds of any particular analysis

The salary for the Data Science Lead position is $140,000 on an annualized basis, commensurate with experience and qualifications. This is a full-time, exempt position, that may require work on weekends. This position is in the bargaining unit represented by SEIU Local-500.  This is a remote position that can be based anywhere in the United States.

The Democratic National Committee (DNC), is committed to diversity among its staff, and recognizes that its continued success requires the highest commitment to obtaining and retaining a diverse staff that provides the best quality services to supporters and constituents. The DNC is an equal opportunity employer and it is our policy to recruit, hire, train, promote and administer any and all personnel actions without regard to sex, race, age, color, creed, national origin, religion, economic status, sexual orientation, veteran status, gender identity or expression, ethnic identity or disability, or any other legally protected basis. The DNC is committed to providing reasonable accommodations to individuals with disabilities in the hiring process and on the job, as required by applicable law. The DNC will not tolerate any unlawful discrimination and any such conduct is strictly prohibited.

Due to federal campaign finance rules, only U.S. citizens or U.S. green card holders are eligible for this role. See 52 U.S.C. 30121; 11 C.F.R. 110.20(i).  This means that they are doing campaign and finance work, they cannot be a foreign national/visa holder, only U.S. citizens and Green card holders.

Benefits:

The DNC offers a generous benefit package, including:

Generous paid time off, including federal holidays and open leave

Health and dental insurance for employee and dependents; 90% paid by the DNC, 10% paid by employee

Supplementary vision plans available to employees for purchase

Up to a 5% employer match DNC 401(k) plan

Pre-tax flexible spending account benefits available to employees and dependents