Careers

Description:

we are seeking a Data Strategist to support the Office of Labor Standards (OLS) policy team and other teams in their data strategy and analysis needs. Specifically, you will work with the Policy Manager and policy analysts to identify metrics and data sources to analyze the impact of existing and prospective labor standards laws.

You will have a focus on two recent Seattle ordinances that regulate certain companies in the “gig economy.” These ordinances—the App-based Worker Minimum Payment Ordinance (ABWMP) and the App-based Worker Deactivation Rights Ordinance (ABWDRO) require minimum pay for workers, as well as offering deactivation and transparency protections. They also require that the companies affirmatively produce data to OLS that will allow the department to understand the trends and policy impacts of these two ordinances.  You will be the subject matter expert on this affirmative data production program, including managing data intake, quality control and analysis, as well as making recommendations for best practices regarding the same. You will work with regulated companies to ensure accurate and timely data transmissions, perform data cleaning and quality checks, and coordinate resubmission of corrected data. Further, you will advise on and support, in coordination with IT, data housing, data architecture, and building/maintaining required dashboards. Additionally, you will support data analysis, reporting, troubleshooting, and visualization needs to better understand the trends and impacts of the ABWMP and ABWDRO ordinances. 

 

Job Responsibilities

 

You will consult with and advise the Policy Manager or designee regarding the collection, management, and analysis of data for policy development and analysis purposes. Your duties will include:

• Supporting data analysis needs to better understand trends and impacts from the ABWMP and ABWDRO ordinances, including but not limited to: descriptive statistics on average earnings, working time, spatial analyses on origin/destination of delivery work, analysis of work trends and distributions, comparative analyses using the above factors and external data sets such as census demographic data.
• Recommending best practices for data collection, cleaning, and analysis (statistical and data) to OLS Policy Manager and Director for labor standards policy development and analysis.
• Working with the companies required to produce data to ensure timely, accurate, and complete data submissions according to legal requirements, including coordinating the data intake, quality control, resubmission, cleaning, and analysis.
• Analyzing and creating tools to understand and draw conclusions and meaning from produced data, including presentations, dashboards, reports, and data visualization tools.
• Providing input on administrative rules or ordinance language for data implementation, production, analysis, governance, and policy to OLS Policy Manager and Director. 
• Assisting, supporting and making recommendations to OLS Policy Manager and Director regarding additional data strategy and analysis needs relating to Seattle’s labor standards laws (including, but not limited to Minimum Wage, Wage Theft, Paid Sick and Safe Time, Secure Scheduling, and other laws the City may enact in the future.

Other office-wide responsibilities will include:

• Designing, drafting, and recommending internal standard procedures for collection, receipt, cleaning, analysis, and visualization of data, for labor standards policy analysis, to the OLS leadership.
• Assisting and supporting the Department’s strategy for collection, cleaning, analysis, modeling, visualization, and use of data by making recommendations to the OLS Policy Manager, Director, Deputy Director.
• Supporting the Department in development and deployment of data collection, analysis, and use in all its functions, as needed and assigned.
• Developing and delivering training to OLS staff on best practices for data collection, cleaning, analysis, and use.
• Working collaboratively with other OLS staff, including but not limited to the Senior Data Specialist (Senior Management Systems Analyst), in developing and delivering training and resources.
• Coordinating and carrying out work necessary to make OLS data available through the City’s Open Data portal, working collaboratively with OLS staff and other City staff.

Skills/Eligibility:

You will be prepared to take on this role if you have a combination of the following: 

Experience:

• Expertise in the application of data analytics and modeling to policy analysis with a background in data analysis, statistical analysis, and/or open-source code development (proficient with version control systems, e.g. Git).
• Providing analytics on data through query writing, modeling, and coding.
• Parsing and synthesizing large data sets, performing data analysis, and communicating findings to decision-makers.
• Coordinating data cleaning and quality checks, quality control, resubmission, and analysis.

Skills:

• Applying strong analysis and reasoning skills to quickly understand, evaluate, and assess data and effectively communicate findings to decision makers.
• Using programming languages such as R or Python, query languages such as SQL and extract, transform, load (ETL) development methods and tools, or similar tools.
• Analyzing and creating tools to understand and draw conclusions and meaning from data, including presentations, dashboards, reports, and data visualization tools. (e.g. Python libraries such as Streamlit, Matplotlib, etc.)
• Working in an independent, self-directed manner and as part of collaborative teams, as well as managing projects with multiple competing deadlines.

Abilities:

• Adapting easily to changing priorities to meet deadlines in a fast-paced, team-oriented, and political environment.
• Communicating with clarity and tact, creating trusted partnerships, and demonstrating strong interpersonal skills.
• Understanding of race equity, institutional racism, and its impact on inequality and the racial wealth gap, especially as it pertains to the workplace, workplace policies, and worker rights.