Data Scientist

Caltech is a world-renowned science and engineering institute that marshals some of the world's brightest minds and most innovative tools to address fundamental scientific questions. We thrive on finding and cultivating talented people who are passionate about what they do. Join us and be a part of the diverse Caltech community.

Job Summary

The Data Scientist is a member of the Audit Services and Institute Compliance (ASIC) organization and will work with ASIC as well as other Campus and JPL organizations. Using creativity, tenacity, curiosity, and technical skills, the Data Scientist will be responsible for designing and implementing an impactful program for analyzing complex, large-scale data sets used for data mining, research, and, where applicable, predictive modeling purposes. The successful candidate will be a self-starter with experience in combining internal and external sources of data, identifying interesting and useful trends in the data, and formulating hypotheses on how to leverage these trends to identify potential issues as well as process improvements/efficiencies. The Data Scientist must possess excellent interpersonal skills with the ability to communicate insights discovered through data mining to all levels of management and creatively present their results using visualization or other analytical tools. Most importantly, the Data Scientist must possess a strong passion to answer business questions working collaboratively with ASIC team members, Campus’ Information Management Systems & Services (IMSS), JPL’s Enterprise Business Information Systems (EBIS), and other stakeholders at Campus and JPL. ASIC management estimates a heavy emphasis on data mining, i.e. descriptive data science, when working with ASIC.

Job Duties

• Partners with ASIC team members and key stakeholders at Campus and JPL to find opportunities where data science is part of business solutions, extract and mine data, pinpoint trends, and ensure consistent and accurate results. 
• Communicates and presents findings to ASIC team members and key stakeholders at Campus and JPL.
• Serves as an expert in data science efforts at Campus and JPL including recommending, implementing, and reporting on data science tools, procedures, progress, predictive analytics, and industry innovations.
• Discovers and/or designs and builds large and complex data sets including structured and unstructured data.
• Performs complex data studies and data discovery around new data sources.
• Visualizes and reports data findings creatively and innovatively in a variety of formats.
• Provides coaching and mentoring to others within/outside of the ASIC organization on data mining and data science.
• Regularly uses creativity and innovation to address important issues.
• Exercises discretion and independent judgment in evaluating potential approaches and solutions to significant problems and determining appropriate resolutions.
• Frequently interacts with executives, customers, and peers inside and outside the ASIC organization, exchanging and validating comprehensive and analytical information.
• Contributes as a key team member on teams inside the ASIC organization. May also team on projects, activities or functions outside the ASIC organization.
• Recommends and implements software required for accessing and handling data appropriately.
• May design and implement data mining processes and procedures to aid ASIC and customer in continuous monitoring.

Basic Qualifications

• Requires a Bachelor’s degree in Data Science, Data Analytics, Computer Science, Mathematics or related discipline with a minimum of 6 to 9 years of related experience or a Masters degree in similar disciplines with a minimum of 4 to 7 years of related experience.
• Extensive knowledge in one or more of the following areas: data science, statistics, analytics, programming, data mining, databases, data integration, and communications.
• Experience cleansing, transforming, and integrating real-world data using tools such as R or Python.
• Proficient ability to visualize data using tools such as Tableau and effectively communicate the data in a manner that diverse audiences can understand and utilize.
• Attention to detail with focus on accurately analyzing data and validating the results.
• Advanced statistical knowledge.
• Knowledge of data extraction using SQL.
• Analytical and problem-solving skills.
• Ability to think creatively and to work well both as part of a team and as an individual contributor, with little direction from management.
• Excellent oral and written communication skills.
• Ability to maintain confidentiality when dealing with sensitive data and/or subjects.
• Must have all necessary credentials to work at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

Preferred Qualifications

• Knowledge of widely applicable industry and/or academic practices and standards in data science and analytics.
• Understanding and application of advanced principles, theories, concepts, tools, and techniques in integrating, analyzing, and reporting on multiple large and diverse data sets; creative data mining; analytics, and statistics.
• Strong mathematics and statistics skills.
• Ability to blend math, algorithms, programming, and an understanding of human behavior with the ability to combine information systems to find answers to interesting questions from the data.
• The ability to create new prototypes with the creativity and thoroughness to ask and answer the deepest questions about the data and what secrets it holds.
• Coursework or practical experience with data mining, predictive analytics, prescriptive analytics, building algorithms.

Required Documents

• Resume