Open role
[Remote] Data Scientist and Program Analyst
Note: The job is a remote job and is open to candidates in USA. 17A is recruiting for its client, a Texas-based nonprofit focused on reducing child poverty and improving economic mobility through data-driven social services. The roles support the client’s Strategy & Analytics team by conducting analysis, informing program and resource decisions, and building lasting analytical capabilities.
Responsibilities
- Embed in the daily meetings and work of a specific program team (e.g., housing, maternal health, or violence/public safety), developing a strong understanding of that portfolio's strategy, stakeholders, data, and recurring decisions
- Translate program needs into analytical questions — finding the decision behind a request, clarifying what evidence would help, and distinguishing analysis from reporting, data acquisition, operations, or engineering work
- Shape analytical products with program leaders, building analyses, prototypes, and recurring products that respond to the portfolio's real operating context, not just its initial request
- Remain a full member of the central Strategy & Analytics team, with shared priorities, analytical standards, peer review, and documentation
- Work across areas such as housing, economic mobility, (maternal) health, education, and public safety — tackling questions that rarely arrive with clean data, a settled methodology, or a well-formed problem statement
- Learn unfamiliar domains quickly, work confidently with imperfect data, and communicate sophisticated ideas clearly to nontechnical audiences
- Connect analysis to decisions, producing work that can influence resource allocation, program design, or organizational strategy across multiple issue areas
- Conduct analysis end to end — combining messy data, selecting appropriate methods, testing findings, and documenting sources, definitions, assumptions, and limitations
- Frame the question before analyzing it — finding the decision behind the request, challenging flawed assumptions, and defining the smallest useful first version
- Produce more than the literal answer — explaining what the result means, identifying adjacent insights, and surfacing questions stakeholders may not have known to ask
- Communicate clearly — turning complex analysis into concise briefs, visualizations, and explanations for nontechnical decision-makers, and enabling them to communicate with external stakeholders
- Build institutional knowledge so the next related question is easier and less expensive to answer
- Work AI-natively, using AI in research, coding, quality assurance, and documentation — verifying it carefully and never trusting it blindly
Skills
- Have 3–5 years of applied analytical experience, typically from a top-tier strategy or analytical consulting firm, or an equivalent high-responsibility trajectory (e.g., running analytics for a high-growth startup or agency)
- Have a strong quantitative foundation from a STEM degree, an applied quantitative social science (e.g., economics, urban science or spatial analytics, operations research, causal inference and program evaluation, or population health analytics), or a comparable discipline
- Are professionally fluent in Python and working SQL, and can read and adapt existing R
- Combine sound methodological judgment with consultant-style pragmatism — you choose the approach that fits the question, evidence, timeline, and stakes
- Have daily working fluency with AI-assisted analytical tools, backed by concrete examples
- Bring high agency, intellectual curiosity, and the ability to learn unfamiliar subject areas quickly
- Are seriously committed to the organization's mission — prior nonprofit experience is not required
- Geospatial analysis and data visualization experience
- Proven applied work in housing, maternal health, or violence/public safety (especially relevant for the Embedded Program Analyst track)
Benefits
- Hybrid or remote setup is possible for the right candidate.
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