Data Scientist

EXAM NUMBER: b1763A TYPE OF RECRUITMENT: Open Competitive Job Opportunity FIRST DAY OF FILING: MAY 10, 2024 at 8:00 A.M. (PT) This examination will remain open until the needs of the service are met and is subject to closure without prior notice.
DEFINITION: Under general supervision, develops and applies methods to identify, collect, process, organize, and analyze structured and unstructured data using statistical prediction, inference, and optimization; effectively communicates results to County, departmental, and divisional decision makers to support data-driven program design and management.
CLASSIFICATION STANDARDS: This is the second working level in the professional data science/analysis series. Positions allocable to this class work under the general direction of a Data Science Supervisor or supervisor or manager responsible for the data analytics, research, or statistical function of a department, independently performing duties of considerable difficulty to complete moderately complex projects or major aspects of large/complex projects that may be divisional, departmental, or Countywide in scope. Incumbents deploy techniques such as data extraction, transformation, and loading; classical statistical analysis and machine learning, including predictive and prescriptive modeling and optimization; and data visualization, to generate critical information and knowledge and effectively communicate findings to technical and nontechnical stakeholders to support data-driven program design, management, and decision-making. Incumbents work with data sets characterized by large volume, moderate complexity, and significant heterogeneity, integrating data from various sources, requiring direct collaboration with data engineers and other IT staff to design and provide feedback on data systems and processes necessary to support their work.
Data Scientist is distinguished from the Senior Data Scientist in that the latter applies subject-matter expertise to identify new and emerging business problems, whereas the Data Scientist works under general supervision to develop methods of interrogating data in order to solve previously identified business problems. The Data Scientist is distinguished from the Predictive Data Analyst in that the latter applies well-established analytic principles, methods, and procedures within existing data systems and architectures to complete well-defined, routine to moderately difficult functions and projects, whereas Data Scientists may develop or assist in developing new analytic methods, functions, and data architectures as necessary to complete complex projects, including those involving unstructured data.
Positions in this class differ from those that plan, design, conduct and evaluate research projects involving complex experimental designs and data analysis, programming and processing of data, and preparing reports and recommendations based on research findings, in that these classes do not employ machine learning or big data as part of their analyses.
Collaborates with division, department, and countywide stakeholders to solicit, define, and manage data science projects from conception through implementation, including identifying and developing statements of business problems; conducting exploratory data analysis and data mining; developing model specification requirements; and conducting advanced statistical analyses.
Develops and presents visualizations of findings and recommendations that can be used to support business decisions and allocate resources.
Works with departmental stakeholders to document business requirements and helps frame business problems so that appropriate corresponding data science techniques can be identified and applied.
Collaborates with department subject matter experts to understand, identify, and select available and relevant sources of data for use cases, including internal, external, structured, and unstructured data sources.
Works with departmental Information Technology organization to support collection, integration, and retention requirements for large sets of structured and unstructured data from various sources and consults with data engineers and architects on the design and architecture of relevant data systems and processes.
Collaborates with other Data Scientists, Analysts, and IT staff to select, evaluate, improve, and document tools and systems in order to strengthen divisional and departmental analytic capacity.
Independently conducts advanced analytical studies for the resolution of business problems and transfigures data into critical information by selecting and deploying appropriate advanced statistical techniques such as machine learning, bivariate and multivariate analyses, predictive/prescriptive analytics, and optimization. 
Uses statistical computer scripting, domain-specific, and programming languages and other software and tools to digest, manipulate, prepare, augment, evaluate, analyze, summarize, and visualize data.
Plans, designs, and manages experiments, consumer surveys, and other data collection projects to augment existing sources of data as necessary to solve business problems.
Reviews the work of Predictive Data Analysts and other lower-level analysts assigned to project for quality-control purposes.
Conveys findings and conclusions of work orally, in writing, visually, in presentations, and by developing interactive tools as appropriate to communicate effectively with a wide range of audiences, including technical and nontechnical staff, stakeholders, and members of the public.
Works with program staff to understand the implications of analyses and to ensure that findings are actionable and support data-driven program, policy, and operational decision-making.
Assists in implementing recommended business process changes in ways that both retain fidelity to best practices identified through the analysis and recognize the operational realities underlying existing business processes.
Works with functional teams to develop and implement products, services, and tools, such as dashboards and reports, emerging from the analysis.
Contributes to advanced analytic products (e.g., Recommender Engines, Auto Classification algorithms, Predictive Scoring, geo-spatial clustering, NLP classifier, etc.) and helps place them in production.
Recommends ongoing improvements to methods and algorithms that lead to findings, including new information.
Provides business metrics for departmental projects to show improvements both initially and over multiple iterations. Provides ongoing tracking and monitoring of performance of decision systems and statistical models and troubleshoots and implements enhancements and fixes to systems as needed.
Accesses ongoing training and professional development to maintain familiarity with current industry and academic research to apply the latest and most useful statistical learning techniques to help extract pattern and trends from data.
SELECTION REQUIREMENTS:
Option I: Two (2) years of experience applying machine learning, predictive analytics, data management, or hypothesis-driven data analysis to produce actionable recommendations to support data-driven program, policy, and operational decision-making at a level equivalent to the Los Angeles County class of Predictive Data Analyst. * -OR- Option II: A Bachelor's degree from an accredited college in a field of applied research such as Data Science, Machine Learning, Mathematics, Statistics, Business Analytics, Psychology, or Public Health that included 12 semester or 18 quarter units of coursework in data science, predictive analytics, quantitative research methods, or statistical analysis -AND- Four (4) years of experience applying machine learning, predictive analytics, data management, or hypothesis-driven data analysis to produce actionable recommendations to support data-driven program, policy, and operational decision-making. A Master's or Doctoral degree from an accredited college or university in a field of applied research such Data Science, Machine Learning, Mathematics, Statistics, Business Analytics, Psychology, or Public Health may substitute for up to two (2) years of experience.
*Experience at the level of Predictive Data Analyst is defined as using machine learning techniques to analyze complex data sets and find statistically significant, meaningful predictive patterns, relevant to program goals, that human intelligence could not identify on its own. LICENSE:
A valid California Class C Driver License or the ability to utilize alternative method of transportation when needed to carryout job-related essential functions. PHYSICAL CLASS:
Physical Class II – Light: This class includes administrative and clerical positions requiring light physical effort that may include occasional light lifting to a 10 pound limit and some bending, stooping, or squatting. Considerable ambulation maybe involved. SPECIAL REQUIREMENTS INFORMATION:
* ACCREDITATION: Accredited institutions are those listed in the publications of regional, national or international accrediting agencies which are accepted by the Department of Human Resources. Publications such as American Universities and Colleges and  International Handbook of Universities are acceptable references. Also acceptable, if appropriate, are degrees that have been evaluated and deemed to be equivalent to degrees from United States accredited institutions by an academic credential evaluation agency recognized by The National Association of Credential Evaluation Services (NACES) or the  Association of International Credential Evaluators, Inc. (AICE).
Transcript: * In order to receive credit for any college or university course, or any type of college or university degree, such as Bachelor's or higher, you must include a  legible copy  of the  official diploma or official transcripts from the accredited institution which shows the area of specialization with your application at the  time of filing or within 7 calendar days of filing.
Official Transcript is defined as a transcript that bears the college seal and states "official and/or copy" issued by the school's Registrar Office.  of the transcript from the  school's website is NOT considered official and; therefore, will NOT be accepted and may result in your application being incomplete or rejected. DESIRABLE QUALIFICATIONS:
Credit will be given to applicants who possess the following desirable qualifications:
Additional experience beyond the Selection Requirements. EXAMINATION CONTENT:
This examination will consist of an evaluation of experience based on application information, desirable qualifications, and supplemental questionnaire information at the time of filing weighted 100%.
Applicants must meet the requirements described above at the time of filing and achieve a passing score of 70% or higher on the examination in order to be added to the Eligible Register.
ELIGIBILITY INFORMATION: The names of candidates receiving a passing grade in the examination will be placed on the eligible register in the order of their score group for a period of twelve (12) months following the date of promulgation.
Applications will be processed on an as-received basis and promulgated to the eligible register accordingly.
NO PERSON MAY COMPETE IN THIS EXAMINATION MORE THAN ONCE EVERY TWELVE (12) MONTHS.
Notice of non-acceptance and final results will be sent via email. SPECIAL INFORMATION
Past and present mental health clients, parents, and family members are encouraged to apply.

FAIR CHANCE EMPLOYER
The County of Los Angeles is a Fair Chance employer. Except for a very limited number of positions, you will not be asked to provide information about a conviction history unless you receive a contingent offer of employment. The County will make an individualized assessment of whether your conviction history has a direct or adverse relationship with the specific duties of the job, and consider potential mitigating factors, including, but not limited to, evidence and extent of rehabilitation, recency of the offense(s), and age at the time of the offense(s). If asked to provide information about a conviction history, any convictions or court records which are exempted by a valid court order do not have to be disclosed.  VACANCY INFORMATION 
The eligible register for this examination will be used to fill a vacancy in the Department of Mental Health.
AVAILABLE SHIFT
Appointees may be required to work any shift, including evenings, nights, weekends and holidays.
APPLICATION AND FILING INFORMATION 
Applicants are required to complete and submit an online Los Angeles County Employment Application AND Supplemental Questionnaire in order to be considered for this examination. Paper applications, resumes, or any unsolicited documents will not be accepted in lieu of completing the online application and Supplemental Questionnaire. We must receive your application before 5:00 pm, PT, on the last day of filing.  INSTRUCTIONS FOR FILING ONLINE
Apply online by clicking on the "Apply" tab for this posting. You can also track the status of your application using this website.
Applicants must complete and submit their online applications and upload documents (e.g., Diploma, Resume, etc.) as attachment(s) during application submission or send by email to within 7 calendar days from date of application submission. Indicate Data Scientist, on the subject line when sending required documents by email.  

The acceptance of your application will depend on whether you have clearly shown that you meet the Selection Requirements. Your online application must show complete license, education and work experience information necessary to evaluate your qualifications. License information section must show title of license, license number, original date of issue, and expiration date. Education information section must include name and address of school attended, complete dates attended, name of course/s taken, number of units earned, and degree/s earned. Work experience section must include job title, employer name and address, name of work area/facility, actual payroll title held and not the working and/or functional titles, from/to dates of employment including month, day and year, total number of months, total number of hours worked per week - not a range of hours (full or part-time), and complete and detailed description of related job duties. If range of hours is provided, experience will be prorated based on the lowest number of hours worked per week. LIST separately each job experience to be evaluated. All information supplied by applicants is subject to verification. We may reject your application at any time during the examination or selection process.
IMPORTANT NOTES • Please note that ALL information included in the application materials is subject to VERIFICATION  at any point during the examination and hiring process, including after an appointment has been made.
• FALSIFICATION of any information may result in DISQUALIFICATION or RESCISSION OF APPOINTMENT .
• Utilizing VERBIAGE from Class Specification and/or Minimum Requirements serving as your description of duties WILL NOT  be sufficient to meet the requirements. Doing so may result in an INCOMPLETE APPLICATION  and you may be DISQUALIFIED . 
Plan to submit your online application well in advance before the deadline as you may be required to verify your email address. This only needs to be done once per email address, and if you already have a job seeker account on  govermmentjobs.com/careers/lacounty,gov you can verify at any time by logging in and following the prompts. This is to enhance the security of your online application and to ensure you do not enter an incorrect email address.

 
For the time being, all notifications, including results letters and notices of non-acceptance, will be sent electronically to the email address provided on the application. It is important that you provide a valid email address. Please add exams as well as  and  to your email address and list of approved senders to prevent email notification from being filtered as span/junk/clutter mail.
Applicants have the ability to opt out of emails from LA County. If you unsubscribe, you will not receive any email notification for any examination for which you apply with Los Angeles County. Regardless of whether you choose to unsubscribe, you can always check for notifications by logging into governmentjobs.com and viewing your profile inbox, which saves a copy of all emailed notices.
SOCIAL SECURITY NUMBER LANGUAGE
Please include your Social Security Number for record control purposes. Federal law requires that all employed persons have a Social Security Number . COMPUTER AND INTERNET ACCESS AT LIBRARIES
For candidates who may not have regular access to a computer or the internet, applications can be completed on computers at public libraries throughout Los Angeles County.


NO SHARING USER ID AND PASSWORD
All applicants must file their applications online using their own user ID and password. Using a family member or friend's user ID and password may erase a candidate's original application record.
DEPARTMENT CONTACT  Department Contact Name: Celia Yeung, Exam Analyst
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