SENIOR DATA SCIENTIST

Position/Program Information

LOS ANGELES COUNTY DISTRICT ATTORNEY'S OFFICE

EXAM TITLE

SENIOR DATA SCIENTIST

TYPE OF RECRUITMENT

Open Competitive Job Opportunity

EXAM NUMBER

A1764A-R

APPLICATION FILING PERIOD

Thursday, October 24, 2024 at 8:00 A.M. (PT) through Thursday, November 7, 2024, BEFORE 5:00 P.M. (PT)
With more than 10 million residents, Los Angeles County is the most populous county in the nation. As the largest employer in Southern California, over 112,000 employees in more than 36 departments provide vital public services as diverse as law enforcement, property assessment, public health protection, water conservation, cultural activities and many more.
We are dedicated professionals committed to preserving the dignity and integrity of the workplace as well as protecting the rights of each employee. With more than 2,300 different job descriptions, the County offers a lifetime of opportunities and careers! We offer one of the strongest public-sector benefits packages in the nation. Join us and discover a rich selection of health care options, robust retirement plans, and the flexibility to work, relax, and rejuvenate in order to reach your fullest personal and professional potential.

What does a Senior Data Scientist do?

The Senior Data Scientist under general supervision, leads the development and application of methods to identify, collect, process, organize, and analyze structured and unstructured data using advanced statistical prediction, inference, and optimization; effectively communicates results to County, departmental, and divisional decision makers and provides ongoing support to strengthen data-driven program design and management.

Check Out Our Outstanding Benefits! CLICK HERE to see a list of employee benefits!

Essential Job Functions

• Collaborates with division, departmental, and countywide stakeholders to solicit, define, and manage highly complex data science projects from conception through implementation; ensures that projects result in actionable insights and recommendations that can be used to support business decisions and allocate resources; and provides ongoing consultation during program implementation of recommendations as necessary to ensure program fidelity.
  
• Provides technical oversight to small teams of Data Scientists and Predictive Data Analysts as necessary to ensure project success.
  
• Leads the discovery process with departmental stakeholders to document business requirements and frame business problems so that appropriate corresponding data science techniques and products can be identified and deployed.
  
• Collaborates with other 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; and provides guidance to other department data experts in the selection and transformation of such sources.
  
• In conjunction with the Information Technology organization, supports collection, integration, and retention requirements for large sets of structured and unstructured data from disparate sources; acts as a resource for senior data engineers and architects in the selection and design of systems for use by the data science team.
  
• Reviews proposals by Data Scientists and analysts regarding selection and improvement of data science tools and ensures that the team’s tools and systems are well documented.
  
• Conducts and coordinates statistical inference of data and conveys findings and conclusions 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 retain fidelity to best practices identified through the analysis and recognize the operational realities underlying existing business processes; provides ongoing consultation as recommended changes and new programs grow and evolve, including recommending modifications to adopted goals and metrics.
  
• Coordinates with various functional teams to develop and implement products, services, tools, or business process changes resulting from the analysis.
  
• Creates and validates advanced analytic products (e.g., Recommender Engines, Auto Classification algorithms, Predictive Scoring, geo-spatial clustering, NLP classifier, etc.) and places them in production; works with nontechnical program managers and staff to understand analytic products and to integrate them into departmental programs.
  
• Recommends ongoing improvements to methods and algorithms that lead to findings, including new information.
  
• Creates and monitors performance of automated-detection systems and provides business metrics for overall project to show improvements 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.
  
• Develops and maintains a high level of expertise in statistical programming languages and packages and other software tools; provides training and support to Data Scientists and Predictive Data Analysts as necessary; and ensures the quality of code and programming logic generated by the data science team.
  

Requirements

REQUIREMENTS TO QUALIFY:

OPTION I:Two (2) years of experience carrying out complex data science projects that included independently developing and applying methods to identify, collect, process, structure, and analyze data using statistical prediction, inference, and optimization to support data-driven program design and management, at a level equivalent to the Los Angeles County class of Data Scientist.*

OPTION II: A Bachelor’s** degree from an accredited college or university 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-
Six (6) years of experience*** applying and overseeing the application of machine learning, predictive analytics, data management, and hypothesis-driven data analysis to make actionable recommendations to support program, policy, and operational decision-making. Two (2) years of this experience must have been in a lead**** capacity.

WITHHOLD INFORMATION: NO WITHHOLDS WILL BE ALLOWED FOR THIS EXAMINATION. REQUIRED EXPERIENCE MUST BE FULLY MET AND INDICATED ON THE APPLICATION BY THE LAST DAY OF FILLING.

ENDORSEMENT OF LOS ANGELES COUNTY QUALIFICATIONS:
County employees who wish to meet the requirements using out-of-class experience must provide official documentation such as additional responsibility bonus, out-of-class bonus, temporary assignment bonus, or reclassification study from CEO Classification with your application at the time of filing or within seven (7) calendar days from application submission. Employees do not need to submit such verification if they hold or have held one of the positions above/or a position deemed to be at equivalent level. Out-of-class duties should be accurately described in the application work history, and questionable experience will be verified through the departmental HR Manager when necessary.

LICENSE:

A valid California Class C Driver's License or the ability to utilize an alternative method of transportation when needed to carry out 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 may be involved.

SPECIAL REQUIREMENT INFORMATION:
*Experience at the level of Data Scientist is defined as one who deploys 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 non-technical stakeholders to support data-driven program design, management, and decision-making.

**In order to receive credit for a Bachelor's Degree or higher degree, you must attach a legible copy of your "official" diploma, "official" transcripts, or "official" letter from an accredited institution that shows the area of specialization at the time of filing or within (7) calendar days from the last day of filing. If you are unable to attach the required documents, you must email them to ecervantes@hr.lacounty.gov . Please include the exam number and exam title. Applications received without evidence of the required degree(s) will not be considered nor accepted as meeting the stated requirements under Option I. Unofficial transcripts will not be accepted to meet the educational requirement . For more information regarding education, please see the Employment Information document on the LA County Jobs website (PPG 123 - Accredited College Education) . We do not accept password-protected documents. Ensure documents are unlocked before attaching them to your application or sending them to the exam analyst.

*** For OPTION II only , A Master’s or Doctoral degree from an accredited college or university in a field of applied research such as Data Science, Machine Learning, Mathematics, Statistics, Business Analytics, Psychology, or Public Health may substitute for up to two (2) years of the general experience.

****Lead capacity is defined as assigning, coordinating, and reviewing the work of staff, ensuring adherence to proper work methods and providing technical assistance and training, but does not supervise.

Additional Information

OUR ASSESSMENT PROCESS:
This assessment will consist of two (2) parts:

PART I: Multiple Choice and/or Simulation Assessments weighted at 50% assessing:

• Deductive Reasoning
• Professional Potential
• Achievement
• Working Relationships
• Analyzing Information
• Learning Quickly
• Generating New Ideas
• Using Time Efficiently
• Working to High Quality Standards
• Adapting to Change
• Coping with Uncertainty
• Willingness to Learn
• Responsibility

Candidates must achieve a passing score of 70% or higher on Part I to proceed to Part II of this examination.

PART II: Multiple Choice and/or Simulation Assessments weighted at 50% assessing:

• Data Science including: Probability and Statistics, Machine Learning Algorithms and Implementation, and Setting Up Machine Learning Experiments

MULTIPLE-CHOICE AND/OR SIMULATION ASSESSMENT(S) ARE NOT REVIEWABLE BY CANDIDATES PER CIVIL SERVICE RULE 7.19.

APPLICANTS MUST MEET THE REQUIREMENTS AND ACHIEVE A PASSING SCORE OF 70% OR HIGHER ON EACH WEIGHTED PART OF THE EXAMINATION IN ORDER TO BE PLACED ON THE ELIGIBLE LIST.

Scores cannot be given over the telephone.
WHAT TO EXPECT NEXT:
You will move thro ugh the Ass essment Process and if you pass, we will place your results on a list. The list of everyone who passed is valid for twelve (12) months.

TRANSFER OF TEST COMPONENTS:

• Applicants who have taken identical components recently for other exams may have their responses automatically transferred to this examination.
• This examination contains test components that may be used in the future for new examinations and your test responses may be transferred.

Please note: All notifications including invitation letters will be sent electronically to the email address provided on the application. It is important that you provide a valid email address. DO NOT select "off" under Email Preferences within your profile or click "unsubscribe" on our notices if you would like the County of Los Angeles to notify you regarding your application status, test schedules, and other important information pertaining to your candidacy for this position.

Please add the below email addresses to your email address book and list of approved senders to prevent email notifications from being filtered as spam/junk/clutter mail.

• ecervantes@hr.lacounty.gov
• info@governmentjobs.com
• talentcentral@shl.com
• noreply@proctoru.com
• donot-reply@amcatmail.com

TEST PREPARATION:
Study guides and other test preparation resources are available to help candidates prepare for employment tests. While the guides will help you prepare for the test, we advise you to review all related materials that you deem necessary.

• An interactive, Online Test Preparation System for taking practice tests may be accessed on the Department of Human Resources website at http://hr.lacounty.gov/ . Please click on "Find A Job" and then "Job Search Toolkit." Test preparation information is located under the "Employment Test Assistance" section.
• Additional online practice tests are available at https://www.shldirect.com/en-us/practice-tests .

VACANCY INFORMATION:
The resulting eligible list will be used t o fill vacancies in the District Attorney's Office throughout Los Angeles County.

AVAILABLE SHIFT: Any

APPLICATION AND FILING INFORMATION:
Applications must be filed online only. We must receive your application before 5:00 p.m., PT, on the last day of filing. Applications submitted by U.S. mail, fax, or in person will not be accepted. Apply online by clicking on the "Apply" green button at the top right of this posting. You can also track the status of your application using this website.

Plan to submit your online application well in advance of the November 7, 2024 BEFORE 5:00 p.m. (PT) deadline as you may be required to verify your email address. This only needs to be done once per email address, and if you have already have a job seeker account on governmentjobs.com/careers/lacounty, 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.

Fill out your application completely. The acceptance of your application depends on whether you have clearly shown that you meet the Requirements to Qualify as listed on this job posting. Provide any relevant job experience in the spaces provided so we can evaluate your qualifications for the job. For each job held, give the name and address of your employer, your job title, beginning and ending dates, number of hours worked per week, and description of work performed. If your application is incomplete, it will be rejected.

IMPORTANT: 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 the Class Specification and Minimum requirements serving as your description of duties will not be sufficient to demonstrate that you meet the requirements. Doing so may result in an incomplete application and you may be disqualified.

ANTI-RACISM, DIVERSITY, AND INCLUSION (ARDI): The County of Los Angeles recognizes and affirms that all people are created equal and are entitled to all rights afforded by the Constitution of the United States. The Department of Human Resources is committed to promoting Anti-racism, Diversity, and Inclusion efforts to address the inequalities and disparities amongst race. We support the ARDI Strategic Plan and its goals by improving equality, diversity, and inclusion in recruitment, selection, and employment practices.
SOCIAL SECURITY NUMBER: 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 PUBLIC 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 OF USER ID AND PASSWORD: All applicants must file their application 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.

TESTING ACCOMMODATION:
If you require an accommodation to fairly compete in any part of the assessment process, you will be given the opportunity to make a request when completing your application. Please note, you may be required to submit documentation from a qualified medical provider or other qualified professional to support your request for a testing accommodation.

Testing Accommodations Email: TestingAccommodations@hr.lacounty.gov
Teletype Phone: (800) 735-2929
California Relay Services Phone: (800) 735-2922
Department Contact Name: Elia Cervantes
Department Contact Phone: (213) 738-2037
Department Contact Email: ecervantes@hr.lacounty.gov
Exam Number: A1764A-R

For detailed information, please click here

Closing Date/Time: 11/7/2024 5:00 PM Pacific

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• Los Angeles County

• (800) 970-5478

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