Senior Data Scientist II - Program Management and Data Governance

NORC at the University of Chicago is seeking a qualified Senior Data Scientist II to join the Statistics and Data Science Department to provide day-to-day program management, technical, and data governance expertise to a large-scale federal data access and record linkage program supporting NIH-funded researchers. This role provides leadership, coordination, and oversight for the delivery of secure data linkage services involving CMS and other federal datasets within a multi-contractor, multi-cloud environment. The role involves partnering closely with technical staff, federal sponsors, external platform providers, and collaborating contractors to monitor progress against project milestones, resolve challenges, and ensure successful execution of data linkage activities, secure data provisioning, regulatory compliance, project reporting, and stakeholder engagement.

This position combines program leadership with substantive expertise in CMS data, record linkage methodologies, federal data governance, and data security. The successful candidate will coordinate activities across multiple functional teams responsible for data linkage, cloud platform operations, data use agreements, training and community engagement, output disclosure review, and data stewardship. The person in this role will serve as a key point of contact for government stakeholders and help ensure that project milestones, quality standards, security requirements, and client expectations are consistently met.

The Senior Data Scientist II hired into this role will also have opportunities to work on other projects and leverage their expertise in other key domains, such as data integration, AI/ML, scientific computing, survey statistics, business development, and collaborative research. Generally, this position supports the development of the strategy and vision for large data analysis projects and may involve managing both the activities and the work product of data analysts and/or data scientists.

Location: Hybrid role based in either our Chicago Loop or Washington, DC office, with a minimum of six days per month in the office. Highly qualified remote candidates will be considered.

Qualified applicants must be eligible to work in the U.S. We regret that we are unable to offer visa sponsorship for this position.

The Statistics and Data Science (SDS) department provides the scientific foundation required to advance NORC’s project portfolio. SDS delivers rigorous, innovative, and fit-for-purpose solutions along the project lifecycle. The department provides leadership for NORC’s approach on a broad range of approaches for study design and the analysis of primary and secondary data. SDS expertise includes artificial intelligence and machine learning; data integration; disclosure avoidance; imputation; data linkage and statistical matching for combining multiple data sources; data quality assessment; efficient and reproducible workflow development; privacy-preserving methods; record linkage; small area estimation; statistical methods for survey sampling, weighting, estimation, and inference; and visualization.

The SDS department works closely with teams in NORC’s Health and Social, Economic, and Global Research divisions, Digital Services and Solutions group, and operational teams across NORC to ensure that statistical excellence and innovation remain central to the organization’s work. Many of NORC’s projects and proposals are led by substantive research departments that require significant contributions from SDS staff. SDS works closely with highly collaborative groups across the organization to ensure success through cross-departmental partnerships. To further capture the innovative spirit of NORC, SDS also leads projects that target departmental focus areas. Examples of recent project topics involving SDS staff include survey sampling redesign; AI for enhancing data quality, standardization, and integration; enhancing traffic safety data; linkage of healthcare data including claims and other administrative data and surveys; and testing data visualization approaches for effective communication.

SDS is composed of a geographically distributed team of over 60 professionals located across NORC offices and remote locations throughout the United States and who are engaged in an array of activities, including research and statistical operations for client projects across NORC’s portfolio, strategic research projects on emerging topics, and business development.

The pay range for this position is $160,000 - $185,000.

This position is classified as regular. Regular staff are eligible for NORC’s comprehensive benefits program. Benefits include, but are not limited to:  

NORC is committed to equity and transparency in its pay practices. We publish salary ranges and benefit information for every job. The listed hiring range reflects what we, in good faith, expect to pay at the time of posting, though actual compensation may vary and may be adjusted over time. A candidate’s placement within the range depends on factors such as competencies, education, qualifications, experience, skills, performance, and organizational needs. This role is bonus eligible.  Bonus payment is contingent upon program terms and individual performance.