Senior Strategy Data Scientist

Job Title: Senior Strategy Data Scientist
Department: Strategic Analytics
Employment Type: Full-time
Location: Dallas preferred; flexible for the right candidate
Reports To: Head of Strategic Analytics

Who we are: 

At the Child Poverty Action Lab CPAL, we believe every child deserves a life filled with opportunity. CPAL operates as an unofficial Research and Development lab for Dallas, using data to rethink public systems and equipping community partners at the neighborhood level to be successful in collectively achieving our mission to reduce childhood poverty in Dallas by 50% within a single generation. CPAL works across five key areas to reduce child poverty - Benefits Delivery, Maternal Health, Housing, Criminal Justice and Public Safety. These five “big bets” are rooted in a growing body of evidence that connects experiences in childhood to economics in adulthood.

Five design principles guide our work:

• Start with children and families, and work backward to systems. Change begins with understanding on-the-ground experiences of children and families, then reverse-engineering systems, policies, and processes to improve those experiences. This ensures solutions are grounded in actual needs rather than institutional assumptions.

• A problem well stated is half a solution. Systemic problems often feel intractable and too big to solve until they’re sharply defined. Real change happens when problems are made concrete, actionable, and replicable.

• Systems are like a string of Christmas lights. When everything works, the whole string lights up. But one burnt-out bulb — missing data, a confusing process, a broken handoff — can take the rest with it. The burnt-out bulb can change, but finding and fixing it is a repeatable exercise.

• Have a bias for action. Perfect is the enemy of good. CPAL takes concrete steps forward with the best available information rather than waiting for certainty. We learn by doing and course-correct along the way.

• Test, learn, and iterate. CPAL experiments fast and iterates with intention. Feedback loops and rapid evaluation help us identify what’s working and amplify insights with the greatest potential.

Overview of Position:

Our Strategic Analytics team exists to find leverage: turning data into insights that help CPAL and its partners direct limited resources where they can improve the lives of the most children.

We are building a small, senior team that combines analytical rigor, practical judgment, and AI-enabled ways of working. We aim to be a strategic thinking partner – rigorous, yet pragmatic and AI-native – for the program teams on the ground. 

Senior Strategy Data Scientists tackle important questions that rarely arrive with clean data, a settled methodology, or even a well-formed problem statement.

You will determine what decision needs to be made, what evidence would be useful, what can credibly be answered, and how to deliver value without overengineering the solution. The mindset is consulting rather than academic: get to a good answer fast, not a 100% answer too late.

You will work across areas such as housing, economic mobility, (maternal) health, education, and public safety. Deep expertise in every field is not expected. Success requires learning unfamiliar domains quickly, working confidently with imperfect data, and communicating sophisticated ideas clearly. 

What you’ll do: 

• Conduct analysis end to end: Combine messy data, select appropriate methods, test findings, and document sources, definitions, assumptions, and limitations.

• Frame the question before analyzing it: Find the decision behind the request, challenge flawed assumptions, and define the smallest useful first version.

• Produce more than the literal answer: Explain what the result means, identify adjacent insights, and surface the questions stakeholders may not have known to ask.

• Connect analysis to decisions: Produce work that can influence resource allocation, program design, or organizational strategy.

• Communicate clearly: Turn complex analysis into concise briefs, visualizations, and explanations appropriate for nontechnical decision-makers and enable them to communicate with external stakeholders.

• Build institutional knowledge: Make each output reusable so the next related question is easier and less expensive to answer.

• Work AI-natively: Use AI in research, coding, quality assurance, and documentation; verify it carefully and never trust it blindly.

What success looks like:

Within your first year:

• Your analysis has influenced resource allocation, program design, or external strategy across multiple issue areas.

• Your work is reproducible and can be understood or extended by another data scientist and contributed to the institutional library.

• Your AI-assisted workflows have materially improved speed or quality without sacrificing rigor.

What we’re looking for:

• 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.

• 3–5 years of applied analytical work, typically at a top-tier strategy, boutique data science or analytical consulting firm; equivalent trajectories with unusual early responsibility – running analytics for a high-growth startup or agency – also fit.

• Technical: professional fluency in Python and working SQL; able to read and adapt existing R. Big plus: geospatial analysis and data visualization experience.

• Sound methodological judgment combined with consultant-style pragmatism: you choose the approach that fits the question, evidence, timeline, and stakes.

• Daily working fluency with AI-assisted analytical tools, supported by concrete examples.

• High agency, intellectual curiosity, and the ability to learn unfamiliar subject areas quickly.

• A serious commitment to CPAL's mission. Prior nonprofit experience is not required.

Compensation and Benefits:

• Competitive salary commensurate with experience

• Health, dental, and vision insurance

• Retirement savings plan with employer match

• Generous paid time off and holidays

• Professional development and learning support