Senior Data Scientist

Introduction

We are seeking a Senior Data Scientist to design, implement, and maintain advanced data processing and entity resolution pipelines for a federal government agency. This role will focus on natural language processing, text processing, and information extraction to support large-scale data hygiene, matching, and analytics initiatives, working closely with cross-functional teams in a fast-paced environment.

Responsibilities

• Design, implement, and maintain advanced data processing and entity resolution pipelines using Python and SQL on enterprise data platforms.
• Clean, transform, and manage large-scale datasets from diverse, complex sources, ensuring data integrity, reliability, and security.
• Optimize complex SQL queries and database operations to ensure efficient data access, processing, and scalability.
• Actively participate in code reviews, enforce version control, and uphold best practices for code quality, reproducibility, and data privacy.
• Support data validation, testing, deployment, and post-implementation monitoring.

Requirements

Required Skills / Qualifications

• Bachelor''s degree in Statistics, Applied Mathematics, Computer Science, or Information Science.
• Overall 10+ years of experience in the IT industry; Master''s degree with 10+ years, Bachelor''s degree with 12+ years, or 18+ years of experience in lieu of a degree.
• Strong practical experience with Natural Language Processing (NLP), Text Processing, and Information Extraction, including:
  • Practical knowledge of Named Entity Recognition and Address Standardization to extract and clean unstructured text data.
  • Deep understanding of data matching strategies, including Blocking and Indexing, String Distance Metrics, and Phonetic Encoding.
  • Experience applying TF-IDF and Cosine Similarity for text comparisons and information retrieval.
• Strong Python development skills for building analytics solutions and manipulating data.
• Advanced SQL proficiency for complex data querying, optimization, and database operations.
• Practical experience using Regex for advanced text processing, data cleansing, and pattern matching.
• Familiarity with specialized libraries and frameworks.
• Excellent communication skills.

Desired Qualifications

• Prior experience delivering IT or data initiatives within federal, state, or local government environments.
• Proven ability to operate independently, take ownership of data pipeline architectures, and drive projects from data discovery through post-implementation.
• Experience retrieving, migrating, and manipulating data from legacy and distributed systems.
• Experience utilizing Jenkins to automate continuous integration, testing, and deployment (CI/CD) for data validation pipelines.
• Experience with pipeline automation tools to schedule and monitor complex data cleansing jobs.
• Strong ability to translate complex algorithmic decisions into clear business logic for executive leadership and non-technical stakeholders.
• Excellent problem-solving skills and proven verbal/written communication skills when collaborating across cross-functional teams.