Senior Scientist, Personnel Health Research & Data Analytics

Senior Scientist:
Personnel Health Research & Data Analytics, Military (Washington, D.C.)

At Fors Marsh, we take on issues that matter. We are a team of researchers, advisors, and communicators working together to shape the systems that shape our lives. We look at human behavior from all angles to design targeted solutions that influence decision‑making and move people to action. We are committed to the problem, not just the project, and we are intentional about taking on work and forming partnerships that balance purpose, people, planet, and profit.

We are a certified B Corporation, a Just employer, and a  Top Workplace. We hold ourselves accountable to the values that have always defined us. And those values drive us to be the best possible versions of ourselves—for each other, our communities, our clients, and the world.

Fors Marsh is seeking an intelligent and motivated Researcher for a senior position with a background in quantitative social science or data science. This individual’s primary responsibility would be to support a portfolio of quantitative social science and data science research projects for our Personnel Health Research & Data Analysis (PHRDA) team. PHRDA bridges the gap between social science and data science, leveraging innovative analytics tools for research committed to improving the health, wellbeing, and quality of life for Service members and DoW personnel.

We routinely synthesize diverse sources of information, including administrative, survey, and text data and distill complex information for policymakers. We also support a wide variety of data science and operational tasks that enable our clients to successfully and efficiently collect, integrate, manage, and maintain a variety of administrative and survey data sources.

This individual’s primary responsibility would include providing subject matter expertise and methodological expertise in areas such as machine learning, data wrangling, data management, advanced quantitative analysis, text analysis, automation, and artificial intelligence. This role will also involve overseeing a large project of foundational data science capabilities and will include leading a team of researchers, analysts, and data scientists as well as frequent engagement with clients.

This individual should be equal parts social scientist, data scientist, and project manager. This job is best for someone who enjoys solving challenging problems with a large methodological toolkit, a high degree of intellectual curiosity, and thrives in a collaborative environment.

• Analytical and Technical Skills
  • Apply sophisticated principles in the fields of data science, quantitative social science, and/or programming to social science research projects and data science operational projects
  • Serve as the technical lead on research projects with a data science focus
  • Design analytic solutions to ambiguous research questions and goals that may include techniques such as multi‑level modeling (e.g., cross‑classified random effects, linear mixed effects), data reduction (e.g., PCA, factor analysis, clustering), predictive model selection (e.g., LASSO, Ridge), natural language processing, and/or machine learning techniques
  • Interpret results from data analyses to identify patterns, solutions, and recommendations; distill complex analyses and associated results for technical and non‑technical audiences
  • Communicate trade‑offs associated with analytic approaches to technical and non‑technical audiences
  • Oversee survey workflows focused on population specification and sample frame development, including identifying relevant data sources, cleaning, deduplication, and frame quality checks
  • Leverage AI tools to accelerate research, analysis, and reporting; lead the development of internal prototypes and proofs of concept; enhance client offerings and expand AI capabilities; train other team members to build further AI proficiency
  • Oversee work in R, Python, and Databricks to execute automation tasks, R package creation, data wrangling, exploratory data analysis, and executing advanced analyses
• Project Management
  • Oversee large, complex…