Data Science Lead, Personnel Health Research & Data Analytics

Data Science Lead:
Personnel Health Research & Data Analytics, Military (Washington, D.C.) WHO WE ARE

At Fors Marsh, we take on issues that matter. We are a team of researchers, strategists, and communicators working together to drive lasting change. We look at human behavior from all angles with a deep understanding of people and context to design solutions that influence decision‑making and move people to action. Our work promotes health and well‑being, shapes resilient communities, and builds effective and accountable institutions.

We are a certified B Corporation and a Top Workplace for 7 consecutive years.

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.

• 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
  • Designing 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 internal prototypes and proofs of concept; enhance client offerings and expand AI capabilities; train other team members to build further AI proficiency
  • Oversee the 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 projects to include developing task plans and timelines, implementing scope and financial controls, aligning staffing resources to project technical requirements, and ensure rigorous and timely delivery of all deliverables
  • Lead a matrixed team of data scientists, researchers, and analysts to include delegating tasks and overseeing task and project completion, providing support, guidance, and mentorship to junior team members
  • Collaborate with other project leaders and supervisors across the organization to accomplish project resourcing needs
• Client and Stakeholder Interaction and Communication
  • Develop a deep understanding of client mission and objectives; directly interface with client teams and build strong, trusting relationships with clients to collaboratively accomplish project goals
  • Ensure client satisfaction with all project deliverables
  • Lead the development of client briefings and reports and mentor team members to deliver high-impact briefings to clients
  • Oversee the preparation of reports…