Senior Data Scientist

Senior Data Scientist

Position at The Port Authority of NY & NJ

About the Role The Aviation Department is seeking a Senior Data Scientist with strong analytical skills, a passion for civic tech, excellent technical judgment, GIS experience, and the ability to collaborate across diverse business units. The ideal candidate will be motivated to strengthen the Department's data-driven mindset and analytical capabilities, expand the reach of the Aviation Data Analytics Warehouse (ADAW), and develop data-driven tools that support operational decisions across our airports.

The Data Analytics & Business Intelligence (DABI) team serves as the centralized analytics and data science unit for the Department and manages ADAW, a governed data environment integrating more than fifteen data streams and supporting more than 500 users across the agency.

Reporting to the Program Manager, Data Analytics & Business Intelligence, the Senior Data Scientist will work in tandem with the Senior Data Engineer to support the development, enhancement, and maintenance of data products and analytical workflows; lead predictive and diagnostic modeling efforts; develop and maintain operational dashboards; support new data integrations; and partner with business units to translate complex needs into sustainable and actionable data-driven solutions.

This role is a critical contributor to the decision-support systems that move millions through our world-class airport system.

The successful candidate's responsibilities will include, but are not limited to:

• Operational Dashboards, Reporting & Predictive Modeling (50% of your portfolio)
• Develop, maintain, and enhance Power BI dashboards that support Central Office business units, Airport Operation Centers (AOCs) staff, planning partners, and customer experience teams.
• Create predictive models, structured analyses, real-time awareness dashboards, and forecasting tools that support resource planning, real-time operational monitoring, performance insights, anomaly detection, and other emerging operational needs.
• Document dataset structures, logic, modeling assumptions, and processing steps to ensure clarity, transparency, and long-term sustainability.
• Product Development & Technical Solutioning (20% of portfolio)
• Build custom analytical solutions — including Python-based tools, KPI reporting engines, interactive dashboards, and data-entry workflows — to help operational and strategic partners understand operational conditions, identify trends, and make informed decisions.
• Build and maintain automated processes via Power Automate, Synapse pipelines, Azure Function Apps, Databricks jobs, or Python scripts—to streamline reporting, monitoring, and dataset preparation.
• Lead GIS Integration into current data architecture and workflows, responsible for coordinating with relevant agency-wide teams such as Planning, Asset Management, Central Survey, and Engineering to utilize and maintain spatial assets.
• Explore and pilot advanced analytics, aligning with Program Manager on which innovations should advance towards production.
• Cross-Department Collaboration & Stakeholder Engagement (15% of portfolio)
• Engage directly with business units, airport operations teams, and external partners to gather requirements, refine analytical products, and align on business rules and technical expectations.
• Participate in recurring technical discussions, coordination meetings, and cross-team collaborations to ensure ADAW analytics remain consistent, reliable, and responsive to evolving departmental needs.
• Communicate analytical considerations clearly to nontechnical stakeholders, helping them understand data limitations, opportunities, and implications.
• Provide technical guidance to colleagues across the department, including embedded analysts, to strengthen analytics, modeling, and workflow development capacity.
• Support collaborative efforts with units such as Airport Operation Centers, Traffic Engineering, Redevelopment, and Central Office teams to ensure alignment in assumptions, logic, and analytic practices.
• Data Integration, Access Management & Workflow Development (15% of portfolio)
• Partner with the Data Engineer to…