Senior Data Scientist

** Description*
* 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 support the design, development of new aviation data streams as well as enhancement of ADAW's existing analytical workflows, including batch and real-time Python- and PySpark-based processes in Azure Synapse and Databricks.

+ Own frontend user permissioning and oversee proper Power BI workspace governance, including workspace roles, access control, audience configuration, and App permissions.

+ Contribute to internal best practices for analytical workflow design, governance standards, documentation, reproducibility, and sustainable architecture.

Minimum Qualifications

+ Bachelor's degree in Data Science, Urban Planning, Transportation Planning, Computer Science, Information Systems, Applied Mathematics, Engineering, or a related quantitative field.

+ At least three (3) years of experience in an analytical role supporting data systems, analytics…