Senior Data Scientist; Temp Position Potential

We are the Metropolitan Council, the regional government for the seven-county Twin Cities metropolitan area. We plan 30 years ahead for the future of the metropolitan area and provide regional transportation, wastewater, and housing services. More information about us on our website.

We are committed to supporting a diverse workforce that reflects the communities we serve.

The Community Development division is responsible for the Council's regional long‑range planning efforts; planning and technical assistance to local governments; planning for and funding the regional parks and open space system; delivering rent assistance through the Metropolitan Housing and Redevelopment Authority; and delivering the Livable Communities Act grant programs.

The Community Development Research department collects, disseminates, and analyzes quantitative and qualitative data about demographic trends and inequities, development patterns, climate change, parks visitation, long‑range forecasts, and the regional economy. We believe research can improve the lives of residents in our region and see our skills, creativity, and platforms as resources to further shared understanding about regional issues that matter.

This position is part of the Strategy and Product Design team, a specialized group within the research department. We center people, integrate equity, and transform technical into accessible through—and by—design. All team members are skilled in data visualization, committed to web accessibility, and leverage user experience (UX) design principles and product‑thinking to develop and deliver digital research products.

The Senior Data Scientist will directly support the research department’s mission to provide relevant, timely, and accessible data about the Twin Cities region to the public and organization through two key assignments:
1) a modernization of Community Profiles (an interactive application on Metropolitan Council’s public website) and
2) the design and development of the Imagine 2050 Outcomes Measurement Program dashboard (an expansive regional trend monitoring program). Both projects will generate innovative digital research products that are guided by user experience (UX) research and use data visualization best practices.

The Senior Data Scientist will be responsible for data transformations and statistical modeling applied to a variety of data sources and types (e.g., time‑series, spatial, etc.). Given the research department’s recent adoption of a new, unified cloud‑based analytics platform (Azure Databricks), the best‑qualified candidate will also have technical knowledge of data modeling and/or experience collaborating with data engineering teams in the context of developing web‑based, interactive applications or similar digital products.

This position is eligible for a hybrid (both remote and onsite) telework arrangement. The candidate’s permanent residence must be in Minnesota or Wisconsin.

• Collaborate with research staff to develop conceptual, logical, and physical data models in a new enterprise‑wide Azure Databricks open lakehouse environment to support external applications.
• Lead data analysis efforts by developing innovative approaches and applying advanced statistical methods across diverse data sources, delivering trustworthy, well‑documented data pipelines.
• Partner with subject matter experts and data stewards across the division to develop short‑ and long‑term best‑fit data ingestion and maintenance strategies for internal data sources that meet product‑based data specifications.
• Participate in relevant communities of practice; share and learn from staff peers to advance the department’s practices and governance of the division’s lakehouse.

• Collaborate with team to scope, design, build, and performance‑tune digital research products using Tableau, R and R Shiny, ESRI ArcGIS Online and Enterprise Portal, and other software/tools as required.
• Use data visualization best practices to translate complex research concepts and…