- Salary
- $60 – $95/hr
- Location
- Sacramento, California
- Workplace
- Remote
- Type
- Contract
- Department
- Education
- Education
- PhD
- Source
- BetterTeam
Description
Statistician and Data Scientist (Disparity Analytics)
Estrada Consulting, Inc. | Public university research client | Remote, US based | $60 to $95 per hour
About the Role:
ECI is looking for a statistician and data scientist to own the statistical methods behind a public safety analytics platform. You will translate the research institute's published methodology into tested, reproducible code: benchmark comparisons, Veil of Darkness, hit-rate (outcome) tests, post-stop outcome comparisons, multivariable models and officer-level early intervention indicators. You will also make sure every result on screen is explained clearly enough for police executives, researchers and the public to interpret responsibly.
About the Project:
Estrada Consulting, Inc. (ECI) is assembling the team for a secure, web-based analytics platform for a public university research institute that monitors law enforcement traffic stop data. The institute holds millions of stop records reported monthly by more than one hundred police agencies, and today it analyzes them once a year through a largely manual reporting process.
The new platform makes that analysis continuous: statewide, agency-level and officer-level measures on demand, statistical tests that separate real disparities from noise, role-based access for researchers, police executives, agency analysts and the public, and a foundation for early intervention indicators and predictive analytics. ECI has already built a working prototype on the public data. The platform is built in Python with an accessible web interface, a columnar analytics engine and Microsoft Azure hosting, and it must meet WCAG 2.1 Level AA.
Responsibilities:
- Reconcile every statistical test with the client's published annual methodology, document any difference, and obtain the client's sign-off on each indicator rule before it is shown to any agency.
- Implement and validate the analytical methods in Python: two-proportion and chi-square tests, benchmark comparisons against resident, peer and statewide populations, the Veil of Darkness test using sunset and civil twilight, hit-rate tests on search outcomes, and anomaly detection on monthly trends.
- Design multivariable models (for example logistic regression with agency, time and location controls) and, where the client specifies, synthetic control and other quasi-experimental methods.
- Define officer-level early intervention indicators with appropriate significance thresholds, effect sizes, minimum counts and corrections for multiple comparisons.
- Independently recompute results in R or Stata on sample selections to verify the platform before release.
- Write the methodology, definitions and interpretation notes that appear beside each result, in plain language.
- Work with the data engineer on data quality rules that affect analysis (coding of race and ethnicity, duplicates, missing times, searches and contraband) and with the business analyst on requirements.
- Present methods and results to the client's researchers and stakeholders, and support training and knowledge transfer.
Required Qualifications:
- Master's degree or PhD in statistics, biostatistics, economics, criminology, public policy, sociology or a related quantitative field.
- 6 or more years of applied statistical analysis, including hypothesis testing, regression modeling and analysis of large administrative datasets (millions of records).
- Experience measuring disparities or outcome differences between groups, with sound handling of benchmarks, effect sizes and multiple comparisons.
- Strong Python (pandas, SciPy, statsmodels) and SQL; working knowledge of R or Stata for independent verification.
- Ability to explain statistical findings and their limits to non-technical audiences in writing and in meetings.
- Reproducible research habits: version control, documented code and tests.
- US based and able to pass a background check.
Preferred Qualifications:
- Published or applied work on policing, traffic stops, racial profiling or criminal justice data (for example Veil of Darkness, KPT hit-rate or benchmarking studies).
- Experience with officer early intervention systems or performance indicators for law enforcement agencies.
- Experience with DuckDB, Parquet or other columnar analytics tools, and with disclosure control or small-cell suppression for public data.
- Experience working with a university research center or as a research partner to state or local government.
Terms:
Estimated effort: About 550 hours over the nine-month implementation, roughly 15 hours per week, heaviest in months two to six; part-time support after go-live as enhancements require.
Work arrangement: Remote. All team members must be US based. Regular video meetings with the client's research team and stakeholders are scheduled on Eastern time.
Duration: About nine months for implementation, with possible ongoing work over a three-year term, contingent on contract award. The expected start is the first quarter of 2027.
Rate: $60 to $95 per hour, depending on experience.
Other requirements: Candidates must consent to a background check (criminal history for the past seven years, sex offender registries and Social Security number verification) as required by the client. The candidate's name and a resume summary will be included in ECI's proposal.
Skills
PythonAzureSQL