Data Scientist
Data Science at DHS At Allegheny County Department of Human Services (DHS), our mission is to improve the welfare of the County’s most vulnerable residents.
Data Science at DHS
At Allegheny County Department of Human Services (DHS), our mission is to improve the welfare of the County’s most vulnerable residents. We operate, influence, and fund essential services worth over $1 billion that more than 200,000 residents depend on each year, including treatment for mental health and addiction, homeless housing, and child and older adult protective services. Over the past 20 years, we have built a national reputation for being on the cutting edge of state and local governments using analytics and technology to deliver more effective and efficient public services. While we know much more about the use of analytics and software than when we first started, we still have much to learn. Above all, we are convinced that there remain significant opportunities for data and technology to improve the lives of our clients, and for DHS to extend its leadership role in inspiring governments to make similar investments.
Data Scientist
We’re looking for data scientist with a mix of experience or interest in machine learning (predictive modeling) or economics (applied microeconomics and causal inference) to come join our data science team. The Data Scientist will work to construct software for leveraging nationally recognized, integrated human services data and partner with world-class academics to help drive research that improves outcomes for our most vulnerable residents. Our bet is that great talent, even in time-limited commitments, can result in a step function improvement in the quality of work in local government.
The data science team owns DHS’s measurement problems and predictive models, with a team charter of: (1) creating feedback loops on our performance by learning about the efficacy of programs and interventions and informing DHS’s funding commitments; (2) augmenting human judgement to improve operations and optimize constrained resources, such as case worker bandwidth; and (3) developing high quality reusable software that allows us to deliver inference at scale. The data scientists will collaborate closely with our 40-person Analytics team, Technology team, program managers, and senior leadership to help identify what works and why, iterate and experiment with new approaches to service delivery, improve human decision making, build better software, and convert analytics into automated, extensible products.
Strong candidates for the role will be clear, organized thinkers about complicated empirical questions, have a bias toward simplicity over methodological complexity, and possess a sound grasp of the fundamentals in their field. With our nationally recognized integrated data and talented teammates to support empirical work, ideal candidates will be intellectually curious and fearless about tackling difficult, unsolved problems for the department.
We are looking for someone who:
Posted July 27, 2026