Data Scientist

The CDC Foundation helps the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) save and improve lives by unleashing the power of collaboration between CDC, philanthropies, corporations, organizations and individuals to protect the health, safety and security of America and the world. The CDC Foundation is the go-to nonprofit authorized by Congress to mobilize philanthropic partners and private-sector resources to support CDC’s critical health protection mission. Since 1995, the CDC Foundation has raised over $1.9 billion and launched more than 1,300 programs impacting a variety of health threats from chronic disease conditions including cardiovascular disease and cancer, to infectious diseases like rotavirus and HIV, to emergency responses, including COVID-19 and Ebola. The CDC Foundation managed hundreds of programs in the United States and in more than 90 countries last year. Visit www.cdcfoundation.org for more information.

Job Highlights

Location: Remote, must be based in the United States

Salary Range: $92,700-$134,275 per year, plus benefits. Individual salary offers will be based on experience and qualifications unique to each candidate.

Position Type: Grant funded, limited-term opportunity

Position End Date: June 30, 2025

Overview

The Data Scientist will play a crucial role in advancing the CDC Foundation's mission by leveraging data to inform strategic decisions and initiatives in a public health organization. This role is aligned to the Workforce Acceleration Initiative (WAI). WAI is a federally funded CDC Foundation program with the goal of helping the nation’s public health agencies by providing them with the technology and data experts they need to accelerate their information system improvements.

Working within the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services (MDHHS) Public Health Administration (PHA), the Data Scientist will serve as a key RStudio Cloud (a.k.a., Posit) subject matter expert. Leveraging RStudio Cloud (a.k.a., Posit), the incumbent in this role would provide support and technical assistance to MDHHS PHA to address analytics needs. Such support may include facilitating an understanding of cloud configuration needs and instance deployment in Amazon Web Services(AWS), Databricks, or other open source cloud provider platforms; assessing analytics database capacities across multiple business areas in PHA to strategize storage categorization; recommending approaches to adaptive scalability; leading the selection of efficient and collaborative data analysis solutions; supporting public health system interoperability initiatives; establishment of a Github repository for versioning and sharing code across PHA and Local Health Departments; integrating systems with data visualization software such as Tableau and Power BI and web based data collection software such as REDCap; access to JIRA software APIs, Geocoding APIs, social determinants of health datasets, and access to advanced Machine learning/Data Science packages.

The Data Scientist will be hired by the CDC Foundation and assigned to the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services Public Health Administration. This position is eligible for a fully remote work arrangement for U.S. based candidates.

Responsibilities

• Assess the current MDHHS PHA technology landscape for Posit solution opportunities, software configuration, enhancements, and liaising with the State of Michigan’s centralized I.T. agency for the implementation, support, and administration of the Posit environment.
• Serve as RStudio Cloud (aka, Posit) subject matter expert for MDHHS PHA business areas, coordinating between technical and data analysis teams and supporting users with R, Python and Shiny code development and troubleshooting.
• Provide guidance and expertise to R user group to expand capacity and capability
• Building training materials/modules to help build R and Git Hub use.
• Analyze diverse datasets related to public health issues to identify trends, patterns, and correlations.
• Apply statistical methods and machine learning algorithms to extract actionable insights.
• Develop predictive models to anticipate disease patterns, assess risk factors, and guide intervention strategies.
• Continuously optimize algorithms for enhanced accuracy and performance.
• Present data-driven insights in a clear and understandable manner to facilitate informed decision-making.
• Collaborate with MDHHS PHA and its partners to understand their data needs and objectives.
• Provide data-driven support and guidance to inform public health policies and initiatives.
• Stay abreast of emerging trends, technologies, and methodologies in data science and analytics.
• Explore innovative approaches to address complex public health challenges and improve data analysis capabilities.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree or higher in Data Science, Statistics, Epidemiology, Health Informatics, or another related field. Master’s or PhD in related field preferred.
• Minimum 5 years of relevant or equivalent professional experience
• Demonstrated expertise in R and Python programming languages.
• Understanding of Cloud service provider platforms, cloud computing instance deployment, data storage and management concepts
• Experience with API integrations to leverage open datasets and strategic services such as ArcGIS, REDCap, JIRA, etc.,
• Understanding of open-source cloud platform technologies
• Experience building RShiny dashboards
• Experience with row level security (RLS) in Posit
• Experience with deploying and integrating R packages in Tidyverse, ggplot, Dplyr, Shiny
• Experience with data manipulation and analysis tools (e.g., SQL, Pandas, NumPy).
• Knowledge of machine learning frameworks (e.g., TensorFlow, Scikit-learn).
• Experience with data visualization tools (e.g., Tableau, Power BI).
• Strong analytical thinking and problem-solving abilities.
• Ability to interpret complex datasets and derive meaningful insights.
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills.
• Ability to convey technical concepts to non-technical partners effectively.
• Flexibility to adapt to evolving project requirements and priorities.
• Professional certifications in data science, machine learning, or public health analytics preferred.
• Outstanding interpersonal and teamwork skills; collegial; energetic; and able to develop productive relationships with colleagues, partners, and partners.
• Demonstrated ability to work well independently and within teams
• Experience working in a virtual environment with remote partners and teams

Special Notes

This role is involved in a dynamic public health program. As such, roles and responsibilities are subject to change as situations evolve. Roles and responsibilities listed above may be expanded upon or updated to match priorities and needs, once written approval is received by the CDC Foundation in order to best support the public health programming.

All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment and will not be discriminated against on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, national origin, age, mental or physical disabilities, veteran status, and all other characteristics protected by law.

We comply with all applicable laws including E.O. 11246 and the Vietnam Era Readjustment Assistance Act of 1974 governing employment practices and do not discriminate on the basis of any unlawful criteria in accordance with 41 C.F.R. §§ 60-300.5(a)(12) and 60-741.5(a)(7). As a federal government contractor, we take affirmative action on behalf of protected veterans.

The CDC Foundation is a smoke-free environment.

Relocation expenses are not included.