Overview

DATA SCIENTIST

(HYBRID – BOSTON; NEW YORK; WASHINGTON, D.C.; CHICAGO, SAN FRANCISCO, SILICON VALLEY, LOS ANGELES)

ABOUT CORNERSTONE RESEARCH

We are one of the premier economic consulting firms in the US and Europe. We provide economic and financial expertise to attorneys, corporations, and government agencies involved in complex litigation. These litigation matters may span a wide variety of topics including securities, mergers, antitrust, fraud, or discrimination. We consistently work on the most prominent cases involving Fortune 500 companies and government agencies (e.g. SEC, DOJ, ECB, etc.) in the United States and European Union.

We work collaboratively with academics and experts in economics, data science, machine learning, statistics, finance, marketing, accounting, and healthcare. Our collaborative teams span eight offices and total over 700 full-time employees.

ABOUT THE TEAM

The Data Science Center at Cornerstone Research is a tight knit but growing group of Data Scientists and Data Engineers. We are tasked with streamlining and innovating all data work at Cornerstone Research. Collectively, we build and maintain databases and infrastructure, data pipelines, ML and NLP models, data viz, and internal packages in Python/R. We also automate redundant processes, set standards for all code and Git across the firm, and act as internal consultants for all things data. Our ultimate goal is to use the best software, models and practices to deliver high-quality analysis in the cleanest, streamlined, and accurate manner possible. Some examples of the work the team has done to answer specific questions in the past include:

• Fine-tuning the Detectron2 ML model to identify specific products inside of hundreds ofthousands of images found across social media – were influencers promoting the use of adangerous product?
• Creating novel geospatial data visualizations of industry concentrations in particular regions ofthe United States – were there opportunities for monopolistic behavior among merging firms?
• Developing API pipelines from dozens of public and private sources to collect economic, financial,legal, and healthcare data – how can our team automate relevant data collection so we can focusmore of our time on meaningful modeling and analysis?
• Building semi-supervised NLP models to categorize free-form text found among millions ofTwitter posts – were adult brands targeting minors in a harmful way?

POSITION SUMMARY

Data Scientists at Cornerstone are generalists (https://e2eml.school/data_science_archetypes.html). Some of us have stronger skills in text mining and NLP, others in DevOps or geospatial analysis. But all of us have proficiency across data engineering/ETLs, data manipulation, data analysis, and machine learning. These shared skills are used to deliver high quality data products to our experts and consulting teams to cut through data complexities and clarify the most reissues underlying major litigation disputes or investigations. The vast majority of our technical work is done in SQL, R, Python, and AWS. Our team occasionally uses other languages like SAS, STATA, MATLAB, and C if client needs for these languages arise.

RESPONSIBILITIES

Hard skills

• Ingest, explore, clean, build, sample, and prepare data from clients and public sources
• Engineer data pipelines and execute ETL flows from large client data transfers and web APIs
• Develop econometric, statistical, and ML models to predict and analyze data
• Build packages to automate repetitive workflows through reusable code
• Work with structured and unstructured data (e.g. financial records, free form text, JSON,images, geospatial telemetry, social media posts, retail transactions, clinical trials, etc.)
• Use and expand scripts/packages for text mining, ML, data visualization, geospatial analysis,web data collection, social media analytics, and advanced statistics and simulations.

Soft Skills

• Respond efficiently and effectively to varying client needs, often with little lead time
• Communicate clearly with and work closely alongside other team members and consultantsAct as technical lead for groups of analysts in all data and coding work for case teams
• Mentor more junior analysts in coding and Git best practices
• Proactively seek out opportunities to automate or package up programmatic solutions torepetitive problems
• Work with autonomy and independence while managing time appropriately

QUALIFICATIONS

Hard Skills

• MA/MS, preferably in Data Science, Statistics, Computer Science, Economics, or related field, or equivalent experience.
• 3 years professional experience solving complex quantitative problems on large datasets with SQL and Python/R.
• Strong proficiency in all of the following: Python, R, SQL, Git, Linux/Unix/Bash/Shell
• Experience applying machine learning and NLP models and algorithms to real world data.

Soft Skills

• Client Service: Effectively anticipate, monitor, and meet the needs of internal and externalclients by delivering a high-quality product. Ability to solve both clear and ambiguousproblems with moderate guidance.
• Business Acumen: Understand Cornerstone’s financial and operational functions. Alignservices and performance of self and team with Cornerstone’s strategic goals.
• Communication: Communicate effectively and professionally with colleagues, clients andvendors.
• Leadership: Demonstrate a strong commitment to Cornerstone’s values and strategicgoals. Serve as a role model and promote a positive work environment. Demonstratedinterest and aptitude for mentoring and teaching programming skills.

Nice to Haves (any are a plus!)

• Experience building software and cloud infrastructure using principles of CI/CD
• Experience using AWS for data storage, analysis, and visualization (S3, Redshift, EC2, etc.)
• Experience with Spark (or other parallel processing tools like Netezza, Teradata, Greenplum, Aster Data, or Vertica).
• Experience developing and testing packages in Python and R.
• Familiarity with C, C , C#, Ruby, Java, and/or JavaScript.
• Familiarity with SAS, STATA, MATLAB, Octave, or Julia.

Equal Employment Opportunity

Cornerstone Research is an equal employee opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, pregnancy, age, national origin, disability, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, marital status, genetic information, protected veteran status, or other factors protected by law.

To Apply

To apply, please email your resume and a cover letter expressing your interest to Julia Zhang (JZhang@cornerstone.com)