This position is located in USAID’s Bureau for Development, Democracy, and Innovation (DDI), and supports the Supply Chain Integrity and Freedom (SCIF) Program under DDI’s Center for Economics and Market Development, (EMD), in collaboration with the Asia Bureau and the Conflict Prevention and Stabilization Bureau. The purpose of this program is to counter PRC coercion, corruption, anti-competitive practices, and human rights violations related to supply chains in the extraction, processing, and transport of critical raw materials used in the construction, manufacturing, and energy sectors. SCIF will use its convening power to pilot a process designed to strategically target private sector investment opportunities in selected markets and locations as competition to the People’s Republic of China (PRC). The intent of SCIF is to facilitate strong public/private partnerships to build sustainable economic growth in partner countries; create sustainable and profitable private sector investments; and develop resilient supply chains that are resistant to market disruptions precipitated by the PRC. Leveraging the tools of the USG and select American Allies, SCIF will support development of opportunities that will be strategically selected to create critical natural resource supply chains and enhance emerging manufacturing processes in target countries. It is anticipated that these US and allied supply chains and manufacturing will promote sustainable, inclusive economic growth and align with national security objectives and US Agency for International Development priorities. The SCIF approach combines continuous business forecasting analyses with existing government market incentives which complement private venture capital strategies and proactively identify and facilitate investment opportunities, before PRC interventions can monopolize the emerging supply chain. The Data Scientist, working with the research team, will build real time predictive models using machine learning and open source data mining to predict and forecast likely future outcomes for SCIF program opportunities, to include potential partners business and credit risks, corporate earnings, international markets, and or overall possibility for success. The incumbent is responsible for updating models based on new data and ensuring that the data is calculated in real time and reflects current international business, political, and security information. The incumbent will provide leadership and technical advice on new approaches and will work with development stakeholders to learn new data sources, unlock the potential for data not commonly used and collaborate on problem solving through data analysis. The incumbent understands SCIF program objectives, resulting challenges, and devises analytic methods and visualization techniques to address the challenges and effectively communicate the results. Responsibilities: • Apply data science predictive modeling using machine learning techniques to priority organizational challenges.
• Collaborate with data analysts and program experts across USAID, public sector, academia, and key stakeholders to build predictive models that improve existing and emerging SCIF programs.
• Design, develop and deliver data analysis and visualization to support program decisions, goals and objectives through statistical software packages (eg. R, Stata, Excel) and visualization tools (eg. Tableau, ArcGIS/QGIS, R, Excel, and Inkscape/Adobe Illustrator).
• Develop concept papers, background analyses, and briefings that effectively inform SCIF program decision making.
• Performs other duties as assigned. Qualifications: • Secret clearance required.
• Master's degree and 10 years of relevant experience or equivalent combination of education and experience.
• Demonstrated experience in building predictive models using machine learning.
• Strong quantitative and qualitative background and experience in data collection, cleaning, processing and applied analysis and visualization using statistical software or programming languages (Python, Stata, SAS, R, SPSS, MATLAB, Tableau, PowerBI).
• Ability to create interactive web-based products using HTML, CSS, and JavaScript.
• Demonstrated experience in distilling highly technical quantitative data into effective decision-making presentations using Adobe applications, such as Illustrator, Photoshop, and InDesign.
• Strong interpersonal communication and excellent oral presentation and writing skills.
• Track record of successful work assignments in development of new concepts, experimentation of new approaches, and processes that push new boundaries.
• Ability to work effectively in a start-up environment.
• Demonstrated ability to work well with a team as well as independently.
• Must have a proven ability to work independently with minimal supervision.
• Ability to adjust to changing demands and willingness to “let go” of projects where significant time has been invested and move to the next assignment.