Research Data Engineer

Position: Research Data Engineer

Unit: District Attorney's Transparency Analytics (DATA) Lab

Supervisor: Senior Data Engineer

Funding: Two-year grant-funded position

Summary of Job
The District Attorney's Transparency Analytics (DATA) Lab is hiring its first Research Data Engineer to join our Infrastructure team, with a special focus on supporting embedded researchers and analysts from the Penn Prosecution Lab. The DATA Lab's mission is to use data, research, and advocacy to inform policies and practices; increase equity, transparency, and accountability; and reduce harm through prosecutorial and systems reform in Philadelphia and beyond. This unique position will work closely with our Infrastructure and Research teams and DATA Lab leadership to help align, prioritize, and solve the technical and data needs of our embedded research partners. By addressing issues infrastructurally, improvements will benefit all DATA Lab personnel and numerous partners. Responsibilities include building data pipelines that extract, transform, and load data into the DATA Lab's Postgres reporting database. The DATA Lab and Penn teams use data from the DAO, the courts, police, prisons, and other sources to inform day-to-day operations at the DAO, shape policy in the criminal legal space, support external research, and more. The technological landscape is continuously evolving, and we consistently iterate our data pipelines to provide accurate, timely data. Data pipelines are written in a combination of R and Python and feed into an AWS RDS database, using Airflow orchestration.

The Research Data Engineer will work closely with the Supervising Data Engineer, Penn team, project managers, unit leadership, data analysts, and other DAO staff. This position reports to the Supervising Data Engineer in the DATA Lab.

This is a grant-funded position for at least 2 years.

How You Will Make an Impact

• Be part of a nationally recognized team doing innovative research and analysis of the criminal legal system from within a prosecutor's office.
• Open the doors of the office to community members and research partners by opening unprecedented prosecution data to the public through direct data sharing, public data releases, data stories, analyses, and DAO-sponsored studies.
• Harness volumes of criminal legal data from a wide array of sources, consolidate and connect it, and produce analytical and research-ready data and documentation.
• Work in an environment free of vibe coding and develop true hand-crafted, human-created work.

Job Responsibilities

1. Serve as primary contact for database-related questions from Penn team (availability of a particular field or variable, how to access a database, troubleshooting server issues, etc.)
2. Design, build, and maintain automated, scalable, and test-driven data pipelines.
3. Build research-ready versions of datasets and documentation for Penn team and external researchers.
4. Ensure quality, efficiency, and accuracy of data.
5. Troubleshoot and fix errors and outages as they occur.
6. Participate in Agile ceremonies, such as sprint planning, daily standup, and retro.
7. Support DATA Lab Infra team in identifying and integrating new data sources.
8. Manage version control for Penn research code and support Penn team researchers in best practices.
9. Support DATA Lab reviews of Penn Fellows' work to ensure proper interpretation of data, including leading code review process for replication packets.

Skills & Qualifications

• Education and/or experience: A background in computer science and academic research, or equivalent experience of at least 3 years, is desired. Prior experience working with researchers is preferred.
• Strong interpersonal and communication skills, with a collaborative and service-oriented approach to data work. Ability to explain technical concepts clearly and accessible to colleagues with varying levels of technical expertise. Proficiency in Python or a demonstrated ability to learn it.
• Proficiency in SQL
• Proficiency in R, statistics, and research methods. Familiarity with experimental and quasi-experimental methods is preferred
• A demonstrated ability to build ETL pipelines
• Be a team player who can communicate and collaborate with the Infrastructure, Penn Research, Analytics, and internal Research teams
• Familiarity with Git and GitHub for version control
• Familiarity with AWS
• Experience with Linux; Airflow is a plus

Rewards/Benefits

This is an exempt employee with the City of Philadelphia. Immediately upon assuming office, new hire will receive benefits similar to those of other City of Philadelphia employees, including the below benefits:

• Learning and development opportunities
• Generous retirement savings options available (pension plan and etc.)
• We are a Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) Program qualified employer
• We offer comprehensive health coverage (medical, vision, prescription and dental) for employees and their eligible dependents
• Annual paid time off (PTO) package: 10 vacation days, 15 sick leave days, 11 paid holidays, 5 annual administrative leave
• Our wellness program offers eligibility into the discounted medical plan
• Before tax commuter program
• Health care and Dependent care flexible spending accounts
• Sick leave bonuses and exchanges
• Employee Assistance Program (EAP)

Applications will be active for one year from the date of receipt by the Office.

All exempt employees of the District Attorney's Office are at-will employees and serve at the pleasure of the District Attorney. The at-will relationship shall not be modified for any employee and no agreement, oral or written, shall be entered into that changes the at-will relationship.