NYU Furman Center Director of Data Strategy & Operations

The NYU Furman Center seeks a Director of Data Strategy & Operations who is responsible for identifying, updating, cleaning, visualizing, and analyzing a number of datasets related to housing, zoning, real estate, health, education, and other urban policy-focused issues. We seek an entrepreneurial, collaborative, and solutions-oriented individual with strong managerial, organizational, and data skills. This role involves teaching and learning, with a norm-breaking mindset to explore new ways to understand the intersection of the built environment and people.

Key Responsibilities

The Director of Data Strategy & Operations will be a major contributor to the NYU Furman Center’s daily operations, strategy, and fulfillment of its mission. Key responsibilities include:

• Data Management: Assemble and update large, complex datasets, and develop data ingestion pipelines for research projects.
• Team & Thought Leadership: Manage two full-time junior staff members and Graduate Student Researchers, fostering their development and coordinating workloads. Help develop new project ideas and constantly pursue novel data sources that advance the Center’s research interests.
• Collaboration: Support an interdisciplinary team of lawyers, economists, urban planners, and data analysts by providing data access and acting as a collaborative and strategic partner in their research. Additionally, foster collaboration with external partners, including researchers, research organizations, civic organizations, government agencies, and companies, to enhance research initiatives and data sharing.
• Data Agreements: Manage data and privacy agreements with external parties, ensuring coordination with university data management and security offices.
• Quality Control: Design and oversee quality control mechanisms for research and data projects. 
• Documentation: Work with project teams to maintain documentation, implement quality control mechanisms, and enforce data security protocols for Furman Center projects.
• Tool Management: Manage updates to the NYU Furman Center’s web-based tools, such as the State of New York City’s Housing and Neighborhoods and CoreData.nyc.
• Coordination across NYU: Coordinate with the University’s Research Data Management and Security Office, Institutional Review Boards, and university-wide and NYU School of Law Information Technology teams, on the aspects of data access, storage and computing resources, and security plans.

Daily Tasks

• Lead data management activities, including assembling and updating datasets.
• Coordinate data operations, workflow, and project coordination for data-oriented initiatives.
• Ensure adherence to data security protocols.
• Develop and maintain technical workflow guides, data team standard operating procedures, and data team R utility packages.
• Advise on data sources, technical toolkits, and implementation strategies.
• Manage critical updates to NYU Furman Center web-based tools, including the State of New York City’s Housing and Neighborhoods report and CoreData.nyc.
• Respond to data requests from a wide range of stakeholders, including the research community, media, elected officials, policymakers, and government agencies.
• Build and maintain relationships with civic organizations, companies, and government agencies interested in neighborhood indicators and civic technology.
• Develop a team of data-oriented Graduate Researchers, supervising their workloads, allocating project assignments, and mentoring their development.
• Manage and coordinate with university departments to support data-oriented research projects.

Minimum Qualifications:  

• Advanced degree in public policy/administration, applied statistics, data science, urban planning, economics, or related field. 
• At least three years of full-stack data experience.
• Leadership, creative problem-solving, effective team-building and mentoring skills.
• Strong organizational skills, with the ability to multitask and meet deadlines.
• The candidate should have advanced knowledge of at least one statistical software package (e.g., R, Python (pandas)), and be willing to learn R (Tidyverse) & SQL (PostgreSQL).
• Comfort working both independently and collaboratively.

Preferred Qualifications: 

• Familiarity with Census/ACS and local administrative data, especially data on New York City.
• Experience with relational databases (SQL, AWS-RDS), geospatial data (R, Python, QGIS, ArcGIS, PostGIS), and version control (Git/GitHub).
• Experience with supervision of full-time and/or student employees. 
• Interest in cities, public policy, housing, and land use.

The position comes with a salary and a generous array of benefits, which include medical, dental, and vision. Further information regarding benefits can be found here: http://www.nyu.edu/employees/benefit/full-time/Professional-Research-Staff-Code-103.html.

In compliance with NYC's Pay Transparency Act, the annual base salary range for this position is $90,000-$125,000. New York University considers factors such as (but not limited to) scope and responsibilities of the position, candidate's work experience, education/training, key skills, internal peer equity, as well as market and organizational considerations when extending an offer.

To Apply: 

Applicants should submit the following:

• Cover letter
• Resume
• Names and contact information of three references
• Graduate school transcripts (unofficial copies are acceptable)
• Code writing sample (required; R programming samples are preferred; final product is preferred)

Send application materials and questions to furmanjobs@nyu.edu. Please include “Director of Data Strategy & Operations” in the subject line. Review of applications will begin immediately. Only candidates selected for an interview will be contacted.

EOE/AA/Minorities/Females/Vet/Disabled/Sexual Orientation/Gender Identity.

NYU is an Equal Opportunity Employer and is committed to a policy of equal treatment and opportunity in every aspect of its recruitment and hiring process without regard to age, alienage, caregiver status, childbirth, citizenship status, color, creed, disability, domestic violence victim status, ethnicity, familial status, gender and/or gender identity or expression, marital status, military status, national origin, parental status, partnership status, predisposing genetic characteristics, pregnancy, race, religion, sex, sexual orientation, unemployment status, veteran status, or any other legally protected basis. Women, racial and ethnic minorities, persons of minority sexual orientation or gender identity, individuals with disabilities, and veterans are encouraged to apply for vacant positions at all levels.

NYU aims to be among the greenest urban campuses in the country and carbon neutral by 2040. Learn more at nyu.edu/sustainability.