Position Summary

New Visions for Public Schools develops and implements scalable approaches to achieving equitable outcomes for students in New York City’s public schools. We currently support nearly 350 public schools that serve over 180,000 students. Our digital products help simplify complex managerial challenges so that school leaders and educators can focus on supporting their students to graduate high school prepared to succeed in college and careers.

The School Systems and Data Analytics department is at the core of supporting New Visions staff and schools in translating data into action. Multiple times per day, we manage the processing of data from multiple internal and external source systems into New Visions databases and into live tools, providing staff with actionable, timely, and accessible information to make data-informed decisions.

We are looking for an experienced data practitioner who is eager to apply a deep technical skill set to advance mission-driven work as Lead Data Architect. A key strategic partner to the Director of Data Analytics, you will manage New Visions’ data processing pipeline and ensure that our data architecture is responsive to ongoing needs. You will join a dynamic and motivated team and work collaboratively with data analysts, developers, and product managers to manage, monitor, and document our data pipeline across multiple databases and ensure data integrity and accuracy.  

As we continue to expand our reach, this position offers a tremendous leadership and growth opportunity for a candidate with a robust technical and management skill set eager to tackle both the small and big challenges of our work in supporting the nation’s largest public school system.

Who You Are

You are passionate about mission-driven technical work that has a tangible impact on opportunities and outcomes for young people

You are a strategic and analytical thinker with a natural curiosity for investigating issues and communicating insights

You are detail-oriented with a commitment to data quality and accuracy

You are a creative problem-solver, thoughtfully considering and weighing a set of options to address any given challenge

You are collaborative and team-oriented with a strong sense of collective responsibility

You are dedicated to continuous learning and skill-building, seeking out opportunities to develop your own new skills and to mentor team members in their professional growth

What You’ll Do

Manage data architecture and infrastructure for processing large data sets for use in NV data tools and analyses

• Manage the data processing pipeline and infrastructure that moves data from raw reports to production-ready tables for use in NV tools and analyses.
  • Maintain and update repository of R scripts for automated overnight processing of data from multiple external source systems
  • Support ongoing design and refinement of core data architecture and infrastructure to ensure that data is streamlined and organized for efficient use in NV data products.
• Create systems for assuring data quality and accuracy
  • Support the operationalizing of robust data quality assurance processes and procedures within data infrastructure to ensure data integrity
  • Manage the implementation of safeguards and alerts to ensure that data is protected and monitored across the data processing pipeline
• Manage documentation of New Visions’ data model across our multiple SQL and noSQL databases

Clean, manipulate and organize student and school performance data

• Using R, Python, and SQL, write and maintain scripts to extract, clean, organize, and load data across platforms
• Create cross-sectional and longitudinal data sets from raw data files
• Support the integration of additional data sources into New Visions data warehouses and tools

Collaborate with colleagues to ensure that the NV data model continues to reflect ongoing needs

• Collaborate with product managers, designers, analysts, and software engineers to identify and respond to product needs  
• Participate in cross-functional teams for delivering data products
• Manage systems for tracking data across the data processing pipeline, implementing updates, and monitoring performance
• Develop mechanisms for collecting feedback and modifying infrastructure to reflect internal and external data priorities

Manage Data Architecture & Engineering Team

• Directly manage the Data Architecture & Engineering Team
• Provide vision and leadership for goal- setting and progress monitoring
• Support ongoing learning and team growth through coaching, mentorship, and feedback
• Lead hiring process of new team members
• Celebrate team successes

Supervisory Reports: Data Engineers, Data Managers

Required Knowledge and Skills

• Master’s degree in computer science, mathematics, statistics, economics, psychology, sociology, public policy, or related field
• 5+ years experience in data architecture, data management, data engineering, data modeling, data analysis, and/or data science including 2+ years in a managerial capacity
• A proven track record in managing a data pipeline
• Experience working in AWS or other distributed computing environments
• Proficiency in R and/or Python required
• Experience working with SQL (Redshift, Postgres, etc.) and noSQL databases (mongoDB, Cassandra, etc.)
• Knowledge of Git required
• Strong project management and organizational skills
• Experience managing an effective team
• Exceptional strategic, analytical, and critical thinking skills
• Excellent written and oral communication skills
• Demonstrated ability to prioritize, multi-task, work under pressure and meet deadlines
• Demonstrated persistence and independence in learning technical subject matter and in solving technical problems

Desired Knowledge and Skills

• Experience with MongoDB
• Experience with agile project management

New Visions is an Equal Opportunity Employer.