Senior Advisor for Disaster Human Services Data and Analysis

The FAS Talent Hub is seeking a fellow to help transform how the Administration for Children and Families (ACF) uses data to help individuals and communities before, during, and after disasters. ACF is seeking the fellow for a two year term (with potential opportunity to extend up to an additional two years). The fellow will report to the Division of Data and Improvement (DDI) and will be dedicated to supporting the work of the Office of Human Services Emergency Preparedness and Response (OHSEPR). 

ACF’s Strategic Goal 4 charges ACF to work to support communities and families to respond to acute needs and facilitate recovery from a range of crises and emergency situations. Established after Hurricane Katrina, The Administration for Children’s (ACF) Office of Human Services Emergency Preparedness and Response (OHSEPR) promotes resilience of vulnerable individuals, children, families, and communities impacted by disasters and public health emergencies by providing disaster human services expertise to ACF grantees, partners, and stakeholders during preparedness, response, and recovery operations for emergency and disaster incidents. When disaster strikes, OHSEPR is on the ground assessing the impact to human service providers, e.g. domestic violence shelters, child care centers, and early childhood education facilities. OHSEPR supports stakeholders with technical assistance and funding to recover from a disaster. In the future state, OHSEPR seeks to make more data-informed decisions for both pre-incident preparedness and post-incident response through timely, reliable grantee and service delivery location data and a flexible data management platform.

The fellow will lead ACF’s efforts to transform the use of data to support disaster survivors, including through high profile initiatives like the HHS Data Strategy Disaster use case. Human services disaster and analysis projects are typically novel, use qualitative and/or quantitative administrative data, and may be operational, policy, or programmatic in nature.  Projects frequently involve driving collaboration and coordination amongst multiple interested parties, establishing data access/pipelines, and conducting exploratory analysis in addition to answering questions of primary interest.  The projects are intended to inform the establishment of routine or repeatable analysis, tools, dashboards, or similar data products to be maintained by program and support offices.

DDI helps ACF program and support offices responsibly manage and use data to improve the effectiveness, efficiency, and equity of human services programs. DDI is organized into three workstreams: evidence capacity, privacy and data sharing, and data governance. The Senior Advisor for Disaster Human Services Data and Analysis will be supported within the Evidence Capacity Workstream and be able to draw on resources across DDI.  

ACF is also recruiting a Senior Product Manager for the same disaster data transformation efforts.  The Senior Product Manager will focus on the development of technology solutions, and the Senior Advisor for Disaster Human Services Data and Analysis will coordinate and collaborate with that individual.  

Current federal employees are not eligible for this position.

What you’ll be doing

The successful applicant will be taking a leadership role in shaping the direction and operationalization of human services disaster data for years to come.  Using a high level of independence, discretion, and autonomy, the successful applicant will perform the following duties:

• Organizes and drives successful completion of data insight initiatives to improve the use of data to support human services before, during, and after disasters.  Leads the implementation of the ACF Disaster Data Roadmap and serves as primary representative and ACF liaison to the HHS Disaster data priority.
• Takes primary responsibility for working with OHSEPR and other ACF program and support offices to scope and execute high-value data analysis insight initiatives that meet urgent needs. Works across ACF programs to define data needs, collection strategies, and end analytic products to support ACF, communities, and service providers prepare for, respond to, and recover from all forms of disaster.
• Conducts direct, immediately relevant analysis for human services disaster policy and operations, including to inform funding allocations, supporting response strategies, and longer-term planning and recovery efforts.
• Collaborates on the development of data pipelines, including necessary data cleaning and transformation activities.
• Works to scope and set the stage for a national learning agenda to support local communities, states, and the federal government in solving and finding better ways to support individuals and communities during and after disasters.
• Unsticking complex problems at the center of policy, people, process, and technology. 
• Provides both strategic leadership and acts as a hands-on contributor to ensure the work gets done.

Your Background and Abilities

• Strong strategic orientation, including the ability to find MVP/low burden approaches to scope/solve data problems. Excellent ability to select appropriate and feasible methods for the relevant context and intended use of findings/data products.
• Strategic planning and “data translator” skills; the ability to understand operational and leadership needs from non-technical audiences and turn them into a vision and concrete projects that a technical audience can execute on.
• Working knowledge of data mining principles: predictive analytics, mapping, collecting data from multiple data systems on premises and cloud-based data sources.
• Strong R, Python, and SQL skills, ability to perform effective querying involving multiple tables and subqueries.
• Strong problem solving, quantitative, and analytical abilities. Understanding of and experience using analytical concepts and statistical techniques: hypothesis development, designing tests/experiments, analyzing data, drawing conclusions, and developing actionable recommendations for business units.
• Strong ability to plan and manage numerous processes and projects simultaneously, delivering results on a weeks-to-few months timeline.
• Excellent communication, collaboration, and delegation skills.
• Self-starter with the ability to work independently and drive projects to completion. 
• At least 5 years of experience in a position monitoring, managing, manipulating, and drawing insights from data.

The right candidate will also be proficient with or able to quickly adopt most of the following tools/programs:

• Data collection tools: Qualtrics, Salesforce, Google Analytics  
• Analytics tools: R, Python, SQL, Tableau, PowerBI, NVivo, ArcGIS, QGIS, Palantir  
• Integrated Developer Environments: RStudio, Visual Studio Code  
• Management tools: GitHub, Smartsheet  
• Other tools: Microsoft Office suite including Outlook and Teams, Drupal Content Management System, Zoom 
• Experience working with “messy” transactional administrative data, especially in disaster management or a related field, is a plus.

Salary

This fellowship will provide a salary for the entirety of the fellowship duration at an annual rate of $165,000 per year. The Impact Fellow will receive additional compensation of $2,000 per month to account for health and living expenses. Additional information about the Fellowship can be found in our FAQ.

ADDITIONAL POSITION INFORMATION

Fellow will be subject to a Tier 4 High-Risk Public Trust Position background check investigation, which must be favorably adjudicated. The Senior Advisor for Disaster Human Services Data and Analysis may be expected to travel occasionally for stakeholder meetings. Flexibility in working hours may be required to accommodate project deadlines and collaboration with partners in different time zones.  The role can be remote, hybrid, or in person depending on the person’s location.

ABOUT IMPACT FELLOWSHIPS

The FAS Impact Fellowship is a selective fellowship program that supports the development and placement of emerging scientific and technical talent within high-impact roles across the federal government. From education to clean energy, immigration, wildfire resilience, national security, and fair housing, Impact Fellows are serving across a variety of federal agencies in roles that augment existing government teams as they confront some of the greatest scientific and social challenges of our time.