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JC-279446 : Research Data Specialist III

Job Summary:

 
This position is eligible for full-time telework under Government Code 14200 for eligible applicants residing in California.

Under the general direction of the Assistant Deputy Director of the Department of Housing and Community Development’s (HCD) Division of State Financial Assistance, the Research and Data Specialist III will lead special projects involving quantitative data analysis to support policy making, program design, and program evaluation. They will be responsible for identifying, aggregating, analyzing, and maintaining data of various types, including data on DSFA grant and loan programs and publicly available data sets. They will be an in-house expert on DSFA and HCD’s data and data systems. They will work closely and collaboratively with the Assistant Deputy Director on time-sensitive and high-profile projects. A background in housing development or finance is desirable but not required. Strong analytical skills and outstanding excel expertise are essential. A collaborative approach to problem solving, excellent written and oral skills, and a commitment to racial and economic equity are required.
 
The Division of State Financial Assistance (DSFA) administers billions of dollars annually for the development and preservation of affordable housing, including housing for homeless individuals, families, farmworkers, seniors, and other low-income Californians who struggle to pay their monthly rent. The Division administers funding through over a dozen grant and loan programs targeted to affordable housing developers and local government partners.
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Desirable Qualifications

In addition to evaluating each candidate's relative ability, as demonstrated by quality and breadth of experience, the following factors will provide the basis for competitively evaluating each candidate:

• Demonstrated project management experience and excellent collaborative leadership skills
• Experience working on projects with a high degree of technical focus
• Advanced Excel skills including PowerQuery, Macros, Power BI, etc.
• Experience creating applications, forms, and related databases
• Developing and tracking performance metrics to drive accountability and continuous improvement
• Ability to translate complex data outcomes into an easily readable narrative or infographic platforms
• Ability to adjust to evolving priorities and challenges
• Ability to present ideas and information effectively, both orally and in writing.
• Ability to lead collaborative cross-team efforts, including qualitative information-gathering, program design, and data collection efforts.
• Experience with affordable housing development and finance.


Essential Functions:

  • Develop and support new DSFA grant and loan program applications and related spreadsheets, including verifying and troubleshooting formulas, links and automation. Lead business requirements process to document requirements for creating or updating DSFA spreadsheets. Advanced skills in Excel automation and programming (Visual Basic for Applications) to improve data quality, reduce data entry time and automate routine data entry or reporting tasks is required. Mentor or train DSFA program staff on maintaining or improving applications and provide support for automation or database querying.

  • Lead new collaborative division-wide data and excel-related projects. Manage working groups of HCD staff as well as external stakeholders. Provide strong project leadership including setting agendas, facilitating meetings, identifying and tracking action items, sharing take-aways, and guiding projects toward timely completion. Implement working group data-improvement recommendations and support implementation with training, documentation, coaching.

  • Identify and analyze DSFA data to facilitate development of new programs and improvement of current housing financing programs; aggregate, clean, and update data from a variety of sources; analyze results of data reporting and program evaluation projects into practical recommendations for programmatic, policy, and system transformation. Support the development of reports. Improve systems for tracking and reporting; propose changes to data and tracking tools to improve and streamline the Division’s operations.

  • Respond to urgent requests for information from the Governor’s Office, Agency, the media, and other stakeholders; collaborate with program staff across divisions.

  • Develop, review and/or revise written reports and presentations including policy/issue memoranda, position papers, advisories; summarize policy decisions and identify impact of policy; develop plans of action; present findings to internal and external audiences; create clear and compelling infographics and other visual representations of data.

  • Responsible for the completion of other projects, assignments, and Division administrative tasks as directed by management.