Summer 2026 - Data Science Intern, Research Central

Vera Institute of Justice•New York, NY

1d•Hybrid

About The Position

The Data Science Intern for Research's Central Data Science team is an opportunity for a college student or recent grad to immerse themselves in a data role at a non-profit organization. Their work will support a pilot project that supports a national initiative by using machine learning models to build more robust datasets for research. The data science intern will work closely with the Senior Data Scientist on setting up the data and infrastructure required to enable the use of ML and AI on messy administrative data. They will gain practical experience in working with realistic datasets to enable impactful analysis on the criminal legal system. They will participate in all day-to-day team activities, ranging from project planning and execution, infrastructure discussions, code review sessions, and more. They will work directly with a senior data scientist on a range of responsibilities including data collection, document review, data prep, and analysis.

Requirements

Currently enrolled in or recent graduate of a college program in data science, a computational social science, statistics, public policy, or a related discipline.
Commitment to using research and analysis to end mass incarceration and undo racism and inequity in the criminal legal system.
Proficiency developing code collaboratively using GitHub.

Nice To Haves

Experience working with messy administrative datasets in an academic or professional setting.
Technical knowledge helpful for this role: Python and/or R, GitHub, Cloud Technologies such as Microsoft Azure, SQL & relational databases, Command Line.

Responsibilities

Document Review & Data Prep: Review files provided by Vera’s external partner to identify relevant documents for data extraction, review police reports and other text data to label and create dataset structures, and review semi-structured text data fields to condense into coded categorical variables.
Automated data collection and codebase maintenance: Contribute code to existing automated data collection system as needed for the pilot’s evolving requirements.
Data Analysis: Develop descriptive and other summary statistics in support of model development, validation, and evaluation, and support senior data scientist in other analytical tasks as needed.