Senior Data Scientist

Skyward IT Solutions, LLC•Maryland, MD

1d•$180,000 - $200,000•Remote

About The Position

We are Skyward, a people-centered business focused on human advancement through information technology. We are diverse, unified, creative, and collaborative, driven by a civic tech mission. Our values of Integrity, Compassion, Inquisitiveness, Unconventionality, and Authenticity guide our actions. We are seeking a Senior Data Scientist to join our team, contingent on contract award. This role is for someone excited by complex, disparate datasets, who prioritizes understanding data before modeling, and can effectively communicate technical concepts to subject matter experts. If you are motivated to learn, grow, and contribute to a future-looking team, we encourage you to apply.

Requirements

An active Secret clearance at time of hire.
7+ years of applied data science experience.
At least 2 years of experience with graph analytics or network analysis as a primary focus.
Strong production-grade Python skills, including pandas, NumPy, scikit-learn, networkx (or graph-tool / igraph), and a GNN library (PyTorch Geometric or DGL).
Real-world experience with probabilistic record linkage / entity resolution (e.g., Senzing, dedupe, FEBRL, Magellan, or a homegrown Fellegi-Sunter implementation).
Comfort working without labels, including anomaly detection, positive-unlabeled learning, isolation forests, and autoencoders.
Proficiency in interpretability techniques such as SHAP, feature importance, and partial dependence plots.
Experience applying LLMs for entity and relationship extraction with rigorous evaluation of extraction quality.
Statistical maturity, including understanding of power analysis, confidence intervals, and the pitfalls of p-hacking.
Ability to present technical findings to non-technical stakeholders clearly and without losing nuance.
Reproducibility hygiene, including version control, parameterized pipelines, deterministic seeds, pinned dependencies, and functional READMEs.

Nice To Haves

Published research, open-source contributions, or conference talks in entity resolution, graph ML, or applied causal inference.
Knowledge of commercial data sources like LexisNexis, Transunion, Babel Street, etc.
A track record of presenting null results to federal subject matter experts without hesitation.
A reputation among teammates for identifying pipeline bugs before deliverables.

Responsibilities

Lead end-to-end data science experiments, including data readiness assessment, clustering, topological risk modeling, unstructured-data enrichment, and entity resolution.
Run exploratory data analyses (EDAs) on government-furnished data within a government-controlled environment, profiling completeness, identifying schema mismatches, flagging gaps, and documenting data limitations.
Apply graph analytics, including Leiden community detection, centrality measures, motif analysis, temporal cluster detection, and link prediction, with the ability to explain these concepts clearly.
Train interpretable classifiers (logistic regression, gradient boosted trees) and Graph Neural Networks (GraphSAGE, GAT), and utilize unsupervised anomaly detection when labels are scarce.
Perform probabilistic entity resolution across various features using tools like Senzing, handling name transliteration, DOB variation, and fuzzy address matching.
Apply LLM-based Named Entity Recognition and relationship extraction to unstructured text, evaluating the impact on graph structures.
Wrangle messy data, recommend supplemental de-identified data sources for enrichment, and document the rationale for these recommendations.
Document all work thoroughly to ensure customer reproducibility.
Maintain rigor in analysis, including confidence intervals, documentation of null findings, and avoiding "dashboard theater."

Benefits

Medical, dental, vision insurance (fully paid for employees)
15 days of paid leave
7 days of sick leave
2 days bereavement leave
11 paid Federal holidays
Up to 40 hours for jury duty
401K with 4% employer contribution (no vesting period)
Up to 4 weeks of paid paternity and maternity leave
Company provided laptop
$5,000 per year for professional development
$600 per year for technical supplies and equipment
$2,000 referral bonus
Life and disability insurance
HSA and FSA
Legal Shield and ID Shield Voluntary Benefits
Opportunity to work in a collaborative, motivated team focused on modernizing government services with cutting-edge technology and innovative solutions.