Program Data Scientist at City of New York
Queens, NY
—
Aug 3, 2026
Queens, NY
Sep 24, 2026
What this job asks for AI summary
A data scientist role embedded in NYC DOT's Division of Traffic Operations, responsible for building the analytical infrastructure — pipelines, metrics, and dashboards — that tracks a large portfolio of traffic signal capital projects from design through final acceptance. The work combines Python-based data engineering, GIS spatial analysis, and stakeholder-facing reporting to surface delivery trends, bottlenecks, and risks across hundreds of concurrent projects and multiple contractors. This is the program's first dedicated analyst position, offering significant latitude to define methods and data structures from scratch.
Mid level · 2+ years · New York-Newark-Jersey City, NY-NJ-PA · Master's required · Full-time
“or” means any one of them counts — you don't need all of them.
We read this from the posting text with AI. Skim the description below before ruling yourself out.
How this req sits in the market our data
Roughly 11,200 people in the New York-Newark-Jersey City, NY-NJ-PA area plausibly meet what this posting asks for (data scientists). range 3,300–16,800
Applicant volume Heavy — This req sits in a large pool with little in its requirements to thin it, and auto-apply tools fire at everything in the occupation. Applying early and leading with the rare skills below is what gets read.
Most people in this occupation already list these. Still required — just not what gets you shortlisted.
What the occupation pays Median $138,970 (middle half $103,548–$176,968).
Estimated from BLS employment for this occupation and area, per-skill prevalence across our listing corpus, and published wage benchmarks — as of Aug 7, 2026. It is a model, not a headcount.
Why we read it this way (7)
All skills in this posting appear under a 'Preferred Skills' heading that explicitly states 'not every qualification is required' and encourages applicants who meet 'many but not all' criteria — no skill is presented as a hard gate.
The civil service title is 'City Research Scientist – 21744.' The formal minimum qualification for Assignment Level II and above is a master's degree plus 2–3 years of relevant research experience (or a doctorate plus 1 year); equivalent experience is accepted. The master's degree is treated as the minimum hard degree requirement since the posting states 'all candidates must have at least a master's degree.'
The role is classified as a research/analyst position rather than a pure ML/modeling role; the runner-up SOC (15-2031 Operations Research Analysts) reflects the strong portfolio-tracking, metrics, and reporting emphasis alongside the data science framing.
The posting notes eligibility for up to 2 days/week remote under a pilot program, but the primary work location is on-site at 34-02 Queens Blvd., LIC — remote is set to false accordingly.
No compensation figures are stated in the posting.
'Spatial analysis' is listed as a distinct preferred skill separate from the named GIS tools, reflecting the posting's emphasis on geospatial Python libraries as a category beyond ArcGIS/QGIS specifically.
Ignored 1 non-technology phrase(s) as skills (responsibilities/concepts, not named tools): spatial analysis.
Read the full posting
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