Director, Data Science

Director, Data Science

Classification: Full-time; Exempt; Non-Represented

Location: Seattle, WA; In person & eligible for telework

Organizational Overview

The King County Regional Homelessness Authority (KCRHA) is a public administrative agency that oversees homelessness-related programs and funding in the Seattle-King County region. Created by an interlocal agreement between the City of Seattle and King County in 2019, KCRHA is responsible for unifying and coordinating the homelessness response system across our large and diverse region. KCRHA works with a wide range of stakeholders, with a focus on continuous improvement across the system, centering lived experience and making the most effective use of public funds. Our mission is to address and bring everyone inside throughout King County using equity and social justice principles.

Team Overview

The Research and Data Division supports the design and evolution of technical infrastructure, analytic capabilities, and collaborative and open-source workflows across the organization. This includes directly supporting analysts, engineers, program teams, and leadership to make our systems more transparent, efficient, and effective, always with an eye on our core mission: unify homelessness services and systems to reduce homelessness and bring more people inside. Data and infrastructure are not just technical challenges, rather they are the foundation of how we allocate resources, measure progress, and design just systems. The Research and Data Division exists to empower the people doing the work of KCRHA and brings clarity, insight, and possibility to one of the region’s most urgent challenges: Homelessness. The team is a unique blend of deep technical expertise, strategic vision, collaborative leadership, and a hands-on, mission-driven approach.

Role Description

The King County Regional Homelessness Authority (KCRHA) is seeking a visionary and pragmatic Director of Data Science to lead transformative work at the intersection of data, equity, and community impact. You will act as a key advisor to the Chief Research and Data Officer (CRDO), interpreting and executing the vision of executive leadership and helping KCRHA become a national model for data-driven, equitable homelessness response. This is not a traditional director role focused on people management; instead, it's a non-supervisory leadership position that cuts across projects, teams, and responsibilities.

This role is designed for a hands-on, systems-oriented leader who can execute a bold vision while meeting people where they are as well as design and implement data science techniques that will advance our understanding and address the needs of unhoused populations. You’ll serve as a strategic utility player, problem-solver, technical advisor and trainer, infrastructure designer, and documentation and reporting champion helping to build tools, workflows, and team capacity that lift the whole organization.  

Accountabilities

Strategic & Operational Leadership

• Translate the Executive and Chief Research and Data Officer's vision into technical and analytic action. 

• Serve as a systems thinker and trusted advisor, guiding the development of flexible, low-cost, and open-source solutions that reduce dependency on closed platforms (e.g., Tableau). 

• Build a roadmap that aligns infrastructure, staffing, and analytic tools with short-, medium-, and long-term priorities. 

• Lead the reimagination of how research, data, and technology support the mission of ending homelessness. 

Infrastructure Development & Documentation

• Design and implement systems that support transparent, reproducible, and scalable data workflows across teams and tools. 

• Lead the design and implementation of secure, privacy-preserving data workflows and infrastructure that ensure regulatory compliance and client confidentiality. 

• Establish open-source-friendly infrastructure and documentation that lowers onboarding friction, reduces team workload, and ensures continuity as systems and staffing evolve and change over time. 

• Build systems for onboarding, data access, and training, including templated documentation, guides, and open, reproducible notebooks and dashboards. 

• Build and support automated systems for public records requests, dashboards, and HMIS that reduce staff time and improve accountability. 

• Develop strategies and potential systems (e.g., synthetic data generation) to facilitate collaboration with external partners while maintaining data privacy and security. 

Team Support & Capacity Building

• Work closely with analysts, engineers, and program staff to support their success, taking on coding, reporting, and mapping tasks when needed to unblock others. 

• Provide mentoring, training and skills development for emerging data professionals within the organization. 

• Facilitate team-wide adoption of streamlined workflows, shared data structures, and cross-team collaboration. 

Community Engagement

• Design and support open-source systems that make public data more accessible, meaningful, and impactful. 

• Contribute to research and whitepapers documenting KCRHA’s data innovations as a national model for homelessness response.

Minimum Requirements

·        5+ years of experience in data science, research software engineering, and computing systems

·        5+ years of experience mentoring and training staff on data and analytics systems and tools. 

·        Hands-on experience with data pipeline tools, cloud architecture, and database design. 

·        Extensive experience coding in open-source languages (e.g., R, Python, SQL) with a preference for reproducible, markdown-friendly workflows (e.g., RMarkdown, Quarto, Jupyter). 

·        Expert with traditional analytics tools (e.g. Excel, PowerBI, Tableau, STATA, SAS, SPSS) 

·        Experience working with and migrating from legacy information systems and tools to sustainable, open, and cost-efficient systems. 

·        Demonstrated ability to lead infrastructure design, technical systems planning, and data operations across complex stakeholder environments. 

·        A strong advocate for open-source, low-cost, and interoperable tools in the service of equity and transparency. 

·        Familiarity with data related to housing, homelessness, social services, or public systems (especially HMIS or similar longitudinal tracking systems). 

·        Excellent written and verbal communication skills; able to translate technical complexity into strategic insight. 

·        Excellent listening skills and emotional intelligence. 

·        Fluency in equity and racial justice concepts and language, understanding their privilege and power, and can bring equity impact analysis to life in the context of their tasks.

Additional Requirements

·        Experience with government and community stakeholders in King County.

·        A "roll-up-your-sleeves" attitude and willingness to tackle any task needed to support the team and KCRHA mission. 

·        Experience with longitudinal panel data, network analysis, and graph-based models to analyze movement through housing and service systems. 

·        Familiarity with synthetic data generation for privacy-preserving development. 

·        Experience in government, non-profit, public service, and academic sector settings is highly desirable. 

·        Ability to work with minimal supervision while being highly collaborative, communicative, empathetic, and service-oriented. 

·        Ability to operate with a "soft touch", meeting people where they are while driving progress. 

·        Familiarity with principles of trauma-informed systems. 

Benefits

The KCRHA offers a comprehensive benefits package.

Health: Medical, dental, and vision coverage.

Insurance: Group Term Life, Additional Employee + Dependent Life and Long-Term Disability (LTD) coverage.

Retirement: Pension and Deferred Compensations Plan for eligible employees.

Paid Time Off: Unlimited vacation, 96 hours of paid sick and safe leave, 12 official holidays, and 2 personal holidays.

Flexible Spending Account (FSA): Pre-tax savings for eligible medical and dependent care expenses.

Employee Assistance Program (EAP): Confidential support for personal and work-related challenges.

Commute Benefit: Subsidized ORCA card.

EEO Statement

The KCRHA is committed to a policy of Equal Employment Opportunity and will not discriminate against an applicant or employee based on race, creed, religion, color, national origin, age, alienage or citizenship status, ancestry, nationality, national origin, marital or domestic partnership or civil union status, familial status, sex, sexual orientation, pregnancy, gender identity, or any other characteristic protected by federal, state or local law. In addition, The KCRHA will provide reasonable accommodation for qualified individuals with disabilities.