See Data Science & Informatics Specialist 1

Position is either a data scientist or informatician as described within the class series concept and is a second-line supervisor responsible for the oversight of a section/program comprised of teams of data science and/or informatics staff; or serves as the primary delegated data scientist or informatician, with the highest level of technical subject matter expertise, for the division/office/department within an organization.

Under administrative direction, positions at this level perform at least three or more of the following:
• Serves as the primary delegated representative for innovative and highly complex statewide data science and/or informatics projects that have high-risk, cross-agency, inter-state, or agency-wide precedent-setting impact.
• Makes recommendations on highly complex unprecedented issues involving significant organizational change, process improvement, and policy development; or issues involving a broad scope and significant impact on outside agencies or institutions, organizations, and/or the public.
• Plans, directs, leads, and formulates data science and/or informatics studies, methodologies, policies, procedures, and strategies.
• Prioritizes data science and/or informatics projects within delegated area of responsibility.
• Responsible for organizational-wide dashboarding, visualization, and/or informatics initiatives.
• Is a data science and/or informatics advisor to senior/executive leadership for initiatives and activities that require cross-cutting and creative solutions to complex and ill-defined problems.
• Provides capacity planning and performs operational and administrative activities for a major section of a division/office/department, such as monitoring budgets, administrative decision making, and strategic planning.
• Provides consultation and guidance to organization executives and administrators on analytic policy, planning, timelines, staffing needs and technical requirements.
• Ensures high quality, accurate scientific research and analysis meets the organizational data needs.

Develops roadmaps/strategies to advance information exchange over time; analyzes and provides feedback to external partners regarding state and federal policies impacting interoperability and systems;

As an agency expert in data science and informatics, collaborates with IT professionals in the development, implementation, configuration, enhancement, upgrading, and maintenance of industry-specific-related information systems;

Collaborates to design, develop, select, test, implement, and evaluate new or modified informatics solutions, data structures, and decision-support mechanisms to support staff and departments and their information management needs within various contexts;

Is involved in decision-making and evaluation of the adoption of automated information systems to accommodate special and complex agency needs;

Evaluates complex organizational and information systems for the purpose of program monitoring and evaluation, functionality, and reliability to meet goals and objectives of programs and policies; set informatics and/or data science strategy and vision for programs;

Provides highly complex guidance on data-driven industry-specific decision-making;

Serves as an agency expert on the industry-specific data, technology and systems used, coordinates informatics priorities with the department; functions as a resource to provide information or determines the most effective way of meeting the informatics needs of management, staff, clients, or customers;

Provides consultation and guidance to organization executives and administrators on analytic policy, planning, timeline, staffing needs and technical requirements;

Oversees all program-specific informatics and data science activities and teams;

Develops, interprets, and applies policies and procedures governing the overall delivery of research and analytics;

Establishes partnerships and collaborations with industry-related agencies, researchers, industry partners, and policymakers at the state, local, tribal and federal levels;

Collaborates with IT on information system application testing, implementation, configuration, enhancement, and evaluation along with cross-functional project teams across programs and/or agency for utilization and decision-making;

Ensures consistency with, leverages, and seeks to influence national standards and certification initiatives to achieve interoperability, as appropriate;

Provides technical assistance and training in the use of data in policy and program development efforts with state, tribal, and/or local industry-related agencies and staff;

Identifies and procures funding through grants, partnerships, and other funding sources;

Advocates for changes needed in national interoperability policies, standards, and strategies;

Represents the organization as a thought leader in informatics and/or data science;

Drives innovation and data-driven transformation and interventions in the industry;

Conducts project management and research including development of use cases, business cases, and workflow and policy analyses;

Participates in high profile engagements with the public involving user-centered design principles (for example, the developed algorithms that run on people’s phones to determine if they get an exposure notification or not);

Supervises data science, informatics, research, and/or epidemiology staff;

Performs the duties of the lower levels in the series;

Performs other work as required.

Knowledge of: strategies for achieving effective data acquisition; informatics management, quality, use and application; applicable federal and state laws, rules, policies regarding data security, privacy, and management of confidential data; descriptive and business analysis; advanced analysis, statistical and probability techniques, and methods; familiarity with the IT life cycle and system design; qualitative and quantitative techniques for analyzing and measuring program/project efficacy; project management disciplines and techniques; theory, practice, and research methods; ethical principles to the collection, maintenance, use and dissemination of data and information; understanding of data system architecture, database schema, and integration points; cloud tools, machine learning, deep learning, and AI methods and solutions; electronic standards (e.g., HL7 FHIR), data workflows, IT support planning; coding and programming languages (such as Python, SQL, R, SAS).

Ability to: plan, organize, and prioritize projects; evaluate information and make recommendations; assess departmental and end user information needs; communicate complex information to nontechnical audiences; communicate verbally and in writing to establish and maintain effective working relationships; collaborate with IT and data analytic program staff to achieve shared goals; perform analysis and evaluation of systems, projects, and programs; engage with diverse audiences and community partners; demonstrate continuous effort to improve operations and streamline work processes; lead or supervise staff; provide training to internal and external stakeholders and end-users; manage resources, contracts, and personnel; apply ethical principles to the collection, maintenance, use and dissemination of data and information.

There may be instances where individual positions must have additional licenses or certification. It is the employer’s responsibility to ensure the appropriate licenses/certifications are obtained for each position.

Persons legally authorized to work in the U.S. under federal law, including Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals recipients, are eligible for employment unless prohibited by other state or federal law.

Master's degree in informatics, data science, mathematics, statistics, biostatistics, epidemiology, or other technical or quantitative related field, and two (2) years of experience performing data science or informatics data work.


Bachelor's degree in informatics, data science, mathematics, computer science, statistics, biostatistics, epidemiology, or related technical or quantitative field, and four (4) years of experience performing data science or informatics data work.


Equivalent years of relevant experience.


Demonstrated leadership experience developing data-oriented products and processes.


For those positions required to supervise, experience must include at least one year of supervisory experience.

New classification: Data Science & Informatics Specialist 4, class code: 501O, 42 Professionals, 80148588, range 79; adopted June 23, 2025; effective July 1, 2025.