Senior Strategy Data Scientist

Senior Strategy Data Scientist

CPAL · Dallas, TX · Full-time

About CPAL

CPAL, the Child Poverty Action Lab, is a Dallas-based nonprofit research and development lab that uses data to rethink public systems, in service of cutting childhood poverty in Dallas by 50 percent within a generation. The organization works across five focus areas: Benefits Delivery, Maternal Health, Housing, Criminal Justice, and Public Safety.

About the Role

This role sits on CPAL's Strategic Analytics team, reporting to the Head of Strategic Analytics, on a small, senior team built to combine analytical rigor, practical judgment, and AI-enabled ways of working. Senior Strategy Data Scientists take on questions that rarely arrive with clean data, a settled methodology, or a well-formed problem statement, working across housing, economic mobility, maternal health, education, and public safety.

What You'll Do

• Conduct analysis end to end: combine messy data, select appropriate methods, test findings, and document sources, definitions, assumptions, and limitations.
• Frame the question before analyzing it, finding the decision behind the request and defining the smallest useful first version.
• Produce more than the literal answer: explain what results mean, identify adjacent insights, and surface questions stakeholders didn't know to ask.
• Connect analysis to decisions that can move resource allocation, program design, or organizational strategy.
• Communicate clearly, turning complex analysis into concise briefs and visuals non-technical decision-makers can use.
• Work AI-natively across research, coding, QA, and documentation, verifying output carefully rather than trusting it blindly.

What We're Looking For

• 3-5 years of applied analytical work, typically at a top-tier strategy, boutique data science, or analytical consulting firm, or an equivalent high-growth-startup or agency trajectory.
• A strong quantitative foundation: a STEM degree, an applied quantitative social science background (economics, urban science or spatial analytics, operations research, causal inference and program evaluation, population health analytics), or comparable demonstrated capability.
• Professional fluency in Python and working SQL; able to read and adapt existing R.
• Sound methodological judgment paired with consultant-style pragmatism.
• Daily working fluency with AI-assisted analytical tools, backed by concrete examples.
• Strong plus: geospatial analysis and data visualization experience.

Compensation and Benefits

Competitive salary, dependent on experience. Health, dental, and vision insurance, a retirement savings plan with employer match, generous paid time off and holidays, and professional development and learning support. CPAL is open to sponsoring candidates for this role. This role is based in Dallas, TX; Dallas is preferred with flexibility for the right candidate, and remote-first candidates are considered, with occasional on-site time in Dallas.

How to Apply

To apply for this role, you must create an account on provn.co and submit all required application artifacts. Resume only applications may be considered, but candidates who complete a full application are reviewed with priority.

How hiring works here

Referrals are king for getting an interview. But what if you don't have a referral? Applying with Provn is designed to help you get more interviews. Instead of sending a cold resume into an ATS and waiting, you will complete a challenge built by CPAL and submit a short video walking through your approach. No time limit. No timers. No restrictions on AI usage. Show how you build with AI.

Why that works in your favor:

• You show how you actually build and ship with coding agents, instead of hoping a resume communicates your skill clearly.
• Your judgment with AI becomes visible, which no "proficient with AI coding agents" resume bullet can prove.
• One challenge puts you in front of the Strategic Analytics team, scored on the work. Priority without a referral!

The hiring manager reviews every completed submission, and strongest candidates go straight to an interview round. No referral needed. Performance over pedigree. Proof over polish.

For this role, the challenge is a significant part of your candidacy. If you have been looking for a foot in the door, a chance to show what you can do, if you have ever felt like all you needed was ten minutes with the hiring manager to prove yourself, this is that opportunity.

Applications close September 14, 2026.