Data Analyst I

The Public Health Institute (PHI) is an independent, nonprofit organization dedicated to promoting health, well-being, and quality of life for people throughout California, across the nation and around the world. As one of the largest and most comprehensive public health organizations in the nation, we are at the forefront of research and innovations to improve the efficacy of public health statewide, nationally, and internationally.

PHI was distinguished as one of the top 50 "Best Non-Profit Organizations to Work For" by the Non-Profit Times in a national search.

SUMMARY

The fundamental data that informs how we safeguard health is under threat. This historic moment requires innovation, agility, and determination to meet this challenge. The Public Health Alliance is seeking a Data Analyst to join our talented Data Team to address this challenge and meet the opportunities it presents. The Data Analyst will work closely with the Alliance's HPI Project Manager & Lead Analyst, Data Analysts, and other team members to implement equity-focused data collection, analysis, and visualization.

This role supports the work of our Healthy Places Index (HPI) project, and other data-related projects. The Data Analyst also represents the Public Health Alliance in professional meetings as needed, identifying opportunities for data resource development and collaboration. The successful applicant will have a strong background in data analytics, public health data, and is comfortable downloading, formatting, and analyzing a variety of data sets using R and R Studio. They are a creative problem-solver, detail-oriented, and efficient. They also excel in communicating data and can produce effective descriptions and visualizations for non-technical audiences.

This is a remote, full-time position and the incumbent works primarily from their home office. The Alliance maintains a 4-day work week with a work schedule of 10 hours/day.

Applicants working from California are strongly preferred.

The anticipated hiring range for this position is from $79,333 to $90,000, based on 100% FTE. Full salary range for this position is $79,333 to $115,098 per year. The starting salary is determined using a variety of factors, such as the candidate's knowledge, skills, and experience, as well as internal equity consideration and budget availability.

This position is eligible for PHI's full suite of benefits including but not limited to medical, dental, and vision coverage, employer contribution to the 403(b) employee retirement plan, health care and dependent care flexible spending accounts, and generous time off.

ABOUT THE PUBLIC HEALTH ALLIANCE

The Public Health Alliance is an innovative lab driven by this powerful question, "What will it take to make health and community flourishing inevitable?" We research and design data, climate and equity projects that address barriers to unlock positive change. We created and facilitate a coalition of the executive leadership of eleven local health departments in Southern California. Our members serve 60% of the state's population. We believe that California should be a place where everyone has the opportunities and resources necessary to live a healthy and productive life.

To learn more about the Alliance's work visit https://www.thepublichealthalliance.org/. The Alliance is fiscally administered by the Public Health Institute.

ABOUT THE HEALTHY PLACES INDEX

The Healthy Places Index (HPI) is a powerful and easy-to-use data and policy platform created to advance health equity through open and accessible data. Evidence-based and peer-reviewed, the HPI supports efforts to prioritize equitable community investments, develop critical programs and policies across the state, and much more. Originally launched in 2018 by the Public Health Alliance, the HPI has become a go-to data tool for hundreds of state and local government agencies, foundations, advocacy groups, hospitals and other organizations that want to apply a health equity lens to their work. The HPI has been adopted widely across California and has been implemented broadly to equitably direct funding to create positive change in our communities, including over $8 billion in funding equitable directed to communities most in need, hundreds of uses across multiple sectors, and nearly $272 million in federal COVID funding prioritized to the most disproportionately impacted communities.

A third update to HPI was released in April 2022, and the fourth update will be released in Summer 2027. We are seeking a candidate with the data skills and expertise to assist us in completing these enhancements.

ESSENTIAL DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES include the following:

• Collects, cleans, and analyzes national, state, regional, and local data in support of Alliance initiatives, including the development of new indicators for the Healthy Places Index platform.

• Performs geospatial tasks for the Healthy Places Index map platform, including generating map geography files, cross walking data between geographies, creating geographic aggregations, and producing map-compatible indicators from raster source data.

• Implements and maintains a modern data infrastructure, including databases, files, codebases/scripts, etc., for the Healthy Places Index family of products.

• Works with Public Health Alliance data sets to produce tables, figures, and visualizations.

• Writes legible, annotated, and reproducible code for all analyses.

• Prepares technical documentation and reports.

• Builds internal capacity for data analysis, interpretation, and visualization.

• Develops training materials, presentation content, and provides technical assistance on the Healthy Places Index and map tool.

• Assists team members in development of communications on program activities, including presentations, trainings, webinars, website content, and grant reports.

• Attends meetings and presentations relevant to the program.

• Participates in strategic planning meetings with the HPI Project Manager & Lead Analyst

• Performs other duties as assigned in support of the program.

QUALIFICATIONS

To perform this job successfully, an individual must be able to perform each essential duty satisfactorily. The requirements listed below are representative of the knowledge, skill, and/or ability required.

Minimum Qualifications:

• 1 year of data analysis experience.

• 1 year of experience in the public health field.

• Experience using R and RStudio.

• Bachelor's degree in science or quantitative field, or substitute with four additional years of related experience.

Other Required Qualifications:

• A strong, demonstrated understanding of statistical analysis and epidemiological methods.

• Ability to fluently read and write R code for data processing tasks.

• Strong oral and written communication skills.

• Strong interpersonal skills, including the ability to communicate and establish effective working relationships with all levels within the organization, and interact effectively with co-workers and other stakeholders.

• Ability to make decisions in collaboration with supervisor following standard policies and procedures and to work independently in a remote setting.

• Ability to function in a fast-paced environment, make simultaneous progress on multiple tasks, and meet deadlines.

• Ability to identify and resolve problems in a timely manner and develop alternative solutions.

Preferred Qualifications:

• Advanced proficiency with R for data cleaning, transformation, validation, and analysis of large, complex, or unstructured datasets.

• Experience developing reproducible data workflows, including writing reusable R functions, modular scripts, and well-documented code.

• Experience working with the R tidyverse ecosystem and related data analysis packages (e.g., dplyr, tidyr, stringr, ggplot2, janitor, readxl, knitr, kableExtra).

• Experience working with census, demographic, and geospatial data using packages such as tidycensus, censusapi, tigris, sf, terra, tmap, or exactextractr.

• Experience integrating and managing data from multiple sources, including APIs, spreadsheets, databases, and geospatial datasets.

• Experience with mapping, spatial data analysis, and GIS concepts using ArcGIS, Simple Features (sf), or similar tools, including spatial joins, aggregations, buffers, and raster data processing.

• Experience using Git and GitHub for version control and collaborative software development.

• Master's degree in Public Health or Data Science with a focus in Epidemiology or Biostatistics, or equivalent experience in public health and data analysis preferred.

ORGANIZATIONAL RELATIONSHIPS

This position reports to the HPI Project Manager & Lead Analyst, and works collaboratively with Alliance members and staff, consultants, and other partners to advance health equity.

FAIR LABOR STANDARDS ACT (FLSA) STATUS

This position is classified as exempt based on the job duties. However, based on the FTE, salary level of the employee, or federal/state/local laws, the employee may be classified as nonexempt.

HOW TO APPLY

Please apply to this job posting online and submit a cover letter and resume as part of your application. Paper or email applications will not be considered.

In your cover letter, please describe why you are enthusiastic about this opportunity, your experience using R for data processing and analysis, and why you think you are a good fit for the position.

The Public Health Institute is committed to a policy that provides equal employment opportunities to all employees and applicants for employment without regard to race, color, sex, religion, national origin, ancestry, age, marital status, pregnancy, medical condition including genetic characteristics, physical or mental disability, veteran status, gender identification and expression, sexual orientation, and to make all employment decisions so as to further this principle of equal employment opportunity. To this end, the PHI will not discriminate against any employee or applicant for employment because of race, color, sex, religion, national origin, ancestry, age, marital status, pregnancy, medical condition including genetic characteristics, physical or mental disability, veteran status, gender identification and expression, sexual orientation, and we offer employment opportunities (and throughout employment treat our employees) fairly and equitably without regard to these characteristics.

Additional information about PHI's benefits and compensation offerings can be found here.

The Public Health Institute is committed to providing access and reasonable accommodation in its services, programs, activities and employment for individuals with disabilities. To request disability accommodation in the application process, contact the Recruitment Team at least 48 hours in advance at Recruitment@phi.org.