Senior Visualization Specialist Commonwealth Of Massachusetts
Boston, MA

Job Description

Senior Visualization Specialist

The Senior Visualization Specialist is passionate about data, analysis, outcomes and user experience. The successful candidate will turn raw data into useful information, ultimately supporting business users at the Division of Local Services and within the Commonwealth's communities and districts by giving them the tools to make data-driven decisions.

The Division of Local Services maintains significant data related to city and town governments, with that data being managed and used across multiple bureaus. The Senior Visualization Specialist will have an important leadership role and be DLS's subject matter expert on how to strategically turn municipal finance and related data into highly compelling and easy-to-use solutions for end users, with the goal of improving the operational and financial stability of the Commonwealth's cities, towns, regional school districts and special purpose districts. This new position will be DLS's primary data visualization subject matter expert; this will be a highly collaborative and team based position, requiring that you work closely with DLS bureaus, other state agencies, municipalities, vendors and other related teams. Our primary tool for data visualization adoption is LogiAnalytics; you will be working closely with other IT staff and various stakeholders, however, to develop creative new ways to provide information to end users through Web and/or application-based visualizations, dashboards and other products. Your main focus will be the creation of functional and insightful data solutions and products that will better serve DLS and the communities it serves. Your work will ensure that the value of the data maintained by the Division is maximized, and that it can be leveraged in intuitive and meaningful ways by both internal and external stakeholders.

Duties & Responsibilities:

* Leads the design, development, implementation, and maintenance of ongoing reports, analyses, dashboards, and metrics for key operations and decision making for city departments. Serves as a resource and content expert for the department and others in this process.
* Assembles, manipulates and/or formats data and/or reports using various software applications such as desktop tools, spreadsheets, report writing software, statistical software, graphical presentation tools, and business intelligence (BI) applications.
* Develop insightful solutions, aligned to business strategy and key stakeholder needs, that deliver simple, engaging and actionable data visualizations
* Envision or reimagine workflows, dashboards, and various data visualizations to improve the flow of information and create a compelling user experience
* Using available data, convey complex quantitative concepts in a universally understandable and consistent manner
* Understand data set characteristics, sources and the business processes behind the data to determine the most effective kind of visualizations for each business need
* Quickly recognize data quality problems and recommend mitigation strategies to ensure that information produced by DLS remains accurate and of the highest quality
* Openly share perspective and insights on the value of visualization and data analysis to elevate team thinking and help drive a balanced, holistic point of view within the Division
* Demonstrate strategic agility and an ability to engage stakeholders to understand and diagnose business challenges and recommend appropriate courses of action
* Identify and promote best practices and opportunities for improvement in data collection and analysis to promote quality user interactions
* Act as subject matter expert for applicable advanced analytical methodologies, seeking opportunities to develop your own and others' expertise through ongoing collaboration, cross-training, mentorship and coaching
* By improving user experience, help drive and improve the ways that DLS provides the answers its stakeholders are seeking
* Produce visualizations and improve user experience to give stakeholders meaningful business value from enterprise data assets
* Create product prototypes to validate design concepts and usability standards with stakeholders and customers at the beginning of a development cycle

Preferred Qualifications:

* Leadership skills and the ability to coordinate stakeholders to achieve shared goals.
* Strong commitment to providing memorable, intuitive data visualizations and related products
* The belief that great data visualization is the cornerstone of a satisfying and productive customer experience
* The desire, skill and experience to create innovative, world-class data visualization solutions that answer our stakeholders' questions and promote DLS's business strategies and mission
* Passion for information architecture and design
* Demonstrated ability to translate a strategic vision into an actionable plan that produces deliverables meeting all business requirements
* Ability to present both conceptual and data-driven visualizations with equally positive results
* Demonstrated ability to produce deliverables that allow users to quickly grasp processes, strategy, and insights from visualizations
* Strong history of working collaboratively with business users to fully understand their needs and challenges
* Strong client-facing skills; specifically, the ability to communicate analytical and technical concepts with confidence and in an easy-to-understand fashion
* Ability to create effective data visualizations and user experience improvements that provide enhanced insight and improve organizational decision-making
* Strong analytical skills; the ability to collect, organize, analyze, and disseminate significant amounts of information with attention to detail, on-time completion and consistent accuracy
* Adept at writing queries and reports that drive visualizations and other informative products
* Highly organized with an ability to work under tight deadlines and shifting priorities
* Established professional portfolio that demonstrates creative thinking, inspired design, and concise work flows as well as a deep understanding of UI/UX best practices
* Excellent verbal and written skills with the ability to "sell" an idea
* Ability to develop wireframes and mock ups for describing ideas and obtaining buy-in for proposed improvements in UX or data analysis
* Ability to develop conceptual ideas based on ideas of varying scale, and the ability to execute a plan to achieve the vision behind those ideas
* Proven ability to predict use cases and UI needs, including happy paths as well as edge and corner cases, with the skill to incorporate them into product design
* Strong problem solving, logical thinking, quantitative, qualitative, and creative skills
* Deep understanding of color, contrast, typography, textures, graphic design, web application design and accessibility options
* Experience in working with cross-functional product teams
* Experience with municipal finance platforms and data is highly desirable
* Strong technical skill set including experience with business intelligence applications (Business Objects, LogiAnalytics preferred), databases (Oracle, MS SQL, etc), programming (XML, Javascript, Python, R etc.), reporting (SSRS, Visual Studio), ETL frameworks, and cloud-based, API-driven data sources.
* Knowledge of statistics and experience using statistical packages for analyzing datasets (Excel, SPSS, SAS etc.)

First consideration will be given to those applicants that apply within the first 14 days.

Minimum Entrance Requirements:

Applicants must have at least (A) five years of full-time, or equivalent part-time, professional experience in electronic data processing, of which (B) at least three years must have been in work in which the major duties included computer systems analysis, or (C) any equivalent combination of the required experience and the substitutions below.

SUBSTITUTIONS:

I. An Associate's degree with a major in the field of data processing or computer programming may be substituted for a maximum of one year of the required (A) experience.*

II. A Bachelor's degree with a major in the field of data processing or computer and/or information science may be substituted for a maximum of two years of the required (A) experience.*

III. A Graduate degree with a major in the field of data processing or computer and/or information science may be substituted for a maximum of two years of the required (A) experience.*

IV. A diploma for completion of a two year full-time, or equivalent part-time, program in a recognized non-degree granting business or vocational/technical school above the high school level with a major in the field of computer programming may be substituted for a maximum of one year of the required (A) experience.*

V. An official transcript from a recognized business or vocational/ technical school as evidence of completion of a program consisting of at least 650 hours of instruction in the field of computer programming maybe substituted for a maximum of one year of the required (A) experience.*

VI. Graduation from the data processing course of a recognized vocational/technical high school may be substituted for a maximum of one year of the required (A) experience.

* Education toward such a degree or diploma will be prorated on the basis of the proportion of the requirements actually completed.

NOTE: No substitution will be allowed for more than two years of the required (A) experience.

NOTE: No substitution will be allowed for the three years of the required (B) experience.

Special Requirements: None.

An Equal Opportunity / Affirmative Action Employer. Females, minorities, veterans, and persons with disabilities are strongly encouraged to apply.