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Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia
The Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia is one of the 12 regional Reserve Banks that, together with the Board of Governors in Washington, D.C., make up the Federal Reserve System. It helps formulate and implement monetary policy, supervises banks and bank and savings and loan holding companies, and provides financial services to depository institutions and the federal government. The Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia serves eastern and central Pennsylvania, southern New Jersey, and Delaware.
Job Summary:
The Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia and its Consumer Finance Institute (CFI) seek a trained and motivated Data Scientist (DS) to support analytical, machine vision, and machine learning activities for a Digitization Center (DC) focused on the restoration of economic data.
The center is a collaboration of the CFI and the Bank’s Research Department.
This newly established initiative will facilitate the exploration of a variety of current and historical topics in regional economics and consumer finance. The DS contributes to this mission by supporting frontier research projects in the use of state-of-the-art technology and machine learning to convert natively unstructured data (information stored in books, images, and other undigitized formats) into ready-to-use digital data.
This job description below reflects the higher level of a dual grade job posting. Candidates who possess a slightly lower level of experience, education, or qualifications may also be considered.
You will report to the CFI Senior Manager, Data Science and Engineering.
What You Will Do:
The DS will assist with the digitization of historical data sets (Census reports, special Census tabulations, deed books, realty directories and sales transactions logs, maps, etc.) as well as more recent data stored in non-open or unstructured formats (pdfs, print-only reports, earnings calls, interviews, etc.). Most projects will involve tabular or geospatial data, but some will require text to be structured to facilitate ML, search, and econometrics.
The DS will use modern cloud computing resources, including EMR/Spark, various commercial ML-as-a-service providers – OpenSearch, Google Vision, and Amazon Textract – and support senior staff in the use and acquisition of new techniques and services. The DS will also use ML packages such as scikit-learn, scikit-image, OpenCV and TensorFlow to help build custom models and techniques. The DS will perform cleaning and human validation of output datasets.
This position affords many opportunities to develop knowledge of economics, markets, public policy, and empirical techniques. The DS will have the opportunity to learn necessary skills on the job via collaboration with researchers, the senior manager of data science and engineering, and the Digitization Center senior data scientist.
With sufficient experience and demonstrated skills, and with management approval, the DS may pursue opportunities for co-authorship with a variety of Bank researchers.
What You Have:
Candidates should have 2 or more years of technical work experience in fields such as data science, data engineering, or computer engineering. Alternatively, candidates should have a master’s degree in computer science or a technical field such as engineering, math, physics, or economics. Less experienced candidates will be considered as well for lower grade position.
Successful applicants will have applicable experience in some of the areas below and familiarity with a subset of the remaining areas. We do not expect proficiency or experience in all of these areas.
Applied knowledge of Python or R including experience with standard data analysis, visualization, machine learning and image processing/vision packages.
Computer vision and/or OCR experience in an industry or advanced academic context considered particularly valuable.
Distributed computing (Spark/EMR)
Geospatial analysis interactively in ArcGIS/QGIS and programmatically in Python/R/GDAL
Training and tuning ML models as well as working internally and with outside providers to generate labels
OpenSearch/Elasticsearch
Econometrics
Familiarity working in a Linux environment
SQL
Git
To Apply:
Please upload a cover letter to explain your interest in the position and include your resume/vita. Also, include an official transcript and at least two references. A writing sample is preferred but not required.
About the Consumer Finance Institute:
Launched in 2017, the Consumer Finance Institute builds on decades of research experience at the Philadelphia Federal Reserve Bank. The mission of this Bank-wide initiative is to produce leading-edge research on how credit markets and payment systems affect the economy. The CFI creates opportunities for scholars, the financial industry, and the public sector to collaborate and share insights on fostering healthy household finances, a stable financial system, and a resilient economy.
The primary staff of the CFI consists of 18 individuals, including seven Research Fellows. This group produces applied research on consumer finance topics, topical workshops led by regulators, academics, or industry experts, and larger conferences addressing particular questions or developments in the markets for consumer credit and payments. The staff also supports collaboration among researchers and analysts across the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia.
Additional information about the CFI is found at https://www.philadelphiafed.org/consumer-finance/about-the-consumer-finance-institute
The salary grade (https://www.philadelphiafed.org/-/media/frbp/assets/institutional/careers/frbp-salary-structure.pdf) for this position is 14/13.
We offer a great benefits package that features:
Medical (4 options), Prescription, Dental (3 options), and Vision Insurance with no waiting period
401k/Thrift Plan with generous employer match
Employer-funded Pension Plan
Paid Vacation/Sick Time & Holidays
Monthly $100 Commuter Allowance
Flexible Spending Accounts and Healthcare Spending Accounts
Flexible Work Schedule available in most departments
Life Insurance and Long Term Disability Insurance
Tuition Reimbursement (undergraduate and graduate)
Parental Leave
Free onsite 24/7 Fitness Center including training classes, Peloton bikes and locker room / shower facilities
Onsite Cafeteria & Coffee Shop
Additional Convenience Benefits, Discounts and More…
Additional Information:
The Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia believes that diversity, equity and inclusion among our employees is essential to our success as an organization, and we want to recruit, develop and retain the most accomplished people from a diverse candidate pool. To support a workplace culture of belonging, we offer eight employee resource groups (ERGs) and a 100 percent rating on the Human Rights Campaign (HRC) Corporate Equality Index. The Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia is proud to be an equal opportunity workplace.
We have eight employee resource groups (ERGs) to support a diverse workforce. Abilities (supporting disabilities and allies), African Heritage, Asian-Pacific, Freedom (supporting LQBTQ+ and allies), Talent Forward (supporting career growth), Women United, Working Families and Veterans. ERGs are open to all employees.
We will ensure that individuals with disabilities are provided reasonable accommodations to participate in the job application or interview process, to perform essential job responsibilities, and to receive other benefits and privileges of employment.
All Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia employees must comply with the Bank's ethics rules, which generally prohibit employees, their spouses/domestic partners, and minor children from owning securities, such as stock, of banks or savings associations or their affiliates, such as bank holding companies and savings and loan holding companies. If you or your spouse/domestic partner or minor child own such securities and would not be willing or able to divest them if you accepted an offer of Bank employment, you should raise this issue with the Recruiter for this posting, who can provide you contact information for our ethics officer if necessary. You should review the Bank's Employee Code of Conduct (https://www.philadelphiafed.org/-/media/frbp/assets/institutional/careers/Full-Code-of-Conduct-with-Appendices-A-and-B.pdf) to ensure compliance with conflict of interest rules and personal investment restrictions.
Background investigations and drug testing are required for all new hires as a condition of employment, after the job offer is made. Candidates for positions deemed as "safety sensitive" will also be screened for the presence of marijuana. Employment may not begin until the Bank accepts the results of the background investigation.
All employees will be subject to FBI fingerprint / criminal background and Patriot Act/ Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) watch list checks at least once every five years.
This position requires access to confidential supervisory information and/or FOMC information, which is limited to “Protected Individuals” as defined in the U.S. federal immigration law. Protected Individuals include, but are not limited to, U.S. citizens, U.S. nationals, and U.S. permanent residents who either are not yet eligible to apply for naturalization or who have applied for naturalization within the requisite timeframe. Candidates who are permanent residents must sign a declaration of intent to become a U.S. citizen when eligible to do so and pursue a path to citizenship. Candidates who are not U.S. citizens or U.S. permanent residents may be eligible for the information access required for this position if they sign a declaration of intent to become a permanent resident and a U.S. citizen and meet other eligibility requirements. In addition, all candidates must undergo an applicable background check and comply with all applicable information handling rules. Certain eligibility rules apply. You will provide work authorization to prove your eligibility to work in the United States.
The above statements are intended to describe the general nature, level of work and the requirements of this position. They are not intended to be an exhaustive list of all responsibilities associated with this position or the personnel so classified. While this job description is intended to be an accurate reflection of this position, management reserves the right to revise this or any job description at its discretion at any time.
This is not a 100% remote opportunity. You will be available to work on-site in at least a hybrid capacity.
Learn more about (https://www.philadelphiafed.org/about-us) the Philly Fed and its culture. Learn more about working (https://www.philadelphiafed.org/careers) for the Philly Fed.
#LI-Hybrid
Full Time / Part Time
Full time
Regular / Temporary
Regular
Job Exempt (Yes / No)
Yes
Job Category
Economics/Research
Work Shift
First (United States of America)
The Federal Reserve Banks believe that diversity and inclusion among our employees is critical to our success as an organization, and we seek to recruit, develop and retain the most talented people from a diverse candidate pool. The Federal Reserve Banks are committed to equal employment opportunity for employees and job applicants in compliance with applicable law and to an environment where employees are valued for their differences.
Privacy Notice (https://www.kansascityfed.org/documents/7797/Workday_Privacy_Notice.pdf)
OUR BANK has one of the most recognizable brands around the world. The Federal Reserve is the central bank of the United States—one of the world's most influential, trusted and prestigious financial organizations. The Federal Reserve is charged with the important mission of promoting a strong economy and a stable financial system and fulfills this responsibility by formulating national monetary policy, supervising and regulating banks and bank holding companies, and providing financial services for banks and the U.S. government.
OUR PEOPLE are diverse in background and ideas, which allows for ongoing creativity and innovation. Ultimately, they are the ones who push our high-performance, exchange-driven culture forward.
Why Our People Choose Us:
Our reputation precedes us
There will always be room for personal growth
Our people are first
You’ll find the right balance
Your responsibilities will be meaningful
We hope that you will be our future colleague.
