Senior Data Scientist

Working for Equity Residential (EQR), a leading multi-family real estate investment trust (REIT), means being part of a community and striving to provide the best in apartment living, speaking boldly about new ideas for innovation, and inspiring creativity in the ways we work together. Our portfolio of high-quality properties in urban growth markets – New York City, Boston, Washington DC, Seattle, San Francisco, Denver and Los Angeles – provides homes where people most want to live, work and play. We've got the best people in the business, and our experience shows in our dedication to our residents and in how much we value each other as colleagues. That’s why our employees say they are proud to work at Equity, a company that gives our residents a place where they can “Live Remarkably,” and offers a culture where our employees have the opportunity to make their mark.

As a Senior Data Scientist, you'll join a growing team of data scientists and engineers, reporting into EQR’s Operations organization but working across multiple teams throughout the company. You will be responsible for providing advanced analytic insight and thought leadership to support the needs of EQR’s senior executives and their teams. You will support the ongoing development and maintenance of a data warehouse of relevant internal and external data — from customer and transaction data to macroeconomic factors. You’ll regularly perform both quantitative analysis and primary research, while also synthesizing secondary research on topics of interest, including (but not limited to): economic, demographic, property operations, and technology trends. Additionally, you will take part in providing indirect leadership and ongoing coaching and development to more junior members of the Data Analytics team. Each day will be unique, requiring an ability to think strategically and on your feet, be creative, take initiative, and employ a diverse set of skills.

• Knowledgeable, Analytical, and Solution-Oriented. Without a doubt, you’ve got strong quantitative skills and are comfortable analyzing large data set, spotting trends and patterns, and synthesizing relevant observations. You use a hypothesis-driven approach to engage in analysis that will deliver on your client questions. You like thinking outside the box to come up with innovative points of view on new challenges, relying on your previous analytic work and experience to help guide you along the way.  
• Results-Oriented. You demonstrate an inherent sense of urgency to drive great results, while being precise in executing your work. You are facile with creating and communicating a clear project plan, tracking progress, and keeping your business partners in the loop along the way.
• Intellectually Curious.  You're inherently interested in the "why" so that you can identify opportunities that represent unconventional solutions to the problems you are trying to solve.
• Strong Communicator. Your writing and speaking skills are concise, articulate, and effective, providing an ability to interact with all levels/various teams across the organization, be understood, and develop trust and rapport within the organization.
• Technologically Savvy.  Microsoft Excel is a basic tool to you that you know like the back of your hand.  You also have a strong skill set in R, Python, ArcGIS, machine learning, neural networks and/or other advanced analytics tools and techniques.
• A Trusted Team Player. You enjoy partnering with others and build constructive working relationships that foster the collaboration necessary to deliver great results. You are accountable to your teammates and follow through on commitments.
• Organized and Confident. You are flexible, composed, and able to prioritize multiple tasks and deadlines simultaneously, while confidently interacting with a variety of individuals, across all levels of the organization. You handle pressure well and do so with confidence.

• Undertake data-centric projects and experiments across the company by leveraging one of the most comprehensive databases of apartment operations on the planet, combined with strategically sourced data from third parties.
• Proactively understand and respond to the specific analytic needs and requests of Equity stakeholders, including but not limited to: investments, finance, operations, property management, IT, legal and HR.  
• Utilize a hypothesis-driven approach, as well as both quantitative and qualitative primary research methods, to engage in analysis and develop soundly reasoned conclusions that identify or explain demographic, social and other trends, underlying needs, and preferences of existing and potential residents, and any other forces impacting the business.  
• Critically evaluate research questions by formulating hypotheses and work plans (data sources, timing, resources, collaborators, output etc.)
• Prepare narratives, briefs, and more formal reports that concisely communicate relevant findings and conclusions in a timely manner, while providing transparency into the methods used. Perform critical self-reviews of work with exceptional attention to detail (content, logic and presentation/communication quality) before delivering completed research. 
• Establish and maintain regular, responsive, and timely communications with internal business partners to meet the internal long-range research/consulting objectives and respond to all internal data analytics needs and requests.
• Support data-centric projects and experiments across the company, as assigned.
• Prepare presentations, narratives, and briefs that communicate relevant ?ndings and conclusions concisely, with limited jargon, and in a timely manner.
• Assist with the design testing, and execution of strategic pilots to measure and verify the validity of the analysis and subsequent recommendations.
• Develop and maintain relationships with appropriate third party market research providers and constantly evaluate quality to recommend changes where appropriate.
• Help to build, document, and maintain best practices, including but not limited to codebase management, work and issue tracking, testing and quality control/assurance measures, data dictionaries, and a documentation hub for both production level code and ad hoc analyses.
• Recommend relevant changes to data collection process to enhance Equity’s data asset. As assigned, participates in planning and design of non-analytics strategic initiatives to ensure useful information capture is included in execution plans.
• Informally lead/coach more junior members of the Data Analytics team.

PREVIOUS EXPERIENCE & REQUIREMENTS

• Advanced degree required: Masters degree with 2-3 years experience or PhD 1+ years of experience. The degree should be in Computer Science, Applied Mathematics, Statistics, Machine Learning, or a related data centric field or equivalent experience is required.
• Deep technical and data science expertise, including experience in the following:
• Analytical methods: Statistical modeling, supervised and unsupervised machine learning, natural language processing, deep learning, optimization techniques, etc.
• Analytics tools: Experience with SQL, Python and/or R, data processing (Spark, Hadoop/Hive, etc.), machine learning libraries (scikit-learn, caret, etc.), GIS tools, data visualization (Tableau, PowerBI, various web app frameworks) 
• Experience building in-production models, including associated scripting, error handling and documentation.
• Industry experience in real estate, retail, transportation is a plus, as well as geospatial analytics and/or consulting. Solid understanding of economic, financial, and general business concepts and terminology is required.
• Strong people skills with both a client and team-orientation.
• Demonstrated strong communication skills, both written and verbal, as well as listening.  Must have experience probing for needs, providing an intellectual counterparty (e.g. devil’s advocate, challenge status quo, etc.) in a constructive manner, and communicating technical content in a concise and easy to understand way. Must also be articulate and have experience in presenting information and findings.
• Excellent problem-solving and quantitative skills, including the ability to disaggregate issues, identify root causes, and recommend plausible solutions.
• Ability to utilize, create, and analyze GIS and other location-based data and analysis, a plus.
• Tolerance for ambiguity required.
• Must be available for overnight travel (approximately 10%) to any of Equity’s major core markets, as required.
• Authorization to work in the US (without need for Visa sponsorship from employer) is required.

We recognize that everyone has different needs outside of work. That’s why, in addition to a competitive benefits package (medical, dental, vision and paid time off), we offer many unique benefits options to employees, like pet insurance and paid time off for community service projects. To learn more, view our Total Wellbeing page here.