About Us

Protagonist is a women-owned, women-led small business and pioneer in narrative research, analysis, and strategy. We help our clients harness the power of narratives by illuminating the stories that matter to their mission, analyzing the influences and influencers that are driving those narratives, and developing strategies for navigating and shaping those narrative landscapes. Over the past decade, we have developed a line of state-of-the-art narrative products that focus on the deep, enduring stories that define a population’s identity, shape their perspectives, and describe their beliefs. Our Narrative Analytics® technology platform is relied on by dozens of the world’s leading corporations, government agencies, and foundations to identify, quantify, and track narratives in online conversations. We have team members in Washington, DC, San Francisco, Chicago, and many points in between.

About You

The Associate Data Scientist/Data Science Analyst has a passion for unleashing the power of data to drive strategic decisions. You will support the continued development of our Narrative Analytics® offering, finding and isolating the online media conversations that matter and curating powerful datasets that will drive success for our customers. You are deeply data-savvy, have outstanding statistics and analytic skills, are highly familiar with the latest machine learning & NLP techniques and tools, and are creative and enthusiastic about using technology, data, and the power of narratives to solve complex problems. You have a strong backing in data science concepts and text analytics. You are comfortable with ambiguity and hard problems and you thrive in fast-paced start-up environments, solving cutting-edge data challenges.

Primary Responsibilities

The Associate Data Scientist/Data Science Analyst takes an active role in all of our customer-facing projects, helping to solve data and analytic problems. The Associate Data Scientist/Data Science Analyst will be expected to collaborate across teams on both client deliverables and internal process priorities. Title distinction between Associate Data Scientist/Data Science Analyst will be determined by experience and academic credentials. You must be able to work on US Government contracts restricted to US citizens. Specific responsibilities include:

Work with a range of media content aggregators and deploy a variety of scrapers, scripts, and other data mining tools to develop narrative-rich data sets to address customer needs
Employ state-of-the-art NLP machine learning methods to analyze large unstructured text-based datasets, extract topics, and build classification models
Use querying languages to clean and manipulate datasets
Conduct statistical modeling and predictive analysis to identify trends and insights
Collaborate with the case teams to visualize data insights in interactive dashboards that answer key client questions
Support our analytics approach to data and collaborate closely with Client Solutions teammates to deliver Narrative Analytics to our customers

Requirements

Must be able to work on US Government contracts restricted to US citizens
Degree in Data Science, Computer Science, Statistics, or Mathematics
BS Degree with 1+ years of relevant experience with a proven track record of leveraging analytics and large amount of data to drive significant business impact, OR:
Master’s Degree with strong, practical data analytics project experience or relevant internships
Proficiency with R and other statistical programming languages
Strong academic grounding in a range of data science concepts, particularly machine learning and natural language processing
Experience in programming languages like Python or SQL
Strong experience with Excel in particular advanced formula creation, data cleaning, and pivot tables
Hands-on experience in statistical analysis, machine learning, factor/cluster/regression analysis, and/or classification algorithms
Hands-on experience with predictive modeling techniques such as multivariate regression, logistic regression, time series, neural network, support vector machine, and random forest
Hands-on experience with data visualization platforms (such as Tableau, Looker, QuickSight, or Power BI)
Understanding of how to apply data analysis to communications, marketing, and business strategy problems
Excellent interpersonal and presentation skills; able to communicate complex data problems with clarity
Able to work independently as well as part of a cross-functional team
Ability to meet tight deadlines, under pressure, with outstanding attention to detail
Love working in a fast-paced, startup environment full of complexity, ambiguity and change

Additional Information

Protagonist is a values-driven company that is committed to doing meaningful work for organizations we respect. We are deeply committed to centering racial and gender justice in the work we produce, in our engagement with clients, and in our internal operations. We believe in the promise of democratic governance and the responsibility of civic participation, and are building a culture that supports these commitments.