Data Science Intern
About MSF USA
Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) is an independent international organization that provides medical care to those in need worldwide. MSF operates in over 70 countries, offering medical humanitarian assistance without regard to race, ethnicity, religion, or politics. Our teams include medical, logistical, and administrative staff, many of whom are local hires working within their communities. Our actions are guided by medical ethics and the principles of independence, impartiality, and neutrality. We also bear witness to the experiences of our colleagues and patients.
Role Overview
As a Data Science Intern with MSF-USA’s Workforce Intelligence & Strategy Unit, you will transform complex workforce data into clear, actionable insights that support evidence-based decision-making across the organization. You will work closely with analysts and data scientists to strengthen our reporting and visualization capabilities in Power BI, helping us better understand and plan for our workforce needs.
Department Accountabilities
Organizational Culture & Create a Safe Space: Set and drive transparent goals, targets, and ADEI&B initiatives that yield the most significant, scalable, quantifiable, and sustained impact for a more human-centered, engaged, and productive workplace. Building a culture that fosters trust, collaboration, high performance, respect, and belonging among diverse teams and peoples.
Performance Management & Talent Development: Develop and implement policies and processes that provide an integrated, structured approach to individual development planning, performance goal setting, performance feedback, and formal appraisal to meet business needs and to support individuals in realizing their potential. The review is done one time per year after which decisions are taken on whether the employee's pay should be changed or increased.
Employee Engagement: Create a workplace culture that is engaging and motivating for employees. This involves creating opportunities for employees to connect with each other, providing professional development opportunities, and creating a positive work environment.
Compliance and HR Operations: Execute and manage P&C operations using predetermined protocols and procedures to achieve specified operational performance standards.
Compensation & Benefits: Review designed and administered compensation and benefits packages for staff. This includes setting salaries, providing health insurance and other benefits, and managing payroll.
Talent Acquisitions: Fill permanent or temporary positions within an organization by attracting, shortlisting, selecting, hiring, appointing, and integrating the best-qualified candidates in a timely and cost-effective manner.
Payroll Administration: Carry out the payroll administration processes required to ensure that employees are paid correctly at the right time.
Roles Specific Outcomes
Designed and delivered at least one interactive Power BI dashboard that visualizes key workforce metrics and trends.
Improved data reliability and consistency by identifying and resolving data quality issues across multiple sources (e.g., HRIS, recruitment, and survey data).
Developed and documented data models and DAX measures to support automated reporting and self-service analytics.
Produced clear visual and written summaries that connect data findings to actionable recommendations for People & Culture leadership.
Streamlined or documented data transformation and refresh processes for recurring Power BI reports.
Gained hands-on experience with data governance, visualization design, and applied workforce analytics in a complex, mission-driven environment.
Complexity and Problem-Solving Skills
The intern will work with complex, multi-source workforce datasets that require a strong analytical mindset and attention to detail. The role involves identifying and resolving data quality issues, designing data models that balance accuracy with usability, and translating technical findings into clear, actionable insights. The intern must be able to troubleshoot data and visualization challenges independently, think critically about underlying data structures and business questions, and propose creative solutions to improve reporting efficiency and impact.
Behavioral Competencies
Thought: How MSF USA staff understand the organization, manage complexity, and contribute by creating the new and different.
People Focus: Builds strong relationships and delivers solutions geared to aiding others. Solicits feedback and data; conveys a clear understanding of the level of service the team is providing; takes action when standards are not met by team; aligns processes with organizational needs.
Global Perspective: Takes a broad view when approaching issues, using a global lens. Shows global thinking at work; adjusts organizational practices to meet the unique needs of different regions or countries.
Cultivates Innovation: Creates new and better ways for the organization to be successful. Approaches professional work in unique or innovative ways. Offers original ideas. Appreciates others' creative ideas and solutions and provides helpful input to enhance them.
Strategic Mindset: Sees ahead to future possibilities and translates them into breakthrough strategies. Drives Results: Consistently achieves results, even under tough circumstances. Regularly pushes self to achieve outstanding outcomes; consistently establishes bold goals for own performance; is passionate about excellent results and significant contributions. Shows great tenacity to complete goals/initiatives in a timely way.
Desired Qualifications & Experience
Genuine commitment to the principles and work of Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF).
Currently pursuing or recently completed a Master’s degree in Data Science, Statistics, Analytics, or a related quantitative field.
Demonstrated experience building and managing Power BI dashboards (data modeling, Power Query, DAX).
Strong analytical and statistical foundation (e.g., regression, hypothesis testing, distributions).
A passion for data visualization design and communicating insights effectively.
Hands-on experience with Python and/or R for data wrangling and analysis.
Excellent attention to detail and data integrity.
Ability to work with complex, distributed, and sometimes unstructured data.
Curiosity, enthusiasm for learning, and a passion for turning data into meaningful insights.
Interest in HR analytics, workforce planning, or people analytics is a plus.