Deputy Director, Data Analytics

About the role

The NYC Department of Finance (DOF) administers the city’s tax revenue laws fairly, efficiently, and transparently to instill public confidence and encourage compliance while providing exceptional customer service. The Treasury and Payment Services Division oversees all City payment websites, payment processing of tax returns, property recording forms, parking violation programs, and the collection of delinquent accounts. It also manages the City’s cash balances and banking relationships, and collects outstanding violations issued by City agencies and adjudicated by the Environmental Control Board.

The Payments, Billing, and Refunds unit processes payments for property taxes, business and excise taxes, and parking and camera violations. It communicates amounts due, maintains departmental records, and provides customer service regarding payments and refunds. The Payment Technology unit seeks a CityPay Deputy Director of Data Analytics to use data to inform decision-making, drive strategies for efficient revenue collection, cost reduction, fraud mitigation, and predict customer payment trends and behaviors. This role offers the opportunity to work with data analysts and staff across multiple City agencies and vendors.

Responsibilities

• Supervise and mentor interns and junior data analysts in fraud analytics and related technologies.
• Collaborate with business owners and product managers to analyze product usage patterns and performance.
• Write database queries and code to analyze payment service usage volumes, user behaviors, and performance data to identify opportunities for improvement.
• Create and maintain dashboards and proprietary data products for end users, including executive staff.
• Import data from external sources using Python scripting and export it into usable formats for stakeholders with varying levels of experience.
• Develop visual products such as charts, heat maps, and infographics to illustrate data trends for diverse stakeholders.
• Manage and maintain a consolidated database of payments and transactional information from vendors, business units, and legacy systems.
• Research, compile, investigate, and analyze large quantities of data to identify policy and operational implications.
• Communicate findings clearly to stakeholders, including management and executives.
• Develop key performance indicators and metrics for payment service delivery and products.
• Support and automate data processes and reports, and recommend improvements to data collection, processing, flow, and distribution.
• Document procedures around data collection, processing, and database management.
• Administer a SQL Server Data Warehouse, gathering data from diverse platforms such as Vendor Portals, FTP Servers, Oracle Production DB, and API calls.
• Develop and maintain scalable ETL pipelines on a RHEL (Red Hat Enterprise Linux) server using Python and shell scripts, with workflow scheduling managed through cron jobs.
• Create and manage a Power BI workspace, design reports/dashboards for the DOF Commissioner, senior management, TPS units, other DOF units, and external agencies like OMB.
• Collaborate with law enforcement agencies (local, state, federal) to conduct ad hoc analyses and identify fraudsters on the CityPay Site.
• Monitor and report on the performance of Fraud Detection technologies (e.g., Ravelin, Fraud Detect, Account Validation, Blocked Plates) on CityPay online and mobile platforms.
• Perform Quality Assurance (QA) processes for database testing, identifying data issues and anomalies.
• Communicate data scenarios effectively to both business and technical teams to ensure data accuracy and integrity.
• Develop predictive models using machine learning (ML) and artificial intelligence (AI) tools to identify consumer payment and fraud patterns.

Requirements

Minimum qualifications vary by level:

• Level I:
  • A master’s degree in social science, economics, statistics, computer science, data analysis, geography, sciences, technology, engineering, mathematics (STEM), or a closely related field, with at least 12 credits or five courses in economics, public policy, econometrics, statistics, mathematics, engineering, geography, or computer science.
  • OR a baccalaureate degree in the above fields with two years of full-time professional experience performing statistical analysis and programming.
• Level II:
  • Meets Level I requirements, plus one year of full-time work experience in a related field or a master’s degree with at least 12 credits or three advanced courses in the specified areas.
• Level III:
  • Meets Level II requirements, plus three years of full-time work experience in a related field or a Doctorate degree with at least 12 credits or three advanced courses in the specified areas.

Preferred Skills

• 3+ years of experience as a data analyst or business data analyst; experience with financial data preferred.
• Strong research and analytic skills with the ability to collect, organize, interpret, and disseminate significant amounts of information accurately.
• Expertise in data models and database design development.
• Experience pooling data from disparate sources/legacy systems and creating data dashboards, reports, and data warehouses.
• Excellent communication and data presentation skills, including presenting findings to management and executive levels (a writing sample may be requested).
• Experience working across business units with differing timelines and goals.
• Experience with reporting packages, databases (MSSQL, Oracle, etc.), and programming with ETL software (a brief test may be administered).
• Advanced experience with Power BI and iteratively building and maintaining business intelligence dashboards incorporating user feedback.
• Knowledge of and experience with Python programming (a brief test may be administered).
• Experience with Linux/Unix environments and shell scripting.
• Experience with modern data platforms such as Databricks, Snowflake, or Fabric.
• Familiarity with Git Ops practices and CI/CD workflows using GitHub Actions.
• Understanding of Machine Learning (ML) concepts and operations (ML Ops).

Benefits

• Eligibility for remote work up to 2 days per week under the Remote Work Pilot Program.
• Potential eligibility for federal loan forgiveness programs and state repayment assistance programs (e.g., Public Service Loan Forgiveness).

Pay

$104,676.00 – $112,883.00

Additional Information

• All persons hired must verify identity and eligibility to work in the United States.
• New York City residency is generally required within 90 days of appointment. Employees in certain titles with 2 continuous years of City service may reside in Nassau, Suffolk, Putnam, Westchester, Rockland, or Orange County.