SPEND - Senior Data Analyst
Strategic Public Education National Data (SPEND) Initiative
Modernizing America’s Education Finance Data Infrastructure
Role Title: Senior Data Analyst
Location: Remote (U.S.-based) with frequent national travel
About the SPEND Initiative
Accurate and comparable education finance data is the essential foundation for effective governance and robust research. The Strategic Public Education National Data (SPEND) Initiative is a new, non-partisan collaborative project fiscally sponsored by Education Resource Strategies (ERS). Our mission is to build and sustain a public-interest data infrastructure that guarantees the accuracy, comparability, and timeliness of education finance data. We aim to provide a stable, objective data foundation—a modern "ground truth" that serves the needs of state leaders and the broader education field.
SPEND is a newly launched initiative with secured three-year general operating funding. This stable financial foundation allows our leadership team to focus on the long-term technical modernization of the nation’s education finance data infrastructure.
Why Work at SPEND?
- Preserve and Upgrade National Data Infrastructure: Your work directly contributes to sustaining the longitudinal school finance datasets that underpin billions of dollars in funding and decades of research on resource allocation and system effectiveness.
- Execute Technical Modernization: Transition the national data infrastructure from fragmented legacy reporting to automated, high-quality systems, establishing an objective foundation for fiscal data collection and transparency.
- Join a Mission-Focused Team with Institutional Stability: Contribute as a foundational member of a new initiative supported by a multi-year general operating grant and the established operational infrastructure of ERS.
Role Overview
SPEND is seeking a Senior Data Analyst to support the development, validation, and analysis of the next generation of education finance data. The Senior Data Analyst will serve as a cross-cutting team member contributing to SPEND’s 1.) continuity and enrichment efforts and 2.) cutting-edge AI pilot model development through the development and execution of quantitative analyses. The ideal candidate will have previous experience in both data analytics and education finance to ensure organization strategy and methods properly account for the current data landscape, the perspectives of data providers, and the needs of data users.
Key Responsibilities
“Eastbound” Track (Enhancing the Present)
Focus: Dataset Curation, Organization, Standardization and Process Validation
Summary: Lead on QA/verification, support on statistical alignment & process work
- In collaboration with senior technical staff, build internal data systems and ingestion processes through ETL/ELT pipelines.
- Create a validation system to compare newly processed data against historical benchmarks to ensure longitudinal consistency.
- Support Senior Associate Data Scientist to create and implement processes to transform current federal data into a nationally comparable, complete, and actionable dataset.
- Build and maintain quality assurance processes that identify anomalies and outliers in district- and state-level financial data.
- Deepen current data by accurately and completely incorporating long-term obligations such as pension and facilities expenditures.
- Implement processes to correctly incorporate contributions from sub-contractor subject matter experts .
Focus: Data System Management, Improvement, and Alignment
Summary: Support Senior Associate Data Scientist and ML Engineer in model creation through data system support.
- Support creation and maintenance of training data for machine learning models that map local accounting codes to standardized national categories.
- Manage the manual validation of the AI/algorithm outputs, checking automated results against real-world district spending data.
- Evaluate model outputs and conduct error analysis in collaboration with the technical team.
- Performs deep-dive analysis on finalized datasets to identify and resolve anomalies before public release.
- Document analytical methods, assumptions, and validation results clearly and reproducibly.
- Contribute to development, maintenance, and improvement of cloud infrastructure to support short-term and long-term objectives.
- Develop internal and public-facing methodological documentation to build trust in, and encourage use of SPEND data products across audience groups.
- Regularly collaborate with team members (scientists, engineers, etc.) and external stakeholders (policy experts, state and district leaders, etc.) to advance the organizational mission.
Why This Role Matters
The data SPEND produces underpins billions of dollars in education funding and decades of research on equity and effectiveness. As a Senior Data Analyst at SPEND, your work will directly contribute to preserving and improving a critical piece of the nation’s education data infrastructure
Qualifications
Meeting every preferred qualification is not required to advance in our search. Alignment with our mission, objective values, and technical impact is critical.
Required
- Bachelor’s in Data Science, Computer Science, Public Policy, or a related field.
- Working knowledge of Python, SQL, or R and familiarity with modern cloud data infrastructure.
- Demonstrated experience working as part of a high-performing technical team.
- Experience translating analytical models and findings into clear policy insights.
- Experience working with messy and inconsistently structured datasets.
- Availability: Must be available for core working hours of 10 AM – 5 PM ET to support national team collaboration.
- Travel: Ability to travel 4–6 times per year for in-person team collaboration, with approximately 2–3 additional trips per year for external partner engagement.
- Physical & Environmental: Ability to operate a computer and other office productivity machinery for extended periods; ability to remain in a stationary position for a significant portion of workday; ability to communicate via video conference.
- Remote Work: Access to a quiet, professional remote work environment with a reliable, high-speed internet connection.
- Work Authorization: Must be authorized to work for an employer in the United States. We are unable to sponsor or take over sponsorship of an employment visa at this time.
- Advanced degree (Master's or PhD).
- Experience with public sector data systems or education finance reporting structures.
Compensation and Transparency
The salary range for this role is $90,000 to $110,000 annually. Salaries will be adjusted for geography based on the candidate's primary work location.
ERS equivalent job tier for benefits purposes: Level II.
About Our Fiscal Sponsor: Education Resource Strategies (ERS)
ERS is a national non-profit consulting firm that partners with school system leaders to transform how they use resources so that every student can learn and thrive.
ERS is an equal opportunity employer and does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, national origin, age, disability, genetic information, ancestry, pregnancy, or military service.