Senior Data Scientist, Code Modules for NZ Data

Statistics New Zealand; Wellington; On-site; NZD 97,000 - 132,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

37.5 hours work week

Sick leave 15 days

End-of-year days off

Annual flu vaccines

Employee Assistance Programme

Health & wellbeing benefits

Study assistance

Social club in each office

Job summary

Statistics New Zealand in Wellington is seeking a Senior Data Scientist to lead the Code Modules Initiative, building reusable data products for integrated research and official statistics. You will drive 15–30 new modules per year while maintaining ~70 modules already in use.

You will work with the Principal Data Scientist and Technical Lead, emphasize QA and documentation, and help transition workflows to future platforms like Databricks.

Qualifications

• A tertiary qualification in Data Science, Statistics, Mathematics, Econometrics, Computer Science, Operations Research, or a related field.
• Five or more years' experience in quantitative or qualitative research, analytics, data science, or statistical analysis.
• Strong database analytics and statistical programming skills, particularly SQL and R.
• Experience developing robust, reusable analytical code and documentation.
• Strong attention to quality, testing, documentation, and continuous improvement.
• Ability to apply best practice and contribute ideas for improving existing methods, tools, and processes.
• Experience collaborating with technical stakeholders to solve complex problems.
• An understanding of Te Tiriti o Waitangi and a commitment to te ao Māori, tikanga Māori, te reo Māori.
• Knowledge of integrated data environments such as the IDI, or large administrative datasets is advantageous.
• Experience with Databricks or cloud-based analytics platforms would be beneficial.

Responsibilities

• Develop and maintain reusable data products that support integrated data research and statistical production.
• Deliver 15 to 30 new or upgraded code modules each year across the module lifecycle.
• Maintain and improve a library of approximately 70 modules to stay fit-for-purpose.
• Identify opportunities to streamline development, strengthen QA practices, and improve documentation.
• Collaborate with technical stakeholders to solve complex problems and transitions to future platforms such as Databricks.

Skills

SQL

R

Data science

Documentation

Quality assurance

Collaboration

Problem solving

Te Tiriti knowledge

Databricks

Education

Tertiary qualification in Data Science, Statistics, Mathematics, Econometrics, Computer Science, OR related field

Tools

Databricks

Job description

Statistics New Zealand in Wellington is seeking a Senior Data Scientist to lead the Code Modules Initiative, building reusable data products for integrated research and official statistics. You will drive 15–30 new modules per year while maintaining ~70 modules already in use.

You will work with the Principal Data Scientist and Technical Lead, emphasize QA and documentation, and help transition workflows to future platforms like Databricks.