Data Scientist – Fundraising Analytics & Reporting

Northwestern University; Chicago (IL); Hybrid; USD 90,000 - 93,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Health benefits

Paid time off

Tuition assistance

Job summary

Northwestern University in Chicago is seeking a Data Scientist within Alumni Relations & Development. The role emphasizes advanced analytics, predictive modeling, and data engineering to drive fundraising and engagement strategies across the advancement ecosystem.

As a hands-on, mid-level data scientist, you will develop scalable models, operationalize them, and translate complex outputs into clear insights for non-technical stakeholders.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in data science, statistics, computer science, or related field.
• 3-5 years experience in data science, analytics, or quantitative roles.
• Strong SQL (Oracle preferred) and Python skills for modeling and data manipulation.
• Experience building, deploying, and maintaining predictive models in production.
• Experience with reporting and data visualization tools (Tableau, Cognos).
• Ability to translate complex analysis into actionable business insights.
• Experience in fundraising, nonprofit, or higher education analytics.

Responsibilities

• Develop and deploy predictive models to support fundraising, campaigns, and operations.
• Partner with senior leadership to identify opportunities where data science adds impact.
• Design and implement data pipelines and feature engineering for models.
• Translate model outputs into clear insights for non-technical stakeholders.
• Collaborate with reporting and IT teams to integrate outputs into CRM and dashboards.
• Ensure data quality, integrity, and governance across analytics work.
• Monitor model performance and refine approaches with new data.
• Help build scalable analytics ecosystem within the organization.

Skills

SQL

Python

Tableau

Cognos

Stakeholder communication

Education

Bachelor's degree in Data Science/Statistics/CS

Tools

Salesforce

Azure ML

CRM Analytics

Tableau

Cognos

Job description

Northwestern University in Chicago is seeking a Data Scientist within Alumni Relations & Development. The role emphasizes advanced analytics, predictive modeling, and data engineering to drive fundraising and engagement strategies across the advancement ecosystem.

As a hands-on, mid-level data scientist, you will develop scalable models, operationalize them, and translate complex outputs into clear insights for non-technical stakeholders.