Senior Data Analyst

Harnham; United States; On-site; USD 102,000 - 138,000; Full time

Job summary

Harnham is seeking a Senior Data Analyst – Strategic Analytics in Wisconsin to join a mission-driven organization. You will partner with program teams to discover questions, locate data, and produce evidence-based recommendations using Python, R, and SQL.

You’ll transform ambiguous problems into structured analyses, validate methods, and present actionable insights to leaders with clear, nontechnical communication.

Qualifications

• 3–5 years of applied analytical experience in a data-focused role.
• Strong quantitative foundation from STEM/economics or related field.
• Proficient in Python and R for real analytical work.
• Working SQL experience to query and manipulate data independently.
• Experience building reproducible analyses, not ad-hoc work.

Responsibilities

• Serve as embedded analytical partner to program teams and leaders.
• Identify analytical needs before formal requests and translate them into questions.
• Find, combine, and assess external and internal datasets for analysis.
• Build reproducible models and analyses using Python, R, and SQL.
• Translate findings into concise memos, briefs, and data visualizations.

Skills

Python

R

SQL

Data analysis

Data quality

Education

STEM/Economics/Quantitative social science

Tools

Python

R

SQL

Job description

Senior Data Analyst – Strategic Analytics

Compensation: $100,000–$140,000

Employment: Full-time

About the Organization

A mission-driven organization is using data, research, and evidence to tackle some of the most complex challenges facing communities and public systems.

Working alongside public agencies, community organizations, and other stakeholders, the organization uses analytics to understand what is working, identify opportunities for improvement, and help leaders make better-informed decisions.

Its work spans areas including housing, maternal health, public safety, benefits delivery, and other complex social and public-policy challenges.

About the Role

We’re looking for a Senior Program Analyst to serve as an embedded analytical partner to one or more program teams.

This is not a traditional reporting role where you’ll receive clean datasets and clearly defined analytical requests. You’ll learn the strategy, stakeholders, datasets, and recurring decisions behind a program area and help determine what questions should be asked, what data exists to answer them, and what conclusions the evidence can legitimately support.

A significant portion of the work involves finding and evaluating external and publicly available data, combining it with internal information, and working through messy, incomplete, or unfamiliar datasets.

You’ll use Python, R, and SQL to clean, analyze, model, validate, and reproduce your work. Just as importantly, you’ll need the analytical judgment to challenge assumptions, choose appropriate methodologies, understand limitations, and turn your findings into recommendations that leaders can act on.

This is an opportunity for someone who enjoys taking an ambiguous question from initial data discovery all the way through analysis, validation, communication, and decision support.

What You’ll Do

• Become deeply familiar with the strategy, stakeholders, datasets, and recurring decisions of the program areas you support.
• Serve as an embedded analytical partner to program leaders.
• Identify analytical needs and opportunities before they become formal requests.
• Turn broad or ambiguous questions into structured, answerable analytical problems.
• Challenge assumptions and determine the smallest useful analysis required to support a decision.
• Find and evaluate external, public, and administrative datasets.
• Combine messy data from multiple sources and assess its quality, reliability, and limitations.
• Use Python, R, and SQL to clean, analyze, model, validate, and reproduce analytical work.
• Build reproducible models, analyses, prototypes, and recurring analytical products.
• Apply sound methodological judgment to data discovery, analytical design, validation, interpretation, and recommendations.
• Clearly communicate what available data can—and cannot—support.
• Translate analysis into concise decision memos, briefs, visualizations, and presentations.
• Present findings and recommendations to program leaders and nontechnical stakeholders.
• Work quickly across unfamiliar subject areas while maintaining analytical rigor.
• Use AI-assisted tools for research, coding, quality assurance, and documentation while independently validating the work.
• Contribute to analytical standards, peer review, and documentation across a small Strategic Analytics team.

What You Bring

• Approximately 3–5 years of applied analytical experience, with additional relevant experience welcomed.
• A strong quantitative foundation through STEM, economics, applied quantitative social science, or comparable demonstrated analytical experience.
• Professional experience using Python and R for real analytical work.
• Working SQL experience and the ability to query and manipulate data independently.
• Experience building reproducible analyses rather than relying exclusively on manual or one-off work.
• Experience working with messy, incomplete, unstructured, or unfamiliar datasets.
• Experience finding and evaluating data rather than only working with established internal datasets.
• Ability to combine public/external data with internal information to answer complex questions.
• Experience taking an ambiguous question through data discovery, methodology selection, validation, interpretation, and recommendation.
• Strong analytical judgment and an understanding of what conclusions available evidence can reasonably support.
• Ability to assess data quality, document limitations, and explain methodological decisions.
• Strong written and verbal communication skills.
• Experience translating technical analysis into practical recommendations for nontechnical decision-makers.
• High degree of ownership, curiosity, and comfort operating without a predefined analytical roadmap.

Especially Valuable

• Strategy consulting, economic consulting, boutique analytics consulting, startup, or similarly fast-moving analytical experience.
• Experience working with public or administrative datasets.
• Housing analytics.
• Maternal health analytics.
• Public safety or criminal justice analytics.
• Geospatial analysis.
• Experience supporting public-sector, nonprofit, social-impact, or policy-related decision-making.

Prior nonprofit experience is not required.

What Makes Someone Successful Here

The strongest candidates won't simply know how to code.

You should be comfortable receiving a question that isn't fully defined, determining what data is available, finding additional sources, assessing whether those sources are reliable, choosing an appropriate analytical approach, and building a reproducible analysis in Python or R.

You’ll need to make independent judgment calls about what the evidence actually supports rather than forcing the data toward a predetermined answer.

From there, you should be able to explain your findings clearly, document your methodology and limitations, and turn the analysis into something a program leader can use to make a decision.

Why Join?

This is an opportunity to apply rigorous analytics to complex, real-world problems where the work can directly influence programs, investments, and decisions.

Rather than sitting several steps removed from stakeholders, you'll work closely with program leaders and become an analytical partner in their decision-making.

You'll join a small Strategic Analytics team where intellectual curiosity, methodological rigor, analytical judgment, and the ability to turn messy evidence into practical recommendations are highly valued.