Program Research Specialist 1 or Trainee 1 or 2 (NY HELPS)

The New York State Office of Mental Health is seeking candidates for the position of Program Research Specialist 1 or Trainee 1 or 2 under the NY HELPS program. The role involves developing, maintaining, and analyzing data from various administrative systems to support public information, reporting, and program performance analysis functions.

Responsibilities

• The position will be within OTDA's Bureau of Data Management and Analysis. Under direction of a Program Research Specialist 4, the incumbent will be engaged in developing, maintaining and analyzing data from various OTDA administrative data systems and other available data sources (such as Census products) to support OTDA’s public information, reporting, program performance, budget development (fiscal estimation) and policy analysis functions
• Specific functional areas assigned will depend on the incumbent's skills and experience and unit needs but will be in the general areas of 1) reporting, 2) ad hoc policy and fiscal analysis, and 3) program performance evaluation
• The primary subject areas are human services program (e.g., cash welfare, nutrition assistance, home energy assistance, welfare to work, etc.) caseloads and expenditures, characteristics of program recipients, and projected and actual program outcomes
• The incumbent will be responsible for a) working with program and other interested parties to develop analysis approaches and reporting methodologies, b) using tools listed above to extract data from OTDA's various data systems and arrange the data in ways conducive to analysis and reporting, c) producing reports summarizing the results of the analysis, and d) creating new and updating existing process documentation

Skills

• A bachelor's degree or higher including or supplemented by nine semester credit hours in biostatistics, data analysis, or data modeling, economics, econometrics, mathematics, research methods, or statistics
• For Trainee 2 level, one year of professional research experience performing the collection, manipulation (e.g., data construction, merging data files, data cleaning, working with data files containing different levels of data) and evaluation of quantitative data
• For the Full Performance Level, two years of professional research experience performing the collection, manipulation (e.g., data construction, merging data files, data cleaning, working with data files containing different levels of data) and evaluation of quantitative data directed toward review, analysis, and presentation related to program operations
• A master's degree or higher including or supplemented by nine semester credit hours in biostatistics, data analysis, data modeling, economics, econometrics, mathematics, research methods, or statistics may substitute for one year of experience
• Candidates must be legally authorized to work in the United States
• Your resume must indicate how you meet the minimum qualifications for this position
• Non-specific submissions may be disqualified from further consideration if the information you provide does not meet the minimum qualifications
• Experience in performing quantitative data analysis, program evaluation or statistical reporting using data manipulation and statistical analysis packages (such as Structured Query Language (SQL), SPSS, SAS, MS Access and Excel)
• Experience working with large administrative data sets
• Experience working with information technology and operational staff to maintain and enhance the data infrastructure and reports needed to support data analysis and reporting functions
• Candidates with 55b/c eligibility are encouraged to apply

Benefits

• Telecommuting up to 50% may be available in accordance with The Office of Temporary and Disability Assistance policy and can be discussed during the interview.
• A full-time permanent appointment will be made.
• Compressed workweek allowed
• Eligible for 55b/c appointment if currently enrolled in the Civil Service 55b/c program and meeting minimum qualifications.
• Employees hired under NY HELPS will have their non-competitive employment status converted to competitive status within one year of permanent appointment, affording all rights and privileges of competitive class employees of New York State.
• While serving permanently in a NY HELPS title, employees may take part in any promotion examination for which they are qualified.

Company Overview