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Economic Data Analyst (Programmer/Modeler) - R&S - R024516

Primary Location : DC-Washington

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Employee Status : Regular

Overtime Status : Exempt

Job Type : Standard

Work Shift: : 1st Shift

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Relocation Provided: : Yes

Compensation Grade Low: : FR PAY GRADE 24

Compensation Grade High: : FR PAY GRADE 25

Minimum Salary: : $92,800.00

Maximum Salary: : $140,000.00

Posting Date : Jun 4, 2024

Minimum Education

Bachelor's degree or equivalent experience

Minimum Experience

3

Summary

Assists with performing economic/financial data analysis and/or research activities. Helps with designing analytics and visualizations to convey findings for audiences. Assists with the development, implementation, and maintenance of data, software packages and programs, and systems. Offers ideas when consulting with Board Staff on programming and research-related issues. Contributes to addressing programming and design concerns and other technology-related questions. Assists with database development and management.

Duties and Responsibilities

• With regular guidance, develops and implements software programs and packages to assist with a variety of needs. Maintains software programs and packages (e.g., re-organizing, documenting, and removing obsolete code). Has an intermediate understanding of system development processes and philosophies/methods (e.g., Agile/Scrum, CI/CD, DevOps) to assist with phases of system development (i.e., requirements gathering and planning through integration and maintenance).
• Assists in reacting to system failures due to error and in restoring the operation of software systems. Has intermediate knowledge of how to provide preventative maintenance to systems to anticipate and safeguard the occurrence of issues.  Has intermediate knowledge of software engineering techniques and tooling, computational economics, numerical analysis, and software performance optimization.
• Assists in the analysis and interpretation of data. Contributes to the exploration, gathering, organizing, and cleaning of data in order to transform complex datasets from both internal and external sources into a format suitable for data analysis. 
• Offers ideas as to ways to summarize data findings into a visually appealing and easily digestible manner for a variety of audiences (e.g., charts, figures, tables, dashboards) to illustrate conclusions. Has an intermediate ability in one or more programming languages (e.g., Python, R, SQL, Stata, Tableau) and stays up to date on advances in language to produce efficient and dynamic code.
• Assists with development and management of programs, databases, and data pipelines to obtain and analyze data (e.g., generating reports, tables, and charts). Helps to address concerns surrounding data maintenance.
• Assists with developing web interfaces that can be used by economists to run programs and generate required reports.
• Assists with applying machine learning methodologies to structured and unstructured datasets. Assists users in structuring databases for data analysis and visualization. May have intermediate knowledge of machine learning algorithms and how they are used to analyze data through automating analytical model building using statistical packages (e.g., EViews, MATLAB, R, Python).
• Assists Board Staff with programming and research-related issues. Assists with general and/or one on one software and hardware training (e.g., documentation, seminars, example code) as needed.
• Assists with managing and training users in data visualization. Has intermediate skills in designing, developing, and implementing solutions to address various technology-related questions and to improve data and/or analytical processes.
• Contributes to evaluating technology and business requirements to identify areas of improvement. Helps with the management of codebases for economic and financial indicators and associated business processes.
• Contributes to the analysis and design of economic and financial indicators. Assists with the design of systems used to investigate issues in economic and financial indicators.
• Assists with the planning and implementation of new technology adoption, transformation, consolidation, and/or incremental improvements. Identifies technology options available in the market and aids in assessing their viability for meeting Division and/or Board needs.
• Assists with database development and management. Contributes to addressing database warnings and errors, writing data pipelines to incorporate new time series, cross-sectional, panel, etc. data and improving the coverage of tests.
• Proposes and integrates data construction systems. Proposes new data for analysis.
• May build, calibrate, and/or simulate economic/financial models.

The Economic Data Analyst (EDA) will assist section economists in the development, estimation and application of our suite of macroeconomic models and will have the primary responsibility for supporting and maintaining the section’s information technology infrastructure.
The Macroeconomic and Quantitative Studies section in the Division of Research and Statistics focuses on medium and large-scale general equilibrium models.  We prepare forecasts and analysis for the Board of Governors, and our economists are involved in cutting-edge research in macroeconomics and monetary economics, with concentrations including econometrics and dynamic stochastic general equilibrium (DSGE) modeling (general equilibrium models based on the assumption of dynamically optimizing households and firms).  Our suite of models includes the large-scale FRB/US model (https://www.federalreserve.gov/econres/us-models-about.htm), as well as a number of medium-scale models incorporating such features as realistic labor market and financial frictions (for example, https://doi.org/10.17016/FEDS.2023.069).
As an EDA, you will:

•        Assist in the development and application of macroeconomic models using advanced time-series methods such as Kalman filtering and modeling tools such as Dynare
•        Maintain and improve critical macroeconomic forecasting infrastructure, including the FRB/US model and our suite of DSGE models
•        Work in a team on key projects and support economists in their policy work with programming and automation, data analysis, and visualization
•        Perform analysis and design exhibits that support briefings, memos, and FEDS Notes           
•        Technologies used include: Matlab, Python, EViews, R, Perl, Javascript, Linux and Git

What We Are Looking For:

•         Strong programming skills and an understanding of statistical analysis and modeling in Matlab, Python, or similar
•         A bachelor’s degree is required; preferably in economics, mathematics, computer science, or a related field and a minimum of 3 years of related experience, or a master’s degree in a related field and 2 years of related experience
•         Ability to quickly assimilate advanced technical material, including topics in mathematics, computer programming, and economics
•         Strong interpersonal skills, including the ability to communicate effectively and work constructively with a diverse set of colleagues both within and outside our section

Location: This role requires relocation to the Washington, D.C. area. Hybrid work schedule with 2 to 3 days required in the office per week.