ABOUT ANDECO
ANDECO Institute is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit based in McLean, Virginia. We serve as a vendor neutral intermediary between U.S. federal agencies and commercial data providers. We evaluate and score commercial data for government customers, and we take no ownership stakes in the vendors we assess. We are a small team, and each person here has a visible effect on what we deliver.
ABOUT THE ROLE
We are adding an analyst who works with raw data and decides whether it is good enough to buy. You will take an operational question from a government user, work out what data could answer it, and test vendor products against that question using their samples, schemas, and documentation. You will speak directly with vendors, push past the product demonstration, and write up what you find so that an acquisition decision can rest on it.
You will work closely with mission users, data engineers, program managers, and other analysts. You do not need to be a data engineer or a software developer. You do need to open an unfamiliar dataset and find out what is in it without waiting for someone else to build a dashboard.
WHAT YOU WILL DO
- Turn operational questions into analytic approaches, data requirements, and tests that a technical team can run.
- Work directly with raw structured and semi structured data in SQL, Databricks, or notebooks. Check fields, identifiers, coverage, completeness, duplication, and gaps in time and geography.
- Evaluate commercial data products against a stated mission requirement, comparing coverage, accuracy, timeliness, overlap with data we already hold, licensing limits, and price.
- Question vendors on how they collect data, how often it refreshes, and what the product cannot do. Request samples and documentation and verify their claims against the sample.
- Write evaluation findings so that another analyst could repeat them and a contracting officer could rely on them.
- Track new data sources and technologies and separate those with demonstrated operational value from those with only a sales pitch.
- Write acceptance criteria and use cases for new datasets and platform features, and take part in testing them.
- On telecom engagements, compare partner data models and ontologies against what you find in raw telecom data, and report where they diverge.
- Follow ANDECO processes and recommend improvements where they would help.
- Use ANDECO provided AI tools in your daily work and check their outputs against the underlying data and sources.
REQUIRED QUALIFICATIONS
- At least 4 years of operational, intelligence, investigative, or data driven analysis, including work that combined several sources to answer a question no single source could.
- Working proficiency with SQL, or hands on experience in Databricks, notebooks, or a data warehouse, enough to inspect and query data on your own.
- Deep, hands-on experience with at least one specialty data domain: telecom and mobile data (call detail records, signaling, device location); maritime and vessel tracking data such as AIS; geospatial and commercial imagery; corporate ownership, financial, and supply chain data; publicly available and social media data; or a comparable domain.
- Ability to structure an ambiguous problem and to say what the data shows, what it suggests, and what it cannot support.
- Clear written and spoken communication, and experience explaining analytic findings and their limits to both technical and nontechnical audiences.
- Ability to deal professionally with commercial vendors, engineers, and senior government stakeholders.
- Experience using AI tools in professional work, and willingness to adopt ANDECO provided AI tools.
- U.S. citizenship and the ability to obtain and maintain a U.S. Government security clearance. Employment is contingent on a successful pre-employment background check.
PREFERRED QUALIFICATIONS
- Active TS/SCI clearance.
- Experience evaluating commercial datasets or researching emerging data and technology capabilities.
- Hands on work with raw telecom or mobile records at the field level, including call detail records, signaling data, and subscriber and device identifiers such as IMSI, IMEI, and MSISDN. You can explain how cell site location differs from GPS and app derived location in precision and coverage, and where carrier data and commercial location feeds disagree.
- Familiarity with managed attribution, operational security, and data handling rules for sensitive information.
- Experience writing requirements, acceptance criteria, or test plans for data or software products.
BENEFITS
ANDECO offers paid time off, medical, dental, and vision coverage, voluntary life insurance, and a 403(b) retirement plan.
EQUAL OPPORTUNITY
- ANDECO Institute is an equal opportunity employer. We consider all qualified applicants without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, age, disability, veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by law. If you need an accommodation during the hiring process, let us know.
Pay: $110,000.00 - $140,000.00 per year
Work Location: Hybrid remote in McLean, VA 22102