Data Analyst

About the organization

The Houston-Galveston Area Council is a major regional planning commission serving 13 counties and more than 7 million residents. It plays a central role in addressing cross-jurisdictional challenges that affect transportation, public safety, aging services, access to employment, disaster recovery, water quality, and overall regional livability.

What you will do

• Contribute to regional planning work by carrying out land-use modeling, data analysis, and forecasting at an advanced level.
• Use analytical and programming skills to study demographic, economic, and geographic patterns that shape long-term decisions in transportation, land use, environmental sustainability, and economic development.
• Apply expertise in economics, statistics, and data science to build forecasting models and simulations that inform policies and project planning.
• Work with large and complex datasets, create scenario-based models, and present insights through reports and visual dashboards.
• Build and maintain land-use forecasting tools using SAS and Python, including time-series methods and spatial analysis approaches for scenario planning.
• Run simulations to estimate future land-use outcomes based on socioeconomic trends and policy factors.
• Gather, clean, and verify demographic, economic, and geographic information from public and private data sources.
• Maintain data dictionaries and process notes so work remains transparent and reproducible.
• Carry out quality checks to confirm dataset and model accuracy, and produce technical deliverables such as reports and dashboards.
• Support both internal teams and outside stakeholders by explaining model results and technical findings clearly.
• Handle requests for data on population, employment, and land use from local governments, researchers, consultants, and members of the public, serving as the main point of contact for external inquiries.
• Explain technical ideas in a clear and accessible way for audiences without a technical background.

Qualifications

• A bachelor’s degree in Urban Planning, Economics, Mathematics, Statistics, Data Science, or a closely related discipline is required.
• At least 36 months of experience building forecasting models, performing statistical and spatial analysis, and working with complex datasets is required.
• Proficiency with SAS is required, along with experience in land-use modeling, simulation, or scenario analysis.

Additional information

All employees must live within the agency’s service region.

Equal opportunity statement

The organization is an equal opportunity and ADA employer. Qualified applicants will be considered without regard to race, color, religion, gender, national origin, or protected veteran status.