Policy data analyst executive analyst job at City of San José. San Jose, CA.

The City of San José is the largest city in the Bay Area and the anchor city of the Silicon Valley Metro area. The City’s Office of Economic Development’s mission is to catalyze equitable job growth, investment, entrepreneurship, cultural vibrancy and talent attraction and retention in San José, to strengthen the City’s fiscal health.

Housed within the City Manager’s Office, the Office of Economic Development & Cultural Affairs (OEDCA) leads the implementation of San Jose’s strategic economic and cultural initiatives by working with other City departments, private business and community partners. OEDCA has four integrated divisions: Business and Economic Development, focused on business retention and attraction, as well as job creation; Business Operations and Real Estate, focused on revenue generation, management of city owned property, and Department administrative support; Cultural Affairs responsible for arts and cultural development and outdoor special event facilitation; and work2future, a federally funded workforce development program serving southern Silicon Valley.

OEDCA’s Business and Economic Development Team is the primary contact for the City’s business and development communities. Annually, 12 full-time team members interact with more than 400 of Silicon Valley’s most dynamic and innovative companies; provide leadership and management within the City’s Downtown and strategic neighborhood business districts; build relationships across the development and investment communities; manage a portfolio of business support programs for small, medium and large-sized businesses; and promote and market San José as a location for businesses and talent to continue driving growth in the local economy. In addition to these activities, the Division provides strategic leadership across the City’s Community and Economic Development City Service Area.

The City of San José’s Office of Economic Development is hiring an Executive Analyst focused on data collection, interpretation, and analysis to be part of the Business and Economic Development Division. The Economic and Policy Data Analyst position will work across many of the Division’s work areas and directly support the team’s mission of catalyzing investment and development, engaging with businesses, and supporting policy development. The position will be required to work collaboratively with high-ranking business professionals, existing team members, senior City staff and elected officials, and may be required to speak at events and public meetings. Under direction, the selected candidate will perform professional level administrative and analytic work of considerable difficulty in executing programs and projects in economic development and related areas.

Under general direction from the Deputy Director, the Economic and Policy Data Analyst performs data analysis supporting the Division with statistical information and modeling, performance measuring, and analysis of multiple internal and external data sources to provide background information for citywide policy development. This position works independently to examine existing resource portfolio, economic, and technical data aimed at targeting business development activities, and supporting interdepartmental project teams. This position implements, troubleshoots, and maintains the Division’s data, business intelligence, and reporting infrastructure. In addition, the position will be engaged in directly supporting business development outcomes through company outreach activities, and the communications marketing outcomes through maintenance of the Division’s economic indicators. Additional responsibilities, including web development and content production may be required as applicable.

Duties and Responsibilities

The position will be required to:

• Develop and maintain systems and processes to evaluate and prepare statistical data and information used in internal and regulatory compliance documents and reports.
• Research, compile and prepare required reports (e.g., demographic, revenue, etc.) and data requests for the Department, partner departments within the City (i.e., Housing, Planning, Transportation, etc.) and external agencies.
• Design and develop compelling data visualizations using a variety of techniques including data storytelling, business intelligence dashboards, and user-centric design, maintain reports, records, and operating data to meet the Division’s and Department’s management needs.
• Conduct research required to support new funding opportunities (e.g., State and Federal grants, private philanthropy).
• Work with non-technical colleagues to help them effectively use available data and tools to analyze, document and prioritize work requirements.
• Present technical data and interpretation thereof to a variety of audiences.
• Expand and enhance data and analytic capabilities, continue to improve processes, explore/adopt new tools.
• Maintain the integrity of various enterprise system data. Receives, inspects, validates, transforms, cleanses, and integrates data received in a variety of formats from a variety of sources.
• Work alongside the team to help design information and operational support systems.
• Consistently and successfully provide support to internal customers.
• Have an excellent understanding of the San José and Silicon Valley economy and be conversant about a variety of industries.

This position reports to the Deputy Director in the Office of Economic Development & Cultural Affairs.

The actual salary shall be determined by the final candidate’s qualifications and experience. 

Executive Analyst I

Bachelor’s Degree from an accredited college or university in Business Development, Economic Development, Data Science, Economics, Data Analytics or a closely related field.

 Executive Analyst II

Bachelor’s Degree from an accredited college or university in Business Development, Economic Development, Data Science, Economics, Data Analytics or a closely related field; and two (2) years of increasingly responsible professional staff analytic or administrative experience in business development, economic development, data analytics, data interpretation at the level of Executive Analyst I with the City of San Jose.

 Acceptable Substitution

Additional years of experience in a position comparable to the Staff Specialist with the City of San José in areas such as budget, finance, grant administration, organizational analysis, general administration or human resources may be substituted for the education requirement on a year for year basis.

Licensing Requirements

Possession of a valid California Driver's license is required.

Desirable Qualifications

A master’s degree in Business Development, Economic Development, Data Science, Economics, Data Analytics or a related field, and two years’ experience in business development, economic development, data analytics, data interpretation or related fields is desirable.

The ideal candidate will possess a combination of the following skills and qualities to ensure success:

• Ability to communicate complex concepts to both internal and external stakeholders with diverse levels of experience and understanding.
• Excellent interpersonal skills, specifically including the ability to identify new and build on existing relationships, build support, listen, and provide assistance.
• Ability to demonstrate flexibility and advanced problem solving in the midst of evolving responsibilities, work processes, timeframes, performance expectations and work environment, in a fast-paced environment.
• Stay abreast of government, business, industry, and market information that may reveal opportunities for innovative services; actively seek out and identify opportunities to develop and offer new services within or outside the organization.
• Must be self-confident and professionally assertive, self-motivated, and able to work with a high degree of autonomy while also actively contributing to a high-performing team.
• Proficient in the use of GIS technology, BIG DATA sets and with Microsoft Office products: Word, PowerPoint, Excel and Outlook. Familiar with customer relationship management systems.
• Possess both outstanding written and oral communication skills and feel comfortable presenting data and the interpretation of data to non-technical internal and external colleagues.
• Well-networked and commitment to the Silicon Valley region is desirable.
• Knowledge of land use planning and real estate development is desirable. 

The ideal candidate will possess the following competencies as demonstrated from past and current employment history. Desirable competencies for this position include:

• Job Expertise - demonstrates knowledge of and experience with applicable professional/technical principles and practices, Citywide and departmental procedures/policies and federal and state rules and regulations.

• Analytical Thinking - approaches situations by defining the problem or opportunity; identifies elements to consider; collects and analyzes data; uses logic and intuition to arrive at conclusions; demonstrates ability to make recommendations in difficult and complex situations and develops consensus.

• Collaboration - develops networks and builds alliances; engages in cross-functional activities; demonstrates ability to motivate others to adopt effective courses of action, and to stimulate and motivate individuals and groups to achieve desired goals.

• Creativity - addresses objectives and problems while questioning traditional assumptions/solutions in order to generate creative ideas and new ways of doing business; exhibits creativity and innovation when contributing to organizational and individual objectives; seeks out opportunities to improve, streamline, reinvent work processes.

• Initiative - exhibits resourceful behaviors toward meeting job objectives; anticipates problems, is proactive, and avoids difficulties by planning ahead; displays willingness to assume extra responsibility and challenges; pursues continuing education opportunities that promotes job performance.

• Communication Skills - communicates and listens effectively and responds in a timely, effective, positive and respectful manner; writes documents in a variety of styles that are accurate, well-organized, complete, clear, concise, and timely.