Senior / Lead / Associate Urban Data Scientist

About the job

We seek a Senior / Lead / Associate Urban Data Scientist to advance UIL’s growing portfolio of city analytics. The ideal candidate will combine expertise in human mobility and urban economics with strong analytical and technical skills, leading data-driven studies that explore how people, infrastructure, and economic activity interact within cities. Key Responsibilities: • Design and implement scalable data pipelines for large geospatial and mobility datasets. • Apply urban economics frameworks (land use, accessibility, productivity, agglomeration) to real-world datasets. • Conduct big data analyses leveraging distributed processing tools (PySpark, Dask, DuckDB, GeoParquet). • Integrate and analyze multi-source data — including mobility, POI, census, satellite, and transport network datasets — to extract insights on urban form and function. Should have experience handling multi-dimensional and multimodal data. • Build reproducible workflows for data cleaning, feature engineering, and spatial modeling. • Collaborate with cross-functional teams to translate findings into policy-relevant insights, dashboards, and visualizations. • Contribute to applied research outputs, white papers, and innovation projects within UIL. • Mentor junior analysts to provide technical and strategic guidance on their work. Qualifications and Experience: • Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in Urban Economics, Data Science, Spatial Analysis, Geoinformatics, or a related discipline. • 10-15 years of professional experience applying data science methods to urban, spatial, or economic questions. • Strong programming skills in Python and its core analytical libraries (pandas, geopandas, NumPy, scikit-learn). • Proficiency in large-scale or distributed data processing (e.G., PySpark, Dask, DuckDB, or Polars). • Experience in designing and managing spatial databases (PostgreSQL/PostGIS). • Solid understanding of spatial data structures, coordinate systems, and vector/raster processing. • Demonstrated ability to translate complex data into actionable insights for urban and infrastructure policy. • Excellent written and verbal communication skills, with experience presenting to non-technical stakeholders.

Requirements

• Urban Economics
• Data Science
• Spatial Analysis
• Geoinformatics
• Python

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in Urban Economics, Data Science, Spatial Analysis, Geoinformatics, or a related discipline
• 10-15 years of experience

Preferred Technologies

• Urban Economics
• Data Science
• Spatial Analysis
• Geoinformatics
• Python

About the company

Dar, the founding member of the Sidara group, is an international multidisciplinary consulting organization specializing in engineering, architecture, planning, environment, project management, facilities management, and economics. Sidara operates in over 60 countries with 20,500 professionals, connecting people, places, and communities through innovative solutions to the world's most complex challenges.