Senior Data Scientist & AI Engineer

Priority will be given to applications received by Monday, February 23, but applications will continue to be reviewed on a rolling basis until the position is filled.

The Richard L. Duchossois Foundation (RLD) was founded in 2022 and launched formal operations in 2024.  The Foundation is committed to addressing seemingly intractable social problems with imagination and passion. We strive to improve the lives of families and veterans, and to cultivate entrepreneurs through data driven and collaborative approaches to funding.  We seek to practice philanthropy with rigor and from a place of listening and strive to be a learning organization – to always seek greater understanding of our funding priorities. While our home and our priority is the Chicago region, we may consider national efforts that are aligned with our mission, values and goals.

RLD Foundation’s Data Strategy & Insights team provides a backbone for the foundation's commitment to evidence-informed grantmaking and sector-wide learning. We strive to transform data from a compliance exercise into a catalyst for change, building a continuous cycle of inquiry, insight, and action within RLD Foundation, across our grantee partners, and throughout Chicago's social sector ecosystem.

RLD Foundation is building a team of data scientists and researchers to advance six interconnected areas of work:

- Generating data-driven insights to inform grantmaking strategy

- Embedding iterative strategic learning processes into grant portfolio management

- Developing monitoring and evaluation systems that measure what matters

- Supporting grantee data capacity to help partners unlock the value of their own information

- Strengthening ecosystem-wide data infrastructure where possible

- Designing and building robust internal and public-facing data systems and tools.

Throughout our work, the team champions data principles that are purposeful, community-grounded, and capable of driving lasting, systemic change. We strive to be a learning organization, valuing thoughtful iteration, transparency about what we know and don't know, and learning in close partnership with each other, grantees, and communities.

RLD Foundation seeks a mission-driven Senior Data Scientist & AI Engineer to join our Data Strategy & Insights team. In this role, you will play a central part in advancing the foundation’s data strategy in a highly collaborative environment. The position sits at the intersection of data and AI engineering, advanced analytics, and data strategy, offering the opportunity to do technically rigorous, high-impact work in service of social change.

The role has two co-equal primary responsibilities: (1) building and owning RLD Foundation’s core data infrastructure and AI-enabled analytics platform, and (2) conducting advanced analytics to generate insights that inform grantmaking strategy and organizational learning. The position will architect the technical systems that enable high-quality data work across the foundation while also serving as a lead analyst who delivers clear, actionable insights to program teams and leadership. There will also be opportunities to contribute to broader data strategy development and selective grantee- and field-facing data capacity building initiatives.

You will report to the Director of Data Strategy & Insights and work alongside a Senior Research and Insights Analyst, with the potential for the team to grow as the organization evolves. This is an early-stage data environment with significant opportunity to shape systems, tools, and analytical approaches. You will bring technical leadership to the team, with the autonomy to architect solutions and make strategic technical decisions that will define how the foundation uses data to catalyze meaningful change.

We recognize this role asks for an uncommon combination of technical depth and mission commitment. The right candidate brings senior-level data engineering and analytics expertise and is equally energized by applying those skills to advance social good. If you're someone who could thrive in tech but would rather build systems that help families, veterans, and entrepreneurs in Chicago, this role offers that meaningful intersection.

This role's primary focus is building data infrastructure and conducting analytics, with significant investment in developing AI-enabled knowledge systems. You'll also contribute to broader data strategy conversations and selective grantee capacity building. Day-to-day work spans the following areas:

• Architect and maintain RLD Foundation’s cloud-based data infrastructure, ensuring performance, scalability, and security

• Develop and automate ingestion and transformation pipelines to build an integrated warehouse of data from internal systems (grants management, CRM, program data) and external sources (public APIs, data partners, research institutions, government)

• Support the development of analytical tools and web-based platforms that enable staff, board, and ecosystem partners to access real-time insights

• Implement rigorous data quality, validation, and governance protocols

• Develop data dictionaries, and document all code and data processing workflows

• Apply statistical, machine learning, and geospatial techniques for applied analysis, with advanced NLP and LLM-based methods primarily used within the AI-enabled knowledge platform

• Creatively source and curate relevant datasets from public, private, academic, and alternative sources relevant to RLD Foundation’s work and to fill sector data gaps

• Conduct exploratory data analysis across RLD Foundation’s internal and partner datasets to identify trends, gaps, and opportunities

• Advise on key data points for data briefs and white papers that share insights transparently with grantees and the broader sector

• Lead the design and development of an AI-enabled knowledge layer, in collaboration with external partners as appropriate, that integrates structured data (grants, finances, open data, acquired private data) and unstructured data (reports, research, meeting notes, transcripts), into a unified, query-able system

• Build retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) pipelines that allow staff to ask complex strategy questions and receive synthesized, source-grounded answers (i.e. “What strategies have been most effective in creating family-sized affordable housing in Chicago, and where do gaps remain?”)

•  Implement metadata, embeddings, and document indexing to support semantic search, cross-dataset linking, and transparent sourcing

•  Partner with program teams to translate learning and strategy questions into AI-supported workflows and analytical products

•  Ensure responsible AI practices, including data governance, bias awareness, privacy protection, and explainability of outputs

• Partner with the Director of Data Strategy & Insights, Program Directors, Grants Manager, and Research Analysts to identify datasets to acquire and analyses to conduct that support strategic learning, monitoring, and evaluation priorities

• Contribute to the design and tracking of indicators and metrics that can help RLD Foundation better understand baselines, progress and trends in its focus issue areas

• Collaborate across the organization to ensure all data collection systems and tools are thoughtfully designed to capture information that aligns with organizational needs and learning questions

• Contribute to a culture of iterative learning around data use

• Work with select grantees to understand their data aspirations, current pain points, and where RLD Foundation support could help them build data capacity

• Partner with grantees and capacity-building vendors to shape and support data initiatives; provide hands-on support selectively when it creates high leverage for learning or infrastructure

• Contribute analysis and expertise to collaborative initiatives that enable grantees, peer funders, and others to learn together from data

• Create public-facing data tools and resources for grantees and the broader field

• Typically 7+ years of experience in data science, engineering, analytics, AI, or related role

• Mission alignment: Demonstrated commitment to social impact and the values of the Foundation

• Data infrastructure: Experience with cloud data platforms (e.g., Snowflake, Azure, BigQuery, AWS), data warehouse architecture, and building automated ETL/ELT pipelines (e.g. dbt, Airflow)

• Programming expertise: Advanced proficiency in SQL, and Python and/or R for data analysis, modeling, and automation

• Data analytics and modeling: Strong foundation in statistical methods, predictive modeling, and machine learning; experience applying these methods to real-world problems 

• Practical experience with modern AI/ML concepts (LLMs, embeddings, transformers); experience applying AI/ML methods to real problems.

• Communication: Ability to explain complex concepts clearly and patiently, adapting to match individual learning needs

• Technical versatility: Comfortable learning new tools, technologies, and working across the data stack

• Version control: Proficiency with Git/GitHub for collaboration and code management

• 8-10+ years of experience and/or an advanced degree in data science, engineering, analytics, AI, or related role

• Experience in civic technology, nonprofit organizations, philanthropy, or government

• Exposure to working with vector databases, embeddings, or modern document stores

• Experience integrating structured and unstructured data for analysis

• Familiarity with responsible AI, model evaluation, and human-in-the-loop workflows

• Experience building web-based data products or interactive applications (dashboards, data explorers, mapping tools)

• Experience providing technical assistance or data capacity support to external partners

• Experience strengthening data ecosystems or collaborative data infrastructure across multiple organizations

• Knowledge of data governance, privacy, and ethics frameworks

• Demonstrated ability to work as part of a team and with people who hold diverse perspectives

• Highly developed emotional intelligence and demonstrated ability to use interpersonal skills and political acumen in respectful and collaborative ways

• Flexibility, commitment to teamwork, curiosity, and a sense of humor

• Capacity to work amicably in a small office with high volume of work, as well as a deep sense of responsibility and accountability

• Ability to make decisions, justify recommendations and be responsible and clear with stakeholders

• A record of recognizing and acting on opportunities to continuously improve

• High degree of professional ethics and integrity

• Ability to work autonomously

The RLD Foundation office is located in Chicago’s Loop. Occasional travel outside of Chicago may be expected and may include participation in professional conferences.

Please note RLD Foundation maintains a hybrid work environment where employees are expected to work in the office three days a week with occasional additional days as necessary.

RLD Foundation is an Equal Opportunity Employer and strives to recruit and retain highly competent individuals for its staff. It is RLD Foundation’s policy to recognize the potential of each employee without regard to race, color, religion, sexual orientation, national origin, sex, pregnancy, childbirth or related medical conditions, age, marital status or family, or socio-economic backgrounds.  This policy shall apply to all phases of the employment relationship.  All applicants will be evaluated on a merit basis.

RLD Foundation intends to conduct background checks prior to hire.

Working at RLD Foundation means becoming part of a talented team of passionate individuals who value inclusivity and innovation, are dedicated to RLD Foundation’s mission and values. Candidates who possess flexibility, maturity, vision, personal fortitude, and a sense of humor will find it a pleasure to work here.

The physical demands described here are representative of those that must be met by an employee to successfully perform the essential functions of this job.  Ability to sit at a computer terminal for long periods of time, ability to be physically in attendance at workstation at a designated company office location during normal business hours designated for the position.

While performing the duties of this job, the employee is regularly required to talk, hear, handle, and feel.