Opportunity
This role sits within a major APS social policy program currently undergoing a large-scale, high-profile reform focused on the delivery and funding of a multi-$bn national program. The successful person will join a 5-person Data Science & Analytics team within the broader data and modelling function supporting funding optimisation, classification modelling, pricing decisions, forecasting, and operational policy analytics across the program. The team operates as a central data and insights capability, working closely with SES, operational, program, and policy stakeholders to support real‑world funding, classification, and service delivery decisions.
You’ll be joining a cohesive, outcomes-focused, technically advanced team with a clear pipeline of work supporting a genuine long‑term reform program with significant operational and policy impact. The environment is highly hands‑on, with the team continuously refining and retraining production‑level models using live operational data, emerging variables, assessor feedback, and evolving policy settings.
* Work on complex quantitative and statistical problems through model retraining, reclassification, feature engineering, and decision‑tree optimisation
* Apply ML in a real‑world production environment across decision trees, logistic regression, GLMs, LASSO regression, time‑series modelling, with an NLP/text analytics capability currently moving into production
* Fully funded EL1 equivalent contract ASAP – 30/6/27 with no incumbent, strong extension potential, and long‑term reform pipeline
* Advanced modelling and ML within a production R environment supporting live operational decisions
* Solve complex quantitative and statistical problems through model retraining, reclassification, feature engineering, and decision‑tree optimisation
* Long‑term funding stability, clear project pipeline, smart technical team, and meaningful work with real‑world policy impact
Role
As part of the Data Science & Analytics team, you’ll work across the full analytics lifecycle from sourcing and transforming raw data through to refining production models and delivering policy‑relevant insights. You’ll be joining a mature R Shop (science / engineering environment team with models in in production not just on desktops). The team deliberately uses R‑centric pipelines over SQL due to the complexity of the multi‑table data structures they work with. Once extracted, transformation logic, feature engineering, model optimisation, and analytical iteration are significantly more effective and maintainable within the R ecosystem.
* Extracting, joining, transforming, and engineering large Oracle‑based datasets using R pipelines and ETL workflows
* Building, refining, retraining, and optimising statistical and machine learning models operating in live production environments
* Analysing cohort behaviour, utilisation trends, funding distributions, and emerging variables impacting classification and model performance
* Working closely with SES, policy, program, and operational stakeholders to provide data‑driven insights supporting funding, classification, and operational policy decisions
Ideal Person
* Advanced R (data science and engineering into models)
* Strong quantitative and statistical modelling capability across techniques such as logistic regression, decision trees, GLMs, LASSO regression, time‑series analysis, or related ML approaches
* Strong stakeholder engagement and communication skills, with the ability and genuine desire to work closely with SES, policy, and program teams to understand business problems and provide meaningful data‑driven insights
* A collaborative and pragmatic mindset, with the ability to translate technical outputs into practical operational and policy context within an evolving reform environment where models, business rules, and policy settings continue to mature
Due to the nature of the work and datasets, Australian Citizenship with Baseline or above and current residency in Canberra are mandatory requirements.
Salary / Rate
* This role is being offered as a full‑time EL1 equivalent rate contract
* ASAP – 30/6/27 with likely extension options
HorizonOne is committed to building a diverse and inclusive workforce and we encourage applications from people of all cultures, capabilities and backgrounds.
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