Data Science Intern

Thank you for considering a career with the Research Foundation of The City University of New York (RFCUNY).

The team at RFCUNY is made up of dedicated, talented professionals committed to providing the services that allow CUNY researchers, faculty, and staff to focus on their intellectual curiosity and scientific discoveries.

We are pleased that you are interested in exploring opportunities to join RFCUNY.

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CUNY Institute for State and Local Governance (ISLG): About Us 

The CUNY Institute for State and Local Governance has a mission to improve the financing, delivery, and measurement of critical public services through research, technical assistance, and education. We lead projects aimed at reforming the criminal justice system, measuring urban inequality, expanding the reach of social service providers, and more. Each project has a dedicated team of research and policy experts who collaborate closely with internal and external organizations.  For more information about ISLG, please visit www.islg.cuny.edu.

Our Goals for Diversity and Inclusion 

We strive to foster an office environment and an approach to work that welcomes and respects different perspectives, backgrounds, and life experiences. We are working towards our goal of recruiting and retaining staff, interns and advisory group members who are diverse in terms of race, national origin, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, age, religion, veteran status, socioeconomic status, disability, and justice system involvement. 

Who we are looking for:

ISLG is recruiting up to 2 (two) CUNY undergraduate and/or graduate student data science intern to support the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation’s Safety and Justice Challenge (SJC), an initiative to reduce over-incarceration by changing the way America thinks about and uses jails. ISLG serves as the primary data and research partner for the SJC. Among ISLG’s responsibilities is providing data, measurement, and analytic support to participating cities and counties across the country. This support includes the collection, cleaning, validation, and management of administrative criminal legal system case-level data and contributes to the broader research and evaluation agenda of the Challenge.

The interns will work closely with data and research staff to translate practical data processing needs into programming work – this may include 1) developing syntax to clean, validate, and standardize administrative data files and 2) conducting data diagnostics to assess data quality, identify discrepancies, and ensure consistency across datasets.

The core of this internship is creating community and peer-to-peer learning among ISLG interns across Institute departments; to foster community we will have bi-weekly, in-person convenings that will cover a range of topics such as relationship building, project management, etc.

We are hiring interns to work at ISLG from May 26th to July 30th. Interns will have a hybrid work schedule and report to a designated ISLG staff member. Interns will work on a range of tasks within the project(s) listed above as well as others not listed here. Tasks that the interns may be responsible for include:

• Supporting the standardization of administrative case-level data across multiple source systems.

• Evaluating data quality, completeness, and consistency to support research and operational use.

• Assisting with the development and documentation of structured data assets (e.g., relational databases, data inventories, and data documentation).

• Translating analytic and data management needs into reproducible programming workflows.

• Developing and implementing scripts to clean, process, validate, and standardize administrative data.

• Documenting data management processes, technical methodologies, and key decisions.

• Creating data summaries and visualizations to communicate analytical findings.

• Assisting with additional tasks as needed to support ISLG’s initiatives.

Qualifications

• Currently enrolled in one of the following degree programs at a CUNY school or have graduated from such a program within the last year: computer science, data analytics, data science, data/information management, economics, or related field.

• Possess demonstrated experience carrying out technical tasks related to the collection, management, and dissemination of complex source data (i.e., writing syntax to import, validate, normalize, merge, restructure, and/or clean disparate data files for analysis).

• Strong proficiency required in one or more of the following programming languages: Python (strongly preferred), R, and/or SQL.

• Ability to communicate technical work and with team members in an accessible manner.

We would love to hear from you, if you are/have:

• Ability to commit to a consistent schedule of approximately 35 hours per week for the internship period (i.e., May 26– July 30)

• Ability to attend peer-to-peer credentialed in-person weekly sessions currently anticipated to be scheduled on Wednesday’s from 9:00am-11:00am

• Excellent time management skills and experience working in deadline-driven environments

• Ability to prioritize and work on a number of tasks simultaneously

• Flexibility about projects and workflow 

• Passion about equitable state and local policy solutions to pressing social issues 

ISLG is open to flexibility on the requirements above, but we would expect candidates to fit most of the items described.

How to Apply

To apply for an internship, we ask that candidates submit the following materials:

• A cover letter that includes your area(s) of interest, how you hope to contribute to ISLG’s mission, and your proposed start and end dates and work schedule. (1 page limit)

• A resume or curriculum vitae. (1 page limit)

• The contact information for 2 references (preferably professors or former supervisors of employment relating to the work of ISLG).

• Unofficial transcripts (Strongly Recommended).

Questions can be addressed to info@islg.cuny.edu.

Application deadline will be March 6, 2026.

Pay Range:

Minimum-Maximum: $20.00/hour for undergraduate students

Minimum-Maximum: $25.00/hour for graduate students

RFCUNY Benefits
RFCUNY Employee Benefits and Accruals

Equal Employment Opportunity Statement
The Research Foundation of the City University of New York is an Equal Opportunity/Affirmative Action/Americans with Disabilities Act/E-Verify Employer. It is the policy of the Research Foundation of CUNY to provide equal employment opportunities free of discrimination based on race, color, age, religion, sex, pregnancy, childbirth, national origin, disability, marital status, veteran status, sexual orientation, gender identity, genetic information, marital status, domestic violence victim status, arrest record, criminal conviction history, or any other protected characteristic under applicable law.