Principal Labor Market Data Scientist

Why UKG:    

At UKG, the work you do matters. The code you ship, the decisions you make, and the care you show a customer all add up to real impact. Today, tens of millions of workers start and end their days with our workforce operating platform. Helping people get paid, grow in their careers, and shape the future of their industries. That’s what we do.  

We never stop learning. We never stop challenging the norm. We push for better, and we celebrate the wins along the way. Here, you’ll get flexibility that’s real, benefits you can count on, and a team that succeeds together. Because at UKG, your work matters—and so do you.  

About the team 

Our Go-to-Market Data Science team turns UKG workforce data into insights that help customers and business leaders understand their workforce. We develop benchmarks, conduct applied research, and partner with economists, Communications, Product, and Engineering to connect what happens in the flow of work with broader labor market trends. 

About the role 

We are seeking a Principal Larbor Market Data Scientist to lead hands-on research and analysis focused on labor and workforce insights. As a senior individual contributor, you will own work from defining the question and investigating the data through validating findings and explaining their significance to business leaders. 

This role is dedicated to supporting UKG senior leaders, Corporate Communications, and our labor economists with evidence for executive-to-executive discussions, media interviews, press releases, and thought leadership. Working closely with our economist colleagues, you will combine UKG workforce data with external labor market sources to develop timely insights that inform executive discussions and external communications. You will bring the technical depth to build the analysis and the judgment to determine what the evidence supports. 

Responsibilities 

• Partner with labor economists and Communications to define research questions and produce validated analyses, charts, and supporting materials for executive briefings, customer discussions, and media preparation. 

• Lead original research on hiring, separations, hours worked, wages, labor supply, and other workforce trends. Identify questions that matter to employers and workers, and investigate changes across industries, geographies, and workforce segments. 

• Deliver executive briefings, charts, talking points, and supporting analysis for customer discussions and media engagements. 

• Excellent written and verbal communication, with experience translating quantitative findings into concise, accurate materials for leaders, business audiences, or public use. 

• Own the analytical response to urgent executive and media questions. Clarify the question, assess feasibility, and deliver findings with the context and limitations needed to use them accurately. 

• Combine large-scale UKG workforce data with public and commercial labor data. Evaluate source definitions, coverage, reporting lags, and comparability before drawing conclusions. 

• Develop and validate statistical methods for workforce indicators, trends, and comparisons. Address seasonality, changing employer populations, missing data, revisions, and sampling bias; distinguish workforce changes from data artifacts and association from causation. 

• Build reproducible analysis and recurring reporting workflows using SQL and Python. Maintain documented methods, versioned code, and automated checks so results can be reproduced, reviewed, and updated efficiently. 

• Review the numerical accuracy and interpretation of findings, charts, and proposed public claims. Explain uncertainty, challenge unsupported conclusions, and recommend when findings need further analysis before use. 

• Partner with Product, Engineering, and data owners to resolve source issues and improve the datasets supporting workforce insights. Apply appropriate privacy protections and aggregation standards in collaboration with Legal and privacy teams. 

• Provide technical leadership and mentor data scientists through research design, code review, and stakeholder discussions. Lead substantial workstreams independently and communicate priorities, tradeoffs, and delivery risks clearly. 

Basic qualifications 

• Bachelor’s degree or higher in statistics, data science, economics, computer science, mathematics, or a related quantitative field. 

• 8+ years of relevant experience in data science, applied statistics, quantitative research, or a related field, with demonstrated ownership of complex analytical work and influence at a senior level. 

• Substantial hands-on experience analyzing labor market or workforce data in recent professional roles, including producing research, indicators, or insights from employment, payroll, wage, hours, job posting, or worker-level datasets. 

• Deep applied statistical expertise, including time-series analysis, sampling and weighting, hypothesis testing, and uncertainty estimation. Ability to select methods appropriate to the data and question. 

• Strong SQL and Python skills, including the ability to work independently with large, complex datasets and build maintainable, reproducible analytical workflows. 

• Demonstrated ability to assess data quality and representativeness, reconcile inconsistent sources, and explain how methodological choices affect conclusions. 

• Ability to explain analytical findings, methods, and limitations clearly to technical and nontechnical colleagues and collaborate on materials for business audiences. 

• Ability to lead ambiguous research assignments independently, collaborate with economists and technical partners, and deliver sound analysis under time-sensitive conditions. 

Preferred qualifications 

• Master’s or PhD in a relevant quantitative discipline. 

• Recent experience developing labor market research, indicators, or data products at a statistical agency, payroll provider, workforce analytics organization, or comparable research institution. 

• Experience supporting corporate communications, economic publications, executive briefings, or media preparation, including reviewing research for public release. 

• Experience with econometrics, forecasting, or causal inference applied to labor and workforce questions. 

• Experience with Google Cloud Platform and BigQuery, workforce management or human capital management data, and recurring labor market indicators or benchmark publications. 

Company Overview:  

UKG is the Workforce Operating Platform with unified HR, payroll, and workforce management, built to solve the unique challenges of frontline work. Powered by people-first AI and decades of labor data, UKG turns workforce intelligence into real-time decisions around staffing, pay, compliance, and productivity, enabling every worker to confidently take action as work happens. That’s why more than 80,000 organizations worldwide trust UKG to run their workforce — not just manage it. Learn more at ukg.com. 

Equal Opportunity Employer     

UKG is an equal opportunity employer. We evaluate qualified applicants without regard to race, color, disability, religion, sex, age, national origin, veteran status, genetic information, and other legally protected categories.  

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UKG participates in E-Verify. View the E-Verify posters here.   

It is unlawful in Massachusetts to require or administer a lie detector test as a condition of employment or continued employment. An employer who violates this law shall be subject to criminal penalties and civil liability.  

Disability Accommodation in the Application and Interview Process 

For individuals with disabilities that need additional assistance at any point in the application and interview process, please email [email protected].  

The pay range for this position is $150,500 to $214,500. The actual base pay offered may vary depending on skills, experience, job-related knowledge and work location. In addition to base pay, employees may be eligible to participate in a performance-based bonus plan and to receive restricted stock unit awards as part of total compensation. Learn more about UKG’s benefits and rewards at https://www.ukg.com/about-us/careers/benefits