Data Manager

Title: Data Manager

Reports To: Program and Policy Director

Salary Range: $60,000 - $80,000, depending on experience

Benefits: PST Benefits Overview

Hours: Negotiable; between 32 and 40 hours per week

Location: Remote, USA

The Pipeline Safety Trust seeks a Data Manager to join our team dedicated to protecting people and the environment from pipeline failures. The Data Manager will create data visualizations for engagement materials and the media, create user-friendly interfaces to help members of the public use available databases more easily, and identify trends and areas of concern within pipeline safety.

WHO WE ARE

The Pipeline Safety Trust (PST), based in Bellingham, WA is a national non-profit watchdog organization on the US pipeline industry and its regulators. Founded in response to the fatal 1999 Olympic Pipeline Explosion, PST has since been a tremendously successful public safety advocate – fighting for basic and common-sense safety regulations, testifying before Congress, educating and engaging the public about pipeline safety, and helping state, local, and Tribal governments make sense of regulations, responsibilities, and levers of power. PST is the only national pipeline safety advocacy organization.

Our mission is to promote pipeline safety through education and advocacy, increased access to information, and partnerships with residents, safety advocates, government, and industry, resulting in safer communities and a healthier environment.

The Pipeline Safety Trust also recognizes that the transportation of oil and gas by pipelines contributes to planetary warming. While ensuring the integrity of the pipelines that run through communities, farms, and natural environments remains our primary mission, the PST’s dedication to pipeline safety, ecological sustainability, and environmental justice requires us to work toward a rapid and just energy transition.

WHAT WE VALUE

The Board and staff of the Pipeline Safety Trust value:

• Public safety and public interest
• Trust and credibility
• Fearless independence
• Inclusiveness and accessibility
• Proactive strategies

ABOUT THE ROLE

The Pipeline Safety Trust is seeking a diligent Data Manager with a commitment to keeping communities and the environment safe from pipeline failures. This position will enable members of the public to access digestible data about the risks of pipelines to their communities and help them draw conclusions about those risks. This position will also help the Pipeline Safety Trust effectively deliver its message with fact-driven visualized data.

The ideal candidate will have a knack for finding stories behind large sets of data and will create compelling designs for delivering those stories through the data. The ideal candidate will also have an active interest in investigating and describing how pipelines and pipeline failures impact different communities, including impacts related to Environmental Justice, and messaging pipeline issues through the lens of climate change. This position requires out-of-state travel at least three times each calendar year.

The Data Manager will work with the rest of the Pipeline Safety Trust staff to design and create:

Charts and Graphs

The Pipeline Safety Trust lives by its organizational values and to remain credible and independent its staff relies on facts and data to inform the positions it takes and to communicate with communities. Often a graph or chart can unveil a powerful story that can drive a message home. The Data Manager will design and create graphs and charts that tell these stories and deliver our message.

Interactive Maps

Using data from the federal regulator (PHMSA) database and other sources, the Data Manager will create interactive maps that users will be able to filter and query to glean information and draw conclusions.

Database User-Interface

Using data from the federal regulator (PHMSA) database, the Data Manager will create and design a user-friendly interface that will facilitate access and encourage engagement for members of the public who are not pipeline or database experts.

RESPONSIBILITIES

• Discover and communicate patterns and trends through data analysis
• Design interactive data products, including maps and charts, with pipeline incident data and other data sources
• Create content based on staff priorities, including recurring blog posts, journalist/media requests, and analysis for policy team.
• Perform data wrangling and cleaning to convert data into its desired form
• Update and improve existing data communication on website
• Support PST Annual Conference planning and execution

REQUIREMENTS

• Degree in computer science, geography, surveying, engineering, or a comparable combination of skills and experience
• Proficiency in R preferred, or familiarity with other programming languages such as python, as demonstrated through experience in data analysis and visualization.
• Experience with geospatial software or analysis, through programming languages or user interfaces such as ArcGIS, QGIS, R Studio, or similar platforms.
• Experience with front end design languages or other user-interface tools to develop interactive data products, such as R Shiny, Tableau, Javascript, or similar languages and platforms.
• Outstanding quantitative skill set and ability to communicate findings and analyses through verbal and written communication to various audiences and levels of understanding.
• Ability to collaborate with a team of experts in policy, engineering, and other fields in either a leading or supporting role, to develop more accurate and relevant analyses.
• Attention to detail and good problem-solving skills
• Analytical and inquisitive mindset

FURTHER INFORMATION

Resources:

PST’s Statistic page

PST’s Monthly Incident Dashboard

PST’s State of Pipeline Safety – New York

PHMSA’s Pipeline Data and Statistics page

Media coverage including PST’s data analysis:

Residents and nonprofits resist massive pipeline expansion in the Piedmont

BGE has four times as many hazardous gas leaks as its peers

HOW TO APPLY

To be considered, please submit a complete application which includes both a resume and a cover letter to jobs@pstrust.org. Applications are due by February 28, 2025.

PST is committed to equal employment opportunities and encourages applications from people of all races, ages, gender identities, sexual orientations, religions, beliefs, national origins, or abilities.