May 2026
I Tried to Save the Electoral College. The Math Wouldn’t Let Me.
Every honest attempt to fix it collapses into the same answer.
Read essay →NYC, NJ & CT · Hybrid local or remote
Charlie Vargas
I'm a BI and operations analyst. I work mostly in Power BI, SQL, and Python. The last 2 years of my BI internship taught me what a working BI operation actually does, automating KPI dashboards across 20 schools, building enrollment forecasts, and turning messy data into something leadership can act on.
If you're going to look at one thing, look at the NYC District 2 Enrollment Forecast. I projected K-5 enrollment for 30 schools three years out and back-tested against the actuals NYSED released later: three analyst-bounded scenarios beat a single Prophet default by more than 2x in MAPE.
Latest essay: I Tried to Save the Electoral College. The Math Wouldn’t Let Me..
Experience
What I did first, then how long each role ran. Some of these overlap because I was in school and working a few things at once, including a multi-year BI internship.
Product Designer
Medara
March 2026 to Present
- •Manage and continuously optimize website content, structure, and user experience to improve clarity, engagement, and alignment with company objectives.
- •Develop and execute social media strategy, including content planning, creation, and performance tracking to build brand presence and audience engagement.
- •Design and refine marketing collateral and support UI/UX enhancements, translating company messaging into clear, visually compelling materials.
Content StrategyWeb & UXSocial Media MarketingBrand & Creative
Business Intelligence + Data Analytics Intern
Apple Montessori Schools
October 2023 to May 2026
- •Automated KPI dashboards in Power BI integrating HR, Finance, and enrollment data across 20+ schools, reducing manual reporting time by 50% and saving leadership more than 15 hours monthly.
- •Built predictive enrollment models across 20+ schools, improving forecasting accuracy by about 50% and contributing to initiatives that reduced student attrition by about 10%.
- •Delivered real-time performance analytics that directly informed pricing strategy, staffing decisions, and market expansion planning.
- •Integrated and cleaned 3+ years of data from multiple CRM systems and billing platforms, mapping the full customer journey and identifying conversion bottlenecks that increased enrollment rates.
- •Supported annual tuition and fee pricing analysis, organizing complex rate and policy data across 20+ sites, validating accuracy, and enabling timely updates for open enrollment.
- •Streamlined the acquisition process across 150+ active targets, tightening pipeline review and go/no-go decisions for leadership.
Power BISQLExcelPythonTableauPowerPointWord
Product Designer
Rossitech LTD
August 2025 to October 2025
- •Led end-to-end web design projects for clients launching their first digital presence, leveraging Figma, Framer, Sketch, and other design tools to create visually compelling, mobile-optimized, high-converting websites.
- •Applied UI/UX best practices to develop design systems, wireframes, and interactive prototypes that balanced usability, accessibility, and aesthetic appeal across devices and platforms.
- •Designed and developed web interfaces grounded in human creativity, using AI tools solely to refine visual layouts, optimize responsiveness, and enhance usability.
- •Refined prototypes through multiple rounds of testing, evolving designs to improve user flow, reduce friction, and lift anticipated conversion rates.
- •Maintained a disciplined design workflow, applying version control, component libraries, and structured handoffs to streamline development and accelerate delivery timelines.
FigmaFramerSketchAdobe Illustrator
Education
Academic foundation and continuous learning
B.A. in Business Administration
Northeastern University
August 2024 to Present
New York, NY
- •Relevant Coursework: Accounting, Business + Society, Microeconomics, Statistics.
- •Served as Treasurer for the Fashion Organization, efficiently managing fundraising and revenue, and creating informative and engaging digital media.
High School Diploma
Academy for Performing Arts
September 2020 to May 2024
Scotch Plains, NJ
- •Performed in over 8 showcases and mainstage productions, collaborating with guest choreographers to master complex repertoire and refine stage presence, spatial awareness, and ensemble synchronization.
- •Completed four years of intensive, conservatory-style training in classical ballet, modern (Graham/Horton), and contemporary techniques, maintaining a rigorous daily rehearsal schedule alongside a full academic load.
Additional experience
Other professional roles and experiences
Team Toro
New York Red Bulls
February 2026 to Present
- •Perform pre-game and halftime activations in front of arena-sized crowds, adjusting pacing and energy on the fly so scripted beats still land when the building is quiet or hot.
- •Coordinate with operations and creative between games to refine cues, transitions, and choreography across the season.
Live performanceStagecraftCross-functional coordination
"WOO!" Crew
NJ Devils
September 2025 to Present
- •Represent the team in front of 10,000+ fans per game, running on-ice activations, fan moments, and arena-floor engagement across all three periods.
- •Hold a high-visibility brand-facing role where tone, timing, and presence have to read clearly on first contact.
Live performanceBrand representationCrowd engagement
Performance Ensemble Member
Academy for Performing Arts
September 2020 to May 2024
- •Partnered with guest choreographers, stage managers, and production teams to execute juried showcases and mainstage performances.
- •Balanced conservatory-style rehearsals in classical ballet, modern (Graham/Horton), and contemporary techniques while contributing to audience engagement efforts.
PerformanceCollaborationProduction Support
Skills
Grouped by what I actually use each one for, not by where they end up on a resume.
Data & analytics
What I use day to day to get from raw rows to a defensible answer.
- SQL
- Python
- pandas
- NumPy
- matplotlib
- Excel (advanced)
- Data cleaning & ETL
- Statistical analysis
BI & dashboards
Reports leadership actually opens, and trusts because the math is shown.
- Power BI
- Tableau
- KPI design
- Executive reporting
- Dashboard automation
- Predictive / forecasting models
Operations & analysis
The numbers, sitting next to the decisions they’re supposed to inform.
- Pricing analysis
- Pipeline & go/no-go review
- Multi-source data integration
- Process automation
- Stakeholder communication
- Data storytelling
Engineering (supporting)
What I use to ship the work somewhere the audience will actually read it.
- React
- TypeScript
- Next.js
- Vite
- Tailwind CSS
- Git / GitHub
- Vercel
Featured work
The piece I’d lead with is a three-year enrollment forecast I ran on 30 NYC public elementary schools, then back-tested when the real numbers came out. The rest of what I’ve worked on is on the projects page.
(01)
Bounded scenarios beat a single ML default by 2x MAPE, measured against the actuals that came out later
Highlight: Bounded scenarios beat a single ML default by 2x MAPE, measured against the actuals that came out later
NYC District 2 Elementary Enrollment Forecasting
Solo: data engineering, modeling, dashboard, and writeup
I forecast 30 NYC public elementary schools three years out, then back-tested the model once NYSED released the actuals for those years. The methodological call, three analyst-bounded scenarios over a single ML default, beat Facebook Prophet on the same data by more than 2x in MAPE.
Approach
Pre-COVID was a six-year flat plateau at ~15,800 K-5 students. COVID broke it to ~12,400. With only two post-break data points, a Prophet-style ML answer pretends to know more than the data can say.
- Stitched 12 years of NYC DOE and NYSED enrollment data and fit a piecewise linear model with a known structural break at 2020. Bounded the future with three analyst scenarios (decline, stabilization, recovery) instead of a single point forecast.
- Back-tested when NYSED published the 2022–25 actuals. The Base scenario landed at 8.71% MAPE. Prophet on the same data landed at 19.20%. The analyst-bounded approach beat the ML default by more than 2x.
- Tested the popular "wealthy catchments left first" story and refused to ship it. Pearson r = +0.14 between catchment income and enrollment decline. Lowest-income schools in Chinatown and the Lower East Side declined more than the high-income downtown catchments; the resilient outlier is Roosevelt Island (+13%), suggesting geographic friction of exit, not income, is what matters.
- Shipped a four-page Power BI dashboard: system-wide fan chart, scenario/model operational matrix, single-school drill-through, and a backtest validation page.
PythonpandasNumPystatsmodelsProphetPower BICensus ACSCensus Geocoder API
Collaboration and references
The written recommendations are on LinkedIn. If you're hiring, I'm happy to share references once we've actually had a conversation.
- I’ve worked across analytics, BI dashboards, and operational reporting, usually at the same time.
- Most of the job is taking messy data and getting it to a place where stakeholders trust the answer.
Writing + Essays
Thoughts on data, transit, operations, and whatever else I’ve been chewing on.
Subscribe on Substack →Get in touch
For hiring, collaborations, or anything else, email me. I usually get back within a few days.
Location
New York City, NY