Associate Research Scientist (Quality Assurance Lead)

Arbor Research Collaborative for Health•Ann Arbor, MI

5d•$80,000 - $128,500

About The Position

This role serves as the Quality Assurance Lead for the OPTN Patient Safety and Compliance task order, responsible for coordinating all QA across systems and ensuring effective issue resolution processes. The position involves leading a team of QA analysts, championing automated testing, and contributing to research projects. The Associate Research Scientist is expected to develop and execute test plans, maintain automation frameworks, and contribute to the organization's research portfolio through publications and proposals. This role also involves providing scientific and operational oversight for research projects, contributing to study protocols, and mentoring analytic staff. Additionally, the position requires presenting research findings internally and externally, translating research into practice, and leading projects focused on technical assistance, policy implementation, and program evaluation. The Associate Research Scientist works closely with a mentor and reports to a Senior Research Scientist or other senior research staff.

Requirements

MD, PhD or master's degree and/or relative experience in health services research, biostatistics, epidemiology, health economics, health policy or other social science field
Capability to succeed in research, as demonstrated by development of specific content-area expertise, lead, or senior authorship on refereed publications, and/or invited presentations
Demonstrated potential to meaningfully contribute to research projects, as well as securing funding for new projects consistent with the Arbor Research mission
Strong oral and written communication skills
Ability to travel, including international, with several nights away from home per year

Nice To Haves

Maintains familiarity with modern quality assurance standards and tools.
Champions automated testing and test coverage.

Responsibilities

Coordinate all QA across all systems and ensure there is a process in place for issue resolution across all teams/orgs.
Lead a team of Quality assurance analysts that design and execute software tests to identify problems and learn how the software works.
Oversee, develop and execute comprehensive suites of automation test plans and test cases, maintaining and adding to existing automation framework, continued evaluation of test cases for inclusion in regression, automation for new features, and development of toolsets to augment QA and development testing.
Contribute to major research projects and provide input into new directions for existing program areas.
Participate in successful proposals for new research studies that meaningfully support or extend Arbor Research’s portfolio. Lead proposals for supplementary support, including individual training grants.
Develop and carry out methodological and/or applied research leading to peer-reviewed publications, reports to sponsoring agencies, and other dissemination strategies.
Provide scientific and operational oversight for research projects.
Work with a Project Manager to oversee the management of individual and team tasks and timelines.
Make significant contributions to study protocol development and analytic approaches.
Provide mentorship and/or guidance to the analytic staff.
Present seminars, talks, and lectures externally on behalf of Arbor Research, and internally for staff advancement and education.
Work creatively to identify additional ways to translate research findings into improving health services practice and policy.
Lead projects including those focused on providing expert technical assistance to clients or health care organizations, implementation of health policies or health care delivery models, monitoring, program evaluation, and learning collaboratives.
Provide operational oversight for projects, often including as a project director, deputy project director, or task lead.
Build and maintain relationships with project sponsors, external partners, and internal managers and staff.