Biological Data Scientist

Universities of Wisconsin•Madison, WI

2d•$60,000 - $88,000•Hybrid

About The Position

The Biological Data Scientist will support a research program led by Dr. Michelle Caunca in the Department of Neurology, focused on the epidemiology and biological drivers of vascular contributions to cognitive impairment and dementia, including neuroimaging and blood-based biomarkers. The role manages, coordinates, and transforms multiple complex, longitudinal cohort studies involving data from surveys, laboratory assays, neuroimaging, geocoding, event data, and administrative linkages. The analyst develops data-management systems and code to merge, harmonize, and analyze research data, using R and/or STATA and/or SAS. The position supports reproducible research through codebooks and publishable code, applies established statistical methods, oversees students and fellow staff conducting or interpreting analyses, and develops recommendations based on findings. The analyst also contributes to manuscripts, conference and stakeholder presentations, and analytic plans for future studies. The position may require some in-person work at a designated campus location; some work may be performed remotely at an offsite, non-campus location. Applicants may be considered for Data Scientist I, II, or III, with the title determined by the finalist’s experience and qualifications.

Requirements

Experience managing, analyzing, and interpreting research data from complex cohort studies using R and/or STATA and/or SAS.
Ability to manage and analyze data according to established statistical methods, oversee student and staff analysis work, and develop recommendations from research findings.
Ability to participate in preparing manuscripts and presentations and designing subsequent waves of data collection.
Working knowledge of causal inference methods and/or prediction modeling.
Ability to communicate effectively in a team setting.
Ability to write reproducible code, conduct code review, and post code publicly for reproducibility.

Nice To Haves

At least 1–2 years of experience working in an epidemiology or biostatistics group.
For Data Scientist I or II, a master's degree in public health, biostatistics, and/or epidemiology is preferred.
For Data Scientist III, a PhD in public health, biostatistics, and/or epidemiology is preferred.

Responsibilities

Implement data science techniques under the guidance of data scientists, statisticians, and/or researchers to identify data patterns and answer research questions, including through data visualization, statistical analysis, machine learning, and data mining.
Document approaches used to address research questions.
Prepare datasets for analysis, including cleaning and quality assurance, transformation, restructuring, and integration of multiple data sources.
Compose and assemble reproducible workflows and reports to communicate patterns to researchers and/or administrators.
Organize and automate project steps for data preparation and analysis.
Manage, coordinate, and transform multiple longitudinal cohort studies.
Develop data-management systems and code for merging, harmonizing, and analyzing complex data.
Manage, analyze, and interpret cohort-study data in R and/or STATA and/or SAS using established statistical methods.
Oversee the work of students and fellow staff conducting or interpreting analyses, and develop recommendations based on research findings.
Participate in preparing independent and collaborative manuscripts and presentations for academic conferences and key stakeholders, including community organizations.
Participate in designing analytic plans and subsequent waves of data collection, including sampling strategies, survey instruments, and questionnaires.