Senior Statistical Scientist

University of California, San Francisco•San Francisco, CA

About The Position

The Division of Geriatrics at the University of California, San Francisco seeks a full-time Senior Statistical Scientist to serve as an expert bioinformatics programming and statistical science professional across multiple high-priority research projects. The role applies and develops advanced algorithms, computational techniques, software, and statistical methods for complex medical and survey data, including research problems with little or no precedent. The work supports research intended to advance the health of older adults and may have impact across institutions and beyond the university. The Senior Statistical Scientist collaborates with Principal Investigators, researchers, clinicians, and external collaborators, providing expert consultation on statistical methods and interpretation. The role leads a team of statisticians and bioinformatics programming professionals, establishes analysis-system standards, and provides expert support for large-scale Health and Retirement Study and Medicare-linked data, including within secure computing environments such as the NIH Linkage Enclave. The scientist also leads research dissemination through first-author manuscripts, conference presentations, documentation, and presentations, and contributes to data science and research-computing policy and program development.

Requirements

Bachelor's degree in biological science, computational/programming, or a related area, and ten or more years of relevant experience and/or equivalent experience or training.
Expert knowledge of statistical and computational methods, algorithms, and data structures applied to large-scale survey and medical data.
Expert knowledge of statistical software design, development, and implementation in SAS, STATA, and R.
Expert understanding of large-scale relational databases, including the Health and Retirement Study and Medicare-linked datasets.
Highly developed project-management skills, including the ability to lead multiple concurrent research projects and meet deadlines.
Expert knowledge of aging research, health outcomes, and applicable epidemiological and statistical methods.
Highly developed interpersonal skills for working with technical and non-technical personnel at all levels, internally and externally, including national collaborators.
Ability to communicate complex statistical information clearly and concisely, verbally and in writing, to diverse audiences.
Ability to interface regularly with Principal Investigators and senior-level internal and external personnel.
Ability to lead and train a team of statisticians, meet deadlines, and solve unique, unprecedented issues.
Expert knowledge of data governance and security standards for sensitive health data in secure computing environments such as the NIH Linkage Enclave.
Previous experience working in aging research.

Nice To Haves

Master’s or PhD degree in statistics or a related field.

Responsibilities

Design, develop, modify, debug, and evaluate complex statistical software programs, systems, web tools, and novel algorithms for medical and survey data.
Develop and maintain documented software and algorithms for data manipulation and analysis using SAS, STATA, and R.
Set and lead standards for analysis algorithms, tools, and infrastructure used by statisticians within the organization and at external institutions.
Integrate and link large-scale databases, including the Health and Retirement Study and Medicare-linked datasets, and generate analytic datasets for research projects.
Conduct expert-level statistical analyses, including competing-risks survival regression, Cox proportional hazards models, mixed-effects models, joint models, and linear and logistic regressions.
Formulate complex analytic logic, perform data modeling and integration testing, and develop systems for internal and external users.
Lead statisticians and bioinformatics programming professionals in identifying and resolving complex issues and software bugs, and train team members in the use of large-scale research datasets.
Maintain computational infrastructure and data flow for large-scale studies, and provide expert support to researchers and users within the organization and at external institutions worldwide.
Provide statistical consultation to research teams, geriatrics fellows, junior faculty, Principal Investigators, and national or external collaborators.
Coordinate documentation and presentations with researchers, scientists, and project team members.
Write first-author manuscripts for peer-reviewed journals and conference proceedings, and present research and computational methods at national and international conferences.
Submit proposals to the NIA to enhance the NIH Linkage Enclave experience and contribute to organizational policy and program development.
Present and interpret research findings in meetings with Principal Investigators and senior-level internal and external personnel.
Meet deadlines and manage multiple concurrent research projects.
Perform other duties as assigned.