Senior Statistical Scientist

UCSF•San Francisco, CA

9h•$150,000 - $200,000

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 supporting a portfolio of important research projects focused on improving the health of older adults. The role collaborates with Principal Investigators, researchers, clinicians, and national and external collaborators to develop and apply advanced statistical methods and computational tools, including solutions to research problems with little or no precedent. The position is a key scientific team member and leads statisticians and bioinformatics programming professionals, setting standards for analysis algorithms, tools, and infrastructure with organization-wide and external impact. The Senior Statistical Scientist works with large, complex medical and survey datasets, including the Health and Retirement Study and Medicare-linked data. The role develops analytic datasets, models and links information across databases, implements novel algorithms and software, and conducts advanced statistical analyses using SAS, STATA, and R. It also provides expert consultation and user support, including in secure computing environments such as the NIH Linkage Enclave; leads manuscript development and presents findings at national and international conferences; coordinates project documentation and presentations; and contributes to data science and research-computing policy and program development.

Requirements

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 and ability to lead 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 organizational 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 problems.
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.
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.

Nice To Haves

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

Responsibilities

Design, develop, modify, debug, evaluate, and test complex software programs, systems, web tools, and novel statistical algorithms for medical and survey data.
Develop and maintain documented software and algorithms for data manipulation and analysis using SAS, STATA, and R; establish and lead standards for analysis tools and infrastructure.
Integrate and link data across 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 regression.
Perform complex data modeling, performance and integration testing, and develop analytic systems for internal and external constituents.
Lead statisticians and bioinformatics programming professionals in resolving complex issues and software bugs, and train team members in use of large-scale datasets.
Maintain computational infrastructure and data flow for large-scale studies, and provide expert support to users and researchers within the organization and at external institutions, including in secure computing environments.
Provide expert statistical consultation to research teams, collaborators, geriatrics fellows, junior faculty, and investigators on methods and interpretation.
Write first-author manuscripts for peer-reviewed journals and conference proceedings, and present research findings at national and international conferences.
Coordinate development of documentation and presentations with researchers, scientists, and project team members.
Submit proposals to the NIA to enhance the NIH Linkage Enclave and contribute to organizational policy and program development in data science and research computing.
Present and interpret findings in meetings with Principal Investigators and senior-level internal and external personnel.
Manage multiple concurrent research projects, meet deadlines, and perform other duties as assigned.