Research Data Engineer

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Job category:

Academic Staff

Employment type:

Terminal (Fixed Term)

Job profile:

Data Engineer II

Job summary:

The University of Wisconsin's Center for Health Disparities Research (CHDR) seeks a Research Data Engineer to provide expertise and mentorship on data pipeline management and database engineering within a research environment. This position will work with CHDR scientists and Data Operations peers to optimize current processes related to a relational database used for scholarly research. Candidates with a passion for health equity and a desire to contribute to a national-level research agenda are encouraged to apply.

• This position is full or part-time, 80%-100%

• Terminal, 12-month appointment. This position has the possibility to be extended or converted to an ongoing appointment based on need and/or funding.

• This position may require some work to be performed in-person, onsite, at a designated campus work location. Some work may be performed remotely, at an offsite, non-campus work location.

Key job responsibilities:

• Implements data analysis steps in collaboration with data scientists, statisticians, and/or other researchers and may use technologies that support data at scale

• Serves as an institutional subject matter expert and liaison to key internal and external stakeholders regarding automated data management and analysis at scale for research and represents the interests of large-scale data management and analysis for research

• Prepares data sets for current and future analysis including cleaning/quality assurance, transformations, restructuring, and integration of multiple data sources and may use technologies that support data at scale

• Develops, constructs, tests, and maintains architectures for large-scale data management and analysis

• Selects appropriate technologies and optimizes pipelines for performance

• Organizes both data preparation and analysis steps into reproducible pipelines that can process similar data sets automatically

• May supervise the data-to-day activities of staff and resolves routine personnel issues

Department:

School of Medicine and Public Health, Center for Health Disparities Research (CHDR), Data Analytics Core

CHDR is a dynamic, growing, and multidisciplinary Center housed within the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Medicine and Public Health (SMPH). Broadly, CHDR focuses on mechanisms of health disparities – with a particular focus on the social exposome and its relationship to health. CHDR is the home to the team that refined and curates the Area Deprivation Index and its data democratization portal, the Neighborhood Atlas®. CHDR is also home to the Neighborhoods Study, an NIH-funded national initiative to examine the adverse social exposome’s impact on neuropathology and brain health biomarkers. CHDR investigators represent all areas of the translational research spectrum, from basic science to community participatory research. CHDR also has strong relationships with local, state and federal government, non-profit organizations, and industry entities.

Compensation:

• The expected salary range for this position is $75,000 up to $94,488 for highly experienced candidates and actual pay within this range will depend on experience and qualifications.

• Employees in this position can expect to receive benefits such as generous vacation, holidays, and sick leave; competitive insurances and savings accounts; retirement benefits.

Required qualifications:

• Intermediate or advanced experience using Python to perform data processing/ETL tasks

• Demonstrated experience in a research setting

Preferred qualifications:

• Intermediate or advanced experience using R and/or SQL to perform data processing/ETL tasks

• Demonstrated experience with data pipelining, task automation, data structures and algorithms

• Experience developing, debugging, and testing data processing pipelines

• Familiarity with Git or other version control systems

• Familiarity with containerization and/or virtual environment management using Docker, conda, venv, etc.

• Familiarity with REDCap

• Experience working with PHI and other sensitive data

• Experience with leadership and/or mentorship

Education:

Bachelor's degree preferred

How to apply:

To apply for this position, please click on the "I am a current employee" button or "I am not a current employee" button under Apply Now. You will be prompted to upload the following documents.

• Cover Letter

• Resume

Please note, there is only one attachment field. You must upload all of your documents in the attachment field.

Applicants are to submit a cover letter and resume detailing their training and experience relating to the required and preferred qualifications referenced above. The application reviewers will be relying on written application materials to determine which qualified applicants will advance in the recruitment process. We will notify selected applicants to participate further in the selection process directly. References will be requested of final candidates. All applicants will be notified after the search is complete and a candidate has been selected.

Contact information:

Kim McFarlane, kmmcfarlane@wisc.edu

Relay Access (WTRS): 7-1-1. See RELAY_SERVICE for further information.

Institutional statement on diversity:

Diversity is a source of strength, creativity, and innovation for UW-Madison. We value the contributions of each person and respect the profound ways their identity, culture, background, experience, status, abilities, and opinion enrich the university community. We commit ourselves to the pursuit of excellence in teaching, research, outreach, and diversity as inextricably linked goals.

The University of Wisconsin-Madison fulfills its public mission by creating a welcoming and inclusive community for people from every background - people who as students, faculty, and staff serve Wisconsin and the world.

The University of Wisconsin-Madison is an Equal Opportunity Employer.

Qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to, including but not limited to, race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, national origin, age, pregnancy, disability, or status as a protected veteran and other bases as defined by federal regulations and UW System policies. We promote excellence by acknowledging skills and expertise from all backgrounds and encourage all qualified individuals to apply.

To request a disability or pregnancy-related accommodation for any step in the hiring process (e.g., application, interview, pre-employment testing, etc.), please contact the Divisional Disability Representative (DDR) in the division you are applying to. Please make your request as soon as possible to help the university respond most effectively to you.