Data Scientist

at  University of WisconsinMadison

JOB SUMMARY:

The Syndemics Research Group at the University of Wisconsin-Madison (SynRG) is seeking a highly motivated and organized individual to provide data management and analysis expertise for several research projects broadly focused on substance use, HIV, hepatitis C, and incarceration. The mission of SynRG is to improve the quality and continuity of care for vulnerable populations through innovative, community-engaged research. Additional information about our research group and ongoing work can be found here: https://www.medicine.wisc.edu/infectious-disease/westergaard-research
The data scientist will be responsible for: Developing and maintaining an inventory of study data resources; Developing and maintaining documentation for those resources; Serving as the primary contact within the team for questions about content, quality, and access to study data; Leading the development and maintenance of data use agreements; Drafting all data-related sections of IRB applications and protocols; using programming skills (e.g., SAS, R, Stata) to construct analytic datasets from study data resources in consultation with study team; Performing statistical analyses that are required to meet research aims and deadlines consistent with project requirements and staff workloads. The team works with a variety of data resources including participant and service provider survey data, electronic health records, and health care claims data.

EDUCATION:

Preferred
Master’s Degree
Relevant areas of specialization include, but are not limited to biostatistics or statistics, epidemiology, data programming, public health, or social sciences.

QUALIFICATIONS:

Required Qualifications:
Training in statistics, epidemiology, health services research, data science or a related field,
proficiency coding in SAS, R, Stata, or another language, and exceptional data organizational skills is required.
Preferred Qualifications:

Experience working with data from a variety of study designs, including randomized controlled trials and longitudinal, observational study designs as well as experience working in settings that require data harmonization across multiple sites is preferred.

• 2 years data management and analytics work experience
• Ability to establish and communicate data management best practices to maintain data quality and support efficient, reproducible, and well-documented analytic work
• Skills in technical design, implementation, analysis, and interpretation of quantitative data
• Experience manipulating and analyzing a variety of datasets, such as quantitative survey data, electronic health record data, infectious disease surveillance data, national death index data, Medicaid data, and other population health indicators
• Experience managing multiple priorities, projects, or research activities at once
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills
• Excellent skills in creating and organizing processes and plans to achieve goals
• Committed to partnering with and centering the voices of marginalized populations to grow community power through data presentation and communications

Contributes to a research agenda set by a lead researcher by preparing data sets, analyzing them using data science techniques, and presenting the results. Works as part of a team under general supervision.

• 40% Prepares data sets for analysis including cleaning/quality assurance, transformations, restructuring, and integration of multiple data sources
• 15% Implements appropriate data science techniques under the guidance of other data scientists, statisticians, and/or other researchers to find data patterns and answer research questions chosen by the lead researcher including data visualization, statistical analysis, machine learning, and data mining
• 5% Organizes and automates project steps for data preparation and analysis
• 10% Composes and assembles reproducible workflows and reports to clearly articulate patterns to researchers and/or administrators
• 10% Documents approaches to address research questions
• 20% Creates data acquisition, management, and quality monitoring plans and monitors projects based on these plans via conducting research data quality control checks and identifying, resolving, and escalating risks or issues