Imaging Research Specialist

University of British Columbia; Vancouver; Hybrid; CAD 74,000 - 106,000; Full time

Job summary

The Imaging Research Specialist at University of British Columbia will serve as the technical lead for CARE-PF, coordinating a Canada-wide imaging pipeline for pulmonary fibrosis research.

This senior role requires fluency in medical imaging data (DICOM/PACS), research ethics, and scalable computing, with on-site work in Vancouver and possible hybrid arrangements for select tasks.

Qualifications

• Senior-level imaging research expertise and ability to lead complex pipelines.
• Experience coordinating multi-site research projects and stakeholders.
• Understanding of health research ethics and data privacy.

Responsibilities

• Lead design, development, and automation of automated imaging workflows.
• Implement de-identification and data management for CT imaging data.
• Coordinate across radiology, IT, ethics, and clinical sites to meet milestones.
• Translate imaging research needs into scalable software and pipelines.

Skills

Project coordination

Independent work

Stakeholder collaboration

Tools

Python

DICOM

PACS

XNAT

Job description

Staff - Non Union

Job Category

M&P - AAPS

Job Profile

AAPS Salaried - Information Systems and Technology, Level B

Job Title

Imaging Research Specialist

Department

Marinescu Laboratory | Division of Respiratory Medicine | Department of Medicine | Faculty of Medicine

Compensation Range

$6,631.67 - $9,533.25 CAD Monthly

The Compensation Range is the span between the minimum and maximum base salary for a position. The midpoint of the range is approximately halfway between the minimum and the maximum and represents an employee that possesses full job knowledge, qualifications and experience for the position. In the normal course, employees will be hired, transferred or promoted between the minimum and midpoint of the salary range for a job.

Posting End Date

September 14, 2026

Note: Applications will be accepted until 11:59 PM on the Posting End Date.

Job End Date

July 31, 2027

This is a full-time term position ending July 31, 2027. While the initial term is defined by current funding, the intention is for this to be an ongoing and growing role, and continuation, renewal, or expansion beyond the term is possible subject to the availability of further funding, which the incumbent will help pursue. The role is primarily based on site in Vancouver; hybrid arrangements may be available for tasks that do not require on-site system access, by arrangement with the PI.

At UBC, we believe that attracting and sustaining a diverse workforce is key to the successful pursuit of excellence in research, innovation, and learning for all faculty, staff and students. Our commitment to employment equity helps achieve inclusion and fairness, brings rich diversity to UBC as a workplace, and creates the necessary conditions for a rewarding career.

Job Summary

The Imaging Research Specialist will serve as the technical lead for a Canada’s Drug Agency-funded initiative to build an automated imaging research pipeline for the Canadian Registry for Pulmonary Fibrosis (CARE-PF). This is a senior role for an experienced individual who can independently take on the large majority of the technical and coordination work, apply existing expertise directly to the project, and deliver against a milestone-based funding timeline over one year with minimal supervision.

The initiative must reach its major deliverables within a fixed funding window, with funds released only as milestones are met. There is no room to learn the fundamentals on the job: the successful candidate is expected to arrive already fluent in medical imaging data (DICOM/PACS), health-research ethics and privacy, and research computing infrastructure, and to translate that expertise readily into a working pipeline. The role demands someone who can set direction, solve problems independently, and drive the work forward at pace.

The incumbent will design, build, and operate an automated workflow for retrieving, de-identifying, and securely storing CT imaging for consented registry patients, and will establish and administer a central imaging platform built on XNAT to support quantitative image analysis and multi-site research collaboration. A manual proof-of-concept has already been developed and tested at UBC; the incumbent will independently automate and scale it, and lead the technical work required to replicate the pipeline at CARE-PF sites across Canada (e.g. Calgary, Saskatoon, Hamilton, Toronto, Montreal).

A defining feature of this role is coordination across many stakeholders. The incumbent will act as the central point of contact linking radiology, hospital and university IT, medical imaging, hospital and research administration, privacy and ethics offices, patient partners, and co-investigators at sites in multiple provinces. Prior experience leading projects and coordinating across departments or institutions is therefore essential. The person in this role must be able to move a technically complex initiative forward through many separate groups, each with its own priorities and approval processes, largely on their own initiative.

The successful candidate will help shape a new imaging research program from the ground up, and there is potential for the role to grow in scope and responsibility over time as the program develops and as additional funding is secured, which the incumbent will actively help to pursue.

Organizational Status

Reporting to Dr. Daniel Marinescu, PI and Clinical Assistant Professor, this position is based in the Division of Respiratory Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, and affiliated with the Vancouver Coastal Health Research Institute (VCHRI). The role supports CARE-PF is Canada’s national pulmonary fibrosis registry, with more than 8,000 patients enrolled across sites in Vancouver, Calgary, Saskatoon, Hamilton, Toronto, and Montreal.

Work Performed

• Provides technical consultation and advice to the PI, co-investigators, and site teams on imaging infrastructure, data flows, and feasibility, and implementation strategies.
• Independently designs, develops, tests, and operates an automated workflow for retrieving CT imaging studies for consented patients from hospital PACS, building on an existing manual, Python-based proof-of-concept.
• Develops and maintains robust software (primarily in Python) for DICOM tag de-identification and replacement, folder reorganization, and automated data quality control and management of edge cases including inconsistent tags and potential burned-in pixel-data identifiers.
• Configures, deploys