Data Scientist II or III

The Chronicle Of Higher Education, Inc.; Madison (WI); Hybrid; USD 76,500 - 93,500; Full time

Job summary

University of Wisconsin–Madison is seeking a Data Scientist II/III to advance population health analytics, develop reproducible workflows, and share dashboards for public health decision-makers.

The role combines statistical analysis with state-of-the-art data science, using R, Python, SQL, and open‑source tools. Some onsite work is required with potential remote collaboration across campuses and partners.

Qualifications

• Five+ years of health-related applied research, statistics, and analytics.
• Advanced proficiency with Python and R.
• Experience with GitHub for version control and collaboration.
• Proficiency in interactive dashboards using Shiny, Quarto, Streamlit or Dash.
• Experience with diverse datasets including mortality, health indicators, and non-traditional sources.

Responsibilities

• Compose reproducible workflows and reports for researchers/administrators.
• Prepare datasets including cleaning and integration of sources.
• Document approaches to address research questions and reproducible methodologies.
• Apply data science techniques to identify patterns and answer questions via visualization, ML, data mining.
• Organize and automate project steps for data prep and analysis.

Skills

Python

R

SQL

GitHub

Data Visualization

Statistical Analysis

Education

Master's Degree in Population Health

PhD in Population Health

Tools

Shiny

Quarto

Streamlit

Dash

AWS

Azure

GCP

Snowflake

Spark

Databricks

Job description

Salary

Current Employees: If you are currently employed at any of the Universities of Wisconsin, log in to Workday to apply through the internal application process.

Job Category

Academic Staff

Employment Type

Regular

Job Profile

Data Scientist II

Job Summary

The University of Wisconsin Population Health Institute (UWPHI) accelerates capacity to create equitable conditions for everyone to be healthy by advancing knowledge, practice, policy, and systems change across sectors.

UWPHI seeks a Data Scientist to help develop tools and resources that focus on the drivers of health and health equity across communities. This role combines rigorous statistical analysis with modern data science practices, including use of GitHub for version control, collaboration, and reproducible analyses. The successful candidate will work with large, complex datasets to generate actionable insights on population health for public health and health care audiences. Using tools such as R, Python and SQL, the Data Scientist will help design, document, and share analytical workflows and interactive dashboards that inform local decision-making. Ideal candidates are detail-oriented, collaborative, and committed to high-quality, open, and policy-relevant research.

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.

Applicants for this position will be considered for the following titles Data Scientist II or Data Scientist III. The title is determined by the experience and qualifications of the finalist.

University sponsorship is not available for this position, including transfers of sponsorship and TN visas. The selected applicant will be responsible for ensuring their continuous eligibility to work in the United States (i.e. a citizen or national of the United States, a lawful permanent resident, a foreign national authorized to work in the United States without the need of an employer sponsorship) on or before the effective date of appointment. This position is an ongoing position that will require continuous work eligibility. If you are selected for this position, you must provide proof of work authorization and eligibility to work.

Candidate Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities

• Ability to identify data needs, and experience curating data from a variety of sources, assessing limitations and data quality, to manage, aggregate, and document for a particular use.
• Exceptional written and verbal communication skills
• Ability to independently problem solve and adapt
• Ability to work in a hybrid work environment with various stakeholders, both internally and externally

Key Job Responsibilities

• Composes and assembles reproducible workflows and reports to clearly articulate patterns to researchers and/or administrators
• Prepares data sets for analysis including cleaning/quality assurance, transformations, restructuring, and integration of multiple data sources
• Documents approaches to address research questions and contributes to the establishment of reproducible research methodologies and analysis workflows
• Independently identifies and implements appropriate data science techniques to find data patterns and answer research questions chosen by the lead researcher including data visualization, statistical analysis, machine learning, and data mining
• Organizes and automates project steps for data preparation and analysis

  Department

  School of Medicine and Public Health, Population Health Institute

  The UW Population Health Institute (UWPHI) works to improve the health of all people in Wisconsin and beyond by conducting research and providing technical assistance to policymakers, practitioners, and communities. UWPHI works toward a world where we value each other, honor our connectedness, and build communities where everyone can thrive.

  Compensation

  The starting salary for the position is $85,000 annually; but is negotiable based 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. For more information, refer to campus benefits webpage. SMPH Faculty /Academic Staff Benefits Flyer2026

  Required Qualifications

  • At least five years of relevant experience in health-related applied research, statistics, and analytics.
  • Advanced proficiency with statistical software and programming languages, specifically Python and R.
  • Experience using and managing workflows in open-source platforms like GitHub, for version control, code management and collaboration.
  • Proficiency in interactive web dashboards and applications built with tools such as Shiny, Quarto, Streamlit or Dash for visualizing and disseminating data.
  • Experience manipulating and analyzing a variety of datasets including, national mortality, community health, health indicators and outcomes, including non-traditional data sources such as (grassroots reporting/social media mining).
  • Experience developing analytic approaches to support continued improvement of data management, analysis, visualization and presentation, including the development of data quality frameworks.

  Preferred Qualifications

  • Proficiency in SQL for querying, transforming and optimizing large relational databases.
  • Strong understanding of cloud data ecosystems, including cloud storage, data warehousing, data pipelines, and big data processing frameworks. Experience with AWS, Azure, or GCP and tools like Snowflake, Spark, and Databricks is highly desirable.
  • Familiarity with developing and sustaining processes forefficient data extraction, including for example building an Application Programing Interface (API) and automated ETL pipelines.
  • Ability to identify data needs, and experience curating data from a variety of sources, assessing limitations and data quality, to manage, aggregate, and document for a particular use.
  • Experience or interest in integrating Generative AI/LLMs to enhance data analysis and to build conversational tools (e.g.,chatbots) that help public users easily explore web-based data products.

  Education

  Data Scientist II: Master’s Degree in Population Health,Epidemiology, Data Science, or related field, is preferred.

  Data Scientist III: Ph.D. in Population Health, Epidemiology, Data Science, or related field, is preferred.

  Contact Information

  Brittany Brown, [e-mail], 608-265-2978

  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. For more information regarding applicant and employee rights and to view federal and state required postings, visit the HumanResources Workplace Poster website.

  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.

  Employment may require a criminal background check. It may also require your references to answer questions regarding misconduct, including sexual violence and sexual harassment.

  The University of Wisconsin System will not reveal the identities of applicants who request confidentiality in writing, except that the identity of the successful candidate will be released. See Wis.Stat. sec. 19.36(7).

  The Annual Security and Fire Safety Report contains current campus safety and disciplinary policies, crime statistics for the previous 3 calendar years, and on-campus student housing fire safety policies and fire statistics for the previous 3 calendar years. UW-Madison will provide a paper copy upon request; please contact the University of Wisconsin Police Department.