Research Data Coordinator

Code4lib; Austin (TX); On-site; USD 58,000 - 70,000; Full time

Job summary

The University of Texas Libraries seeks a Research Data Coordinator to join the Research and Scholarship team in Austin. You will assist UT researchers with publishing data, develop guides, and deliver instruction to promote open scholarship and reproducibility.

Responsibilities include data curation, tooling automation, and coordinating with campus partners; report to the Head of Research Data Services. This role requires onsite work in Austin, TX.

Qualifications

• Graduate degree in library science, data science, information studies or related data-focused field.
• Minimum of 4 years of research data experience in professional roles or graduate student experience.
• Experience with research data publication, data repositories, data curation, or research reproducibility.
• Familiarity with open scholarship and data management; programming in Python, R, or JavaScript.
• Excellent interpersonal and collaboration skills; ability to explain technical concepts to non-technical audiences.

Responsibilities

• Provide support for publishing research data and related outputs through consultations, workshops, and guides.
• Review data, metadata, code, and documentation contributed to the UT Austin Dataverse and the Texas Data Repository; provide curation support and develop scripted tools.
• Develop and maintain processes for tracking data publishing metrics to facilitate discovery of UT research outputs.
• Participate in professional development and contribute to campus and external professional groups to stay current with tools and methodologies for data sharing.
• Other related functions as assigned.

Skills

Python

R

JavaScript

Education

Graduate degree in library science / data science / information studies

Tools

Dataverse

GitHub

Texas Data Repository

Job description

Description

Purpose

The University of Texas Libraries is seeking a Research Data Coordinator to join the Research and Scholarship team. The team’s mission is to increase the global impact of the university by making research outputs openly accessible. In alignment with this mission, the team’s primary responsibilities are to assist researchers in adopting computational approaches to teaching and scholarship, maintain the largest open collections of UT-created scholarship and data, and promote the adoption of open scholarship practices to increase public access to research and improve the affordability of education. The team collectively values initiative, creativity, commitment, and teamwork.

The Research Data Coordinator will assist UT faculty, students, and staff with publishing research data and related outputs. They will work in coordination with campus partners to support university researchers by offering personalized consultation sessions, building resource guides, developing scripted processes, leading instructional programming, and coordinating events. Their work will facilitate researcher use of the Texas Data Repository and help ensure that deposited data and related products are curated in accordance with FAIR principles to foster research reproducibility. The Research Data Coordinator will be housed in the University of Texas Libraries (UTL) within Research and Scholarship and will report to the Head of Research Data Services.

Essential Functions

• Provide support for publishing research data and related outputs by offering consultation sessions, responding to researcher questions, leading workshops, giving presentations, developing resource guides, and other necessary activities. Maintain relationships and build partnerships within UT Libraries and across UT's community of researchers who work with data.
• Review data, metadata, code, and documentation contributed to the UT Austin Dataverse in the Texas Data Repository (TDR), provide curation support to help protect sensitive data and foster research reproducibility, develop scripted tools to facilitate researcher use of the repository, and serve as institutional liaison to the Texas Data Repository Steering Committee.
• Develop and maintain processes for tracking UT researcher data publishing metrics to facilitate discovery of UT research products.
• Participate in professional development and serve as an active contributor to campus-level and external professional groups to maintain an awareness of current tools and methodologies for research data sharing.
• Other related functions as assigned.

Required Qualifications

• Graduate degree in library science, data science, information studies or any field of science or humanities research involving data.
• Minimum of 4 years of research data experience obtained through professional roles and/or graduate student experience.
• Experience with research data publication, data repositories, data curation, or research reproducibility.
• Familiarity with and enthusiasm for open scholarship and research data management.
• Familiarity with one or more programming languages like Python, R, or JavaScript.
• Excellent interpersonal skills, a professional, team-oriented attitude, and the ability to establish positive and productive collaborations.
• Ability to communicate effectively, in person and in writing, including a demonstrated facility in conveying technical concepts to non-technical audiences.
• Enthusiasm for continual learning and professional development.

Relevant education and experience may be substituted as appropriate.

Preferred Qualifications

• Familiarity with metadata standards, controlled vocabularies, and persistent identifiers.
• Experience managing or curating datasets containing sensitive information or PII.
• Experience utilizing or managing a Dataverse data repository.
• Experience teaching classes, workshops, or other types of instructional sessions.
• Familiarity with GitHub or a similar platform for managing software versioning and dissemination.
• Ability to coordinate multiple projects in a fast-paced, evolving work environment.

We want to emphasize that the preferred qualifications are not required and that we are committed to helping our future colleagues develop these preferred skills.

Salary Range

$64,000+ depending on qualifications

Working Conditions

Typical office and library conditions.

This position is located in Austin, Texas, and requires regular onsite work.

Work Shift

Monday through Friday between the hours of 7am - 7pm, as arranged with supervisor. Occasional evening or weekend work is required. Regular onsite work is expected but once training and onboarding is complete, there will be an option for a flexible work arrangement allowing for a flexible number of days working remote and in-person each week.

Contact

[e-mail]

Data curation Data Repository Research Data Texas