Research Data Scientist

The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill; North Carolina; On-site; USD 95,000 - 125,000; Full time

Job summary

The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill seeks a Research Data Scientist to advance clinical data science in the TraCS Institute. You will collaborate with program leaders to apply real-world data to translational research and build novel data resources and methods.

You will help create curricula and training materials for UNC's clinical data science education program, with opportunities for extramural funding aligned with the TraCS mission.

Qualifications

• Requires Masters or PhD in an applicable field; or equivalent experience.
• Experience applying LLMs to research and information extraction.
• Strong communication and ability to manage multiple projects independently.

Responsibilities

• Collaborate on translational research using real-world data.
• Design and build data resources and statistical methods for clinical data science.
• Develop curricula and training resources for a clinical data science program at UNC.

Skills

LLMs in research

NLP / Information extraction

Python / R

Data engineering

SQL

Education

Master's degree

PhD

Job description

Be a Tar Heel!
A global higher education leader in innovative teaching, research and public service, the

Posting Information
Posting Information
Department TraCS Institute-429801
Career Area Research Professionals
Posting Open Date 09/16/2026
Application Deadline 09/30/2026
Open Until Filled No
Position Type Permanent Staff (EHRA NF)
Working Title Research Data Scientist
Appointment Type EHRA Non-Faculty
Position Number 20078545
Vacancy ID NF0010036
Full Time/Part Time Full-Time Permanent
FTE 1
Hours per week 40
Position Location North Carolina, US
Hiring Range $95,000 - $125,000
Proposed Start Date 11/02/2026
Position Information
Be a Tar Heel!
A global higher education leader in innovative teaching, research and public service, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill consistently ranks as one of the nation's top public universities . Known for its beautiful campus, world-class medical care, commitment to the arts and top athletic programs, Carolina is an ideal place to teach, work and learn.
One of the best college towns and best places to live in the United States, Chapel Hill has diverse social, cultural, recreation and professional opportunities that span the campus and community.
University employees can choose from a wide range of professional training opportunities for career growth, skill development and lifelong learning and enjoy exclusive perks for numerous retail, restaurant and performing arts discounts, savings on local child care centers and special rates on select campus events. UNC -Chapel Hill offers full-time employees a comprehensive benefits package , paid leave, and a variety of health, life and retirement plans and additional programs that support a healthy work/life balance.
Primary Purpose Of Organizational Unit
Our mission is to improve the health and well-being of North Carolinians and others whom we serve. We accomplish this by providing leadership and excellence in the interrelated areas of patient care, education and research.
Patient care: We promote health and provide superb clinical care while maintaining our strong tradition of reaching underserved populations and reducing health disparities across North Carolina and beyond.
Education: We prepare tomorrow’s healthcare professionals and biomedical researchers from all backgrounds by facilitating learning within innovative and integrated curricula and team-oriented interprofessional education to ensure a highly skilled workforce.
Research: We develop and support a rich array of outstanding health sciences research programs, centers and resources. We provide infrastructure and opportunities for collaboration among disciplines throughout and beyond our university to support outstanding research. We foster programs in the areas of basic, translational, mechanistic and population research.
Position Summary
The Research Data Scientist position will work closely with the Program Director of the TraCS Data Science Lab ( TDSL ) and TraCS leaders and team members to support clinical data science across UNC . The Research Data Scientist will: (1) collaborate on translational research using real world data, (2) design and build novel data resources and statistical methods to enhance and improve clinical data science, and (3) create curricula and training resources for a clinical data science education program at UNC . Depending on Program priorities and personal interests, there is flexibility in the research data scientist role to develop their own extramural funding for research priorities in-line with the overarching mission of the TDSL Program at UNC .
Minimum Education And Experience Requirements
Relevant post-Baccalaureate degree required (or foreign degree equivalent); for candidates demonstrating comparable independent research productivity, will accept a relevant Bachelor’s degree (or foreign degree equivalent) and 3 or more years of relevant experience in substitution. May require terminal degree and licensure.
Required Qualifications, Competencies, And Experience
This position requires a Masters or PhD in applicable field and at least 2 years of relevant work experience. Excellent written and oral scientific communication skills as well as the ability to independently manage multiple projects also required.
Preferred Qualifications, Competencies, And Experience

• Professional and/or formal educational experience utilizing large language models for research, including deploying, tuning, and optimizing open- and closed-source models in local and cloud environments, including high-security or air-gapped environments for sensitive data
• Experience applying LLMs to structured information extraction from unstructured text (e.g., named entity recognition, relation extraction, schema-constrained or function-calling-based structured output generation)
• Experience with natural language processing utilizing traditional data science approaches (word2Vec, NLTK , Spark NLP , etc.) and/or NLP utilizing large language models
• High level of proficiency in either R or Python in the areas of machine learning, deep learning, statistical analysis, computer vision, and/or graph analysis
• Experience with data engineering to create data science pipelines, deploy and scale models, and maintain and thoroughly document code and models, including designing evaluation frameworks for model/pipeline accuracy (e.g., precision/recall/F1 against gold-standard human annotation
• Knowledge of SQL programming, data modeling, and relational database systems such as Oracle, MS- SQL , MySQL, etc.
• Highly capable of working in a cross-functional team and functioning as lead scientist