Research Specialist Intermediate

The Rector & Visitors of the University of Virginia; Charlottesville (VA); On-site; USD 75,500 - 102,000; Full time

Job summary

The University of Virginia seeks a Research Specialist Intermediate to advance cancer-related population health research within the Population Health and Cancer Outcomes Core in Charlottesville, VA. You will contribute to data acquisition, preprocessing, modeling, visualization, and reporting using large-scale databases.

You will apply SAS, Stata, R, and Python for analyses, perform geospatial and longitudinal analyses, and develop dashboards to inform clinical practice and policy.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's or higher in a quantitative field with 3+ years of quantitative data modelling experience.
• Strong foundation in data management, cleaning and preprocessing for rigorous analyses.
• Proficient in SAS, Stata, R, Python for statistical programming on large datasets.
• Experience extracting and querying large datasets in local and cloud environments using SQL.
• Applied ML/AI methods to identify predictive factors and improve analytic performance.
• Familiarity with workflows, reproducible pipelines and version control (Git).
• Experience with community/population data sources (ACS) and cloud VM environments.
• Ability to teach lectures/workshops on data programming and analytics.

Responsibilities

• Lead and support cancer outcomes research using population data.
• Develop analytical reports on incidence, mortality, care pathways, and disparities.
• Handle full data lifecycle from acquisition to modeling and reporting.
• Create data visualizations and dashboards to communicate results.
• Collaborate with faculty and clinicians to translate results into policy implications.
• Develop standardized analytic workflows and reproducible data pipelines.
• Conduct geospatial analyses (ArcGIS) to study geographic variation in cancer burden.

Skills

Data management

Data cleaning

Preprocessing

Advanced statistics

Regression analysis

Longitudinal analysis

SQL querying

ML/AI tools

Geospatial analysis

Data visualization

Reproducible pipelines

Teaching/workshops

Education

Bachelor's degree in statistics/biostatistics/data science/economics/public policy or related quantitative field

Master’s degree in statistics/biostatistics/data science/economics/public policy or related field (in lieu of experience)

Tools

SAS

Stata

R

Python

SQL

ArcGIS

Tableau

Git

Job description

University of Virginia: Research Specialist Intermediate - Charlottesville, VA

Responsibilities

• Play a key role in advancing cancer-related population health research within the Population Health and Cancer Outcomes Core (PHCOC).
• Support the Core Director and Lead Statistician in producing analytical reports on cancer incidence, mortality, treatment patterns and outcomes using large scale state and national databases to inform clinical practice, population health strategy and public health policy.
• Responsible for full data lifecycle - from data acquisition and preprocessing to statistical modeling, visualization and reporting of results.
• Teach and share analytical knowledge and best practices with the broader university research community.
• Extract and clean data from large-scale cancer-related administrative and clinical databases, including SEER‑Medicare, state cancer registries, the Virginia All-Payer Claims Database (APCD), and Electronic Health Record (EHR) data.
• Generate analytical patient cohorts using SQL in virtual machine and cloud computing environments.
• Conduct advanced statistical analyses, including linear and logistic regression, survival analysis, Cox proportional hazards modeling, propensity score matching, Blinder‑Oaxaca decomposition, longitudinal data analysis, and econometric modeling to examine cancer outcomes and disparities in cancer care.
• Utilize statistical software packages such as SAS, Stata, R, and Python to perform data analysis.
• Apply machine learning and artificial intelligence tools to identify predictive factors and optimize analytic performance.
• Assist in the preparation of administrative and compliance documents required for database access and data use agreements.
• Perform geospatial analyses to assess geographic variation in cancer burden, healthcare access, and outcomes, using tools such as ArcGIS.
• Create data visualizations, dashboards, and infographics to communicate findings, using tools such as Tableau, Canva, Lucidchart, and Microsoft PowerPoint.
• Prepare publication-ready written and graphical outputs for manuscripts, reports, and conference presentations.
• Collaborate with faculty, clinicians, and researchers to interpret statistical findings and translate analytical results into actionable insights for research and policy.
• Contribute to the development and implementation of standardized analytic workflows and reproducible data pipelines for quality assurance and reproducibility.
• Lead teaching workshops throughout the year to train students and staff in working with healthcare claims and population datasets.

Requirements

Bachelor's degree in statistics, biostatistics, data science, economics, public policy or a closely related quantitative field along with a minimum of 3 years of relevant quantitative data modelling experience. OR Master’s degree in statistics, biostatistics, data science, economics, public policy or a closely related quantitative field will be accepted in lieu of experience.

Qualifications

• Data management, data cleaning, and preprocessing to conduct rigorous statistical analysis and interpretation
• Advanced statistical methodologies, including linear and logistic regression, longitudinal data analysis, and econometric modeling
• Statistical programming for large datasets using software such as SAS, Stata, R, and Python
• Extracting and querying large-scale datasets using SQL in both local and cloud environments
• Applied machine learning and artificial intelligence tools to identify predictive factors and improve analytic performance
• Batch processing and data science workflows for efficient handling of largescale datasets
• Working with community-level and population-based data sources, including the American Community Survey (ACS)
• Working within virtual machine and cloud-based environments for data processing and analysis
• Spatial data analysis using ArcGIS or related GIS tools
• Creating data visualizations, dashboards, and infographics using software such as Tableau, R, or Python
• Developing standardized analytical workflows, reproducible data pipelines, technical documentation and using version control tools such as Git
• Managing multiple projects simultaneously, prioritizing tasks efficiently, and tracking progress
• Teaching lectures or workshops focused on data programming and analytics

Knowledge

• Data management, data cleaning, and preprocessing to conduct rigorous statistical analysis and interpretation
• Advanced statistical methodologies, including linear and logistic regression, longitudinal data analysis, and econometric modeling
• Statistical programming for large datasets using software such as SAS, Stata, R, and Python
• Extracting and querying large-scale datasets using SQL in both local and cloud environments
• Applied machine learning and artificial intelligence tools to identify predictive factors and improve analytic performance
• Batch processing and data science workflows for efficient handling of largescale datasets
• Working with community-level and population-based data sources, including the American Community Survey (ACS)
• Working within virtual machine and cloud-based environments for data processing and analysis
• Spatial data analysis using ArcGIS or related GIS tools
• Creating data visualizations, dashboards, and infographics using software such as Tableau, R, or Python
• Developing standardized analytical workflows, reproducible data pipelines, technical documentation and using version control tools such as Git
• Managing multiple projects simultaneously, prioritizing tasks efficiently, and tracking progress
• Teaching lectures or workshops focused on data programming and analytics

Salary

$88,899.00 per year

Location

560 Ray C. Hunt Drive, Charlottesville, VA 22903

Equal Opportunity Employment

The University of Virginia is an equal opportunity employer. All interested persons are encouraged to apply, including veterans and individuals with disabilities. Learn more about UVA's commitment to non-discrimination and equal opportunity employment.