Visiting Research Data Scientist - Illinois Fire Service Institute

Duties & Responsibilities

• Data Management and Integration
• Integrate, manage, and curate complex, multi-source datasets, including survey data, occupational and environmental exposure data, physiological measurements, biomarker and laboratory assay data, and clinical and longitudinal research data.
• Develop and maintain secure, organized, and scalable data infrastructure for longitudinal research studies.
• Design and maintain reproducible data pipelines, workflows, and comprehensive documentation.
• Develop and maintain data dictionaries, codebooks, metadata documentation, and standard operating procedures.
• Perform data cleaning, validation, quality control, and auditing procedures to ensure data integrity and consistency.
• Coordinate data integration across multiple research platforms and collaborating institutions.
• Establish reproducible analytical workflows using version control and best practices in computational research.
• Statistical & Computational Analysis
• Perform statistical analyses of longitudinal, repeated-measures, and complex observational datasets.
• Apply advanced statistical, multivariate, and machine learning methods, including regression modeling, mixed-effects models, clustering, dimensionality reduction, predictive modeling, and classification algorithms.
• Identify, model, and interpret relationships between occupational or environmental exposures and biological responses.
• Address confounding, bias, and missing data using appropriate analytical approaches, sensitivity analyses, and model diagnostics.
• Develop analytic strategies for biomarker, epidemiologic, and translational research studies.
• Generate high-quality statistical summaries, figures, tables, and visualizations for scientific publications, presentations, and reports.
• Assist investigators with interpretation and communication of analytical findings.
• Collaboration & Research Support
• Collaborate closely with investigators and multidisciplinary research teams to translate scientific questions into rigorous analytical plans.
• Support preparation of manuscripts, conference abstracts, technical reports, and peer-reviewed publications.
• Contribute to grant proposals through preliminary analyses, data visualization, and methodological input.
• Participate in study meetings and scientific discussions regarding study design, analytical strategies, and interpretation of results.
• Coordinate with laboratory personnel, statisticians, clinicians, and external collaborators regarding data transfer, formatting, and harmonization.
• Ensure compliance with IRB requirements, HIPAA regulations, data-use agreements, institutional data governance policies, and human-subjects research protections.
• Data Systems & Automation
• Develop automated scripts and computational workflows to improve efficiency, reproducibility, and scalability of data processing and analysis.
• Support maintenance and optimization of REDCap databases and related data management systems.
• Build and maintain dashboards, reporting tools, and data visualization platforms as needed.
• Implement version control and reproducible research practices using platforms such as Git/GitHub.
• Assist in developing infrastructure for secure data storage, sharing, and collaborative analysis.