Research Scientist, Environmental, Occupational, and Dietary

As a UW employee, you have a unique opportunity to change lives on our campuses, in our state and around the world. UW employees offer their boundless energy, creative problem-solving skills, and dedication to build stronger minds and a healthier world.

UW faculty and staff also enjoy outstanding benefits, professional growth opportunities and unique resources in an environment noted for diversity, intellectual excitement, artistic pursuits, and natural beauty.

The Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) is an independent research center at the University of Washington. Its mission is to deliver to the world timely, relevant, and scientifically valid evidence to improve health policy and practice. IHME carries out its mission through a range of projects within different research areas including the Global Burden of Diseases, Injuries, and Risk Factors; Future Health Scenarios; Costs and Cost Effectiveness; Resource Tracking; and Impact Evaluations.

IHME is committed to providing the evidence base necessary to help solve the world’s most important health problems. This requires creativity and innovation, which is cultivated by an inclusive, diverse, and equitable environment that respects and appreciates differences, embraces collaboration, and invites the voices of all IHME team members.

IHME has an excellent opportunity for a Research Scientist to join the Environmental, Occupational, and Dietary (EOD) Risk Factors team on the Global Burden of Diseases, Injuries, and Risk Factors (GBD) Study.

POSITION PURPOSE

The GBD is a systematic, scientific effort to quantify the comparative magnitude of health loss due to diseases, injuries, and risk factors by age, sex, and geography over time, and is the largest and most comprehensive effort to date to measure epidemiological levels and trends worldwide. This position will be responsible for modeling air pollution, such as PM2.5 and NO2, and its impact on health burden. It will also support the EOD team’s emerging climate and health portfolio.

IHME researchers analyze and produce key estimates for their assigned research team and will assess all available quantitative data – from surveys, vital registration, censuses, literature, registries, and administrative records. Using established modeling tools and through creation of novel code, researchers incorporate all relevant data to produce the most up-to-date and scientifically credible results. Researchers working on risk factors provide comprehensive assessments of the magnitude of exposure, relative risk, and attributable burden of disease.

You will be integrally involved in producing, critiquing, improving, and disseminating results. You are someone who is capable of keeping your team on track to meet deadlines and research objectives. You already have a publication record, and at IHME, you will build out your portfolio with several peer-reviewed papers. You thrive in a collaborative work environment and are capable of working on multiple projects concurrently while meeting deadlines. You keep current of recent scientific, engineering, and technical advances and are able to translate these into your research.

You are expected to interact successfully with a wide range of partners and to describe complex concepts and materials concisely. Overall, researchers are critical members of agile, dynamic research teams. This position is contingent on project funding availability.

DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES

• Develop a core understanding of air pollution risk factor methodology and its components.
• Independently carry out quantitative analyses and participate in reciprocal research projects. Interpret and vet results from junior staff, formulate conclusions, and inform team leaders.
• Develop, quality check, and distribute complex datasets to be used in epidemiological and statistical analyses.
• Develop and implement new computational and statistical methods. Create, test, and use relevant computer code (R, Python). Maintain, modify, and execute analytic machinery that generates results.
• Draft presentations and manuscripts and contribute to funding proposals.
• Lead and co-author scientific articles in peer-reviewed journals.
• Maintain scientific awareness and intellectual agility with data, methods, and analytic techniques.
• May lead and/or mentor junior staff.
• Provide ideas and content for the development of internal trainings. Teach established trainings.
• Contribute to research design.
• Other duties as assigned that fall within reasonable scope of research team.

MINIMUM REQUIREMENTS

• Master’s degree in public health, epidemiology, statistics, biostatistics, math, economics, quantitative social sciences, or related discipline plus four years' related experience, or equivalent combination of education and experience.

ADDITIONAL REQUIREMENTS

• Proven interest in environmental risk factors and the related data sources and scientific underpinnings.
• Strong analytic, critical thinking, and quantitative skills.
• Working ability with R programming language.
• Growing peer network where sought out as having solid command of engineering/technical areas, a given disease, risk, key indicator, relevant methodological area, and the related data sources and scientific underpinnings.
• Excellent analytic, critical thinking, and quantitative skills.
• Results- and detail-oriented individual who can initiate and complete tasks under tight deadlines and changing priorities both independently and in a team environment. Flexibility with hours and workload is key.
• Experience devising and executing statistical modeling techniques.
• Demonstrated ability to quickly recognize problems in results and identify root causes in data, methods, and code.
• Ease in designing, executing, and troubleshooting code in R. Python a plus.
• Excellent written and oral communication skills required, including track record of success in coauthorship on multiple scientific papers, presenting results, and representing research at meetings.
• Demonstrated ability to contribute to and sustain collaborations with external research teams.
• Experience in working with large data sets, including devising strategies for reliable data management for large data sets, computationally efficient modeling techniques to use such data sets, and critical evaluation of highly multidimensional model outputs that result from such work.
• Ability to work both independently and in collaboration with a team.
• A long-term interest in a research scientist position contributing to the overall mission of our research.
• A commitment to working alongside others at IHME to illuminate the health impacts of systemic racism and to work within IHME to make our organization more diverse and inclusive. See IHME’s DEI statement here: https://www.healthdata.org/about/dei.

DESIRED QUALIFICATIONS

• MD or PhD in public health, epidemiology, statistics, biostatistics, math, economics, or quantitative social sciences plus two years’ experience preferred.
• Experience with machine learning, data mining, and analytic techniques.
• Experience mentoring and developing junior employees on soft and technical skills.
• Experience with project management methods.
• Peer-reviewed publication record.

CONDITIONS OF EMPLOYMENT

• Weekend and evening work sometimes required.
• This position is open to anyone authorized to work in the US.
• Working internationally is only allowed for IHME sponsored work that requires in -country participation.
• Office is located in Seattle, Washington. This position is eligible to work fully remote in the US; work schedule required to overlap 50% of IHME office hours, between 8 a.m. and 6 p.m. Pacific Time as agreed upon between employee and supervisor.