Research Analyst
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. Our vision is to provide policymakers, donors, and researchers with the highest-quality quantitative evidence base so all people live long lives in full health.
IHME is committed to providing the evidence base necessary to help solve the world’ 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 exciting opportunity for two Research Analysts to join the Central Computation and Surge teams.
Central Computation: The Central Computation team is responsible for developing disease and risk factor modeling software, production of final GBD results for publication, data analysis pipelines, and database tools that interface with up to 1 PB of data across dozens of databases and a network file system. Central Computation’s culture is ambitious, innovative, and collaborative. The team seeks to solve complex research problems through design and implementation of scalable software, with an emphasis on robust testing.
Surge: The Surge Team contributes to various research areas at IHME through limited-term assignments on research teams to help meet critical deadlines, manage unexpected challenges or changes in scope, and fill in where needed. Surge staff make use of innovative, cutting-edge analytic methods to help produce comparable estimates of the impact of diseases, injuries, and risk factors across the globe and must develop an intellectual agility to traverse many types of data and analyses.
The Research Analyst must be able to independently translate requests and research needs into actionable results by writing and implementing novel code and diagnostics. They will plan and implement analytic solutions to both emerging issues and needed improvements in our analytic and computational processes of collecting, cleaning, and analyzing data and producing results. The individual will be given assignments where a desired end result is identified, but there is no preset path laid for achieving it. They must, therefore, carry out individual planning and problem solving to resolve computational questions and produce results.
This position will work alongside other research staff on various teams and will require knowledge and skill sharing and collective problem solving. Overall, the Research Analyst will be a key member of an agile, dynamic team providing critical support to our research. This position is contingent on project funding availability.
RESPONSIBILITIES:
Research command
• Learn cutting-edge multi-disciplinary quantitative methods used to generate indicators in population health metrics and evaluation.
• Develop and maintain understanding of the analytic needs and components of major cross-cutting research projects.
• Translate internal scientific materials and aims into practical objectives.
• Work with researchers and faculty to engage in methodological development and carry out quantitative analyses.
• Exhibit a command of multiple types of inputs (e.g., costs, disease prevalence, all-cause mortality) and essential methods (e.g., Gaussian process regression) to formulate analytic solutions.
• Contribute to time-sensitive deliverables such as papers, reports, presentations, databases, and data visualizations.
Analytic solutions
• Develop innovative analytic solutions in order to address emerging strategic priorities.
• Work with research teams to assess, understand, and integrate new data.
• Implement diagnostics to assess iteratively the quality of the results and to see how changes to the proposed analytic problem would reflect upon the results.
• Creatively modify and enhance existing analytic engines and tools to carry out brand new functions responsive to the analytic questions to be resolved.
• Test experimental approaches to capturing results or creating indicators that can be used to help achieve high-quality results across different estimation exercises.
Project planning
• Develop tools over time that help to address similar types of analytic questions in future, producing greater efficiency and expanding the toolkit.
• Manage work while fitting into research timelines.
• Actively participate in different research team meetings.
• Respond to emergent needs, flexibly adapting project timelines.
• Ability to work across different teams with diverse skills, knowledge, and communication styles.
Diagnostics
• Develop readily understandable diagnostics to monitor the quality and performance of complex analytic engines, databases, and results production as a resource to a variety of research teams.
• Learn about data and results verification needs.
• Identify possible areas where solutions from one project could be applied to another.
MINIMUM REQUIREMENTS:
• Master’s Degree in Public Health, Epidemiology, Statistics, Biostatistics, math, economics, quantitative social sciences or related and one year of related work experience OR Equivalent combination of education/experience.
Equivalent education/experience will substitute for all minimum qualifications except when there are legal requirements, such as a license/certification/registration.
ADDITIONAL REQUIREMENTS:
• Demonstrated success in implementing and developing complex analytic code in R, Python, or SQL.
• Demonstrated facility with skillful quantitative problem-solving and interpreting complex analytic information from a range of sources
• Willingness and ability to learn new skills and contribute to a variety of research areas, rather than focusing on a particular research area or team, working in different coding languages as needed depending on legacy code
• Experience with epidemiology, statistics, or disease modelling
• Experience with quantitative data from a range of disparate sources
• Ability to participate productively in interdisciplinary research teams, working directly with team leads
• Ability to proactively gather requirements and work independently
• Interest in global health research
• Strong sense of focus and attention to detail
• Demonstrated organizational skills, self-motivation, flexibility, and the ability to work and thrive in a fast-paced, highly creative entrepreneurial environment
• Strong communication skills necessary to discuss complex databases and computation with lead faculty
• Ability to compartmentalize, illustrate, and explain how code implements analytic strategies.
DESIRED REQUIREMENTS:
• Demonstrated success in developing code in SQL, Stata, or other coding languages.
WORKING CONDITIONS:
• Weekend and evening work sometimes required.
• This position is open to anyone authorized to work in the U.S. The UW is not able to sponsor visas for staff positions.
• Office is located in Seattle, Washington. This position is eligible to work fully remote in the US.
Application Process:
The application process for UW positions may include completion of a variety of online assessments to obtain additional information that will be used in the evaluation process. These assessments may include Workforce Authorization, Cover Letter and/or others. Any assessments that you need to complete will appear on your screen as soon as you select “Apply to this position”. Once you begin an assessment, it must be completed at that time; if you do not complete the assessment you will be prompted to do so the next time you access your “My Jobs” page. If you select to take it later, it will appear on your "My Jobs" page to take when you are ready. Please note that your application will not be reviewed, and you will not be considered for this position until all required assessments have been completed.