Research Data Scientist

Job Summary

Are you passionate about improving patient health outcomes, optimizing healthcare processes, and advancing science? Join our dynamic Informatics and Information Technology team at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health in Madison, Wisconsin. We are committed to revolutionizing healthcare through advanced data science approaches, cutting‑edge research, and real‑world evidence to improve patient health outcomes in WI.

As a Research Data Scientist, the incumbent will use clinical data to develop and implement advanced computational algorithms and support groundbreaking data‑driven research. This role is critical to integrating disparate data domains; you will architect multi‑modal analysis pipelines and serve as a primary consultant for researchers, helping them navigate complex study designs and analysis. On a day‑to‑day basis, the incumbent could expect to engage in the following activities in supporting researchers:

• Multi‑Modal Pipeline Development:
  Develop and implement informatics pipelines for the processing, integration, and harmonization of heterogeneous data sources (e.g., joining unstructured clinical notes with medical imaging and structured diagnostic codes).
• Statistical Modeling & Hypothesis Testing:
  Develop predictive models using retrospective real‑world data to estimate disease risk, progression, and treatment effectiveness, while addressing bias and fairness. Design and execute rigorous hypothesis testing on observational datasets to validate research findings.
• Imaging Analysis:
  Analyze imaging datasets using advanced computational methods and Vision Models (e.g., CNNs, Transformers) to identify patterns in complex biological data.
• NLP & EHR Analysis:
  Leverage modern NLP frameworks and LLMs to extract critical insights from unstructured clinical notes and reports, ensuring data quality and integrity through rigorous preprocessing.
• Consultation & Capacity Building:
  Act as a technical consultant for the research community, translating complex model outputs into actionable scientific insights and helping investigators select appropriate analytical strategies.

• Work closely with data governance and security to ensure compliance with privacy regulations (e.g., NIST, HIPAA) when working with healthcare data; and address bias and fairness issues in AI models when dealing with sensitive health data.
• Keep abreast of emerging trends and advancements in AI research to propose innovative solutions to healthcare challenges.

• It is anticipated that this position will be remote and requires work be performed at an off‑site, non‑campus work location.
• Terminal, 24‑month position.
• This position has the possibility to be extended or converted to an ongoing appointment based on need and/or funding.

• Organizes and automates project steps for data preparation and analysis.
• Documents approaches to address research questions and contributes to the establishment of reproducible research methodologies and analysis workflows.
• Prepares data sets for analysis including cleaning/quality assurance, transformations, restructuring, and integration of multiple data sources.
• Serves as an institutional subject matter expert and liaison to key internal and external stakeholders regarding data science best practices and methodologies and represents the interests of data science.
• Identifies and implements or guides others in implementing appropriate data science techniques to find data patterns and answer research questions chosen by the lead researcher including data visualization, statistical analysis, machine learning, and data mining.
• Develops and optimizes advanced computational algorithms using Artificial Intelligence (AI), Machine Learning (ML), regression, and rules‑based models.
• Composes and assembles reproducible workflows and reports to clearly articulate patterns to researchers and/or administrators.

School of Medicine and Public Health, Office of Informatics and Information Technology, Data Science to Promote Precision Medicine.

The UW School of Medicine and Public Health (SMPH) is a leader in research and innovation,…