Senior Research Assistant

Please see Special Instructions for more details.

Reference letters will be requested only if you are selected for further consideration.

Proposed

Start Date:

02/02/2026

Rank: K1 - Senior research Asst I

Working Title:

Senior Research Assistant I

Position Number: D93203

Representation: AU - AAUP

Faculty Type:
Fixed Term Research/Grant

Fixed Term End Date: 01/31/2027

Position FTE:
Variable between .5 and 1.0 FTE, starting at 1.0 FTE

The Senior Research Assistant I (SRA I) will assist in the technical management of two transportation data projects that archive diverse transportation data sources and provide access and analysis through a website to transportation professionals. The SRA I will also help with:

• Performing basic statistical analyses.
• Managing and maintaining our databases.
• Coordinating and developing data collection procedures.

The two transportation data projects are PORTAL and Bike Ped Portal
. PORTAL is the official Portland-Vancouver Metropolitan regional transportation data archive. It provides a centralized database that facilitates the collection, archiving, and sharing of data and information for the region’s transportation agencies. Data sources include 20‑second granularity loop detector data from freeways throughout the Portland‑Vancouver area, arterial signals, travel time, freight volumes, transit, incidence, VAS / VMS message, and weather data.

Many of these data sources are received by PORTAL in real‑time. Bike Ped Portal is a national non‑motorized count data archive. Like PORTAL it is a centralized database that collects, archives, and shares data for public agencies, researchers, educators, and other curious members of the public.

Managing these two projects, and future transportation data projects, require that the SRA I assist with the management and performance of all back‑end development. Some front‑end experience is desirable but not immediately necessary. PORTAL and Bike Ped Portal use Postgre

SQL to store data. The 28+ terabyte database consists of hundreds of tables varying in sizes from a few gigabytes to a few terabytes. The data comes from approximately 10 transportation agencies and is transferred via API and secure data transfer methods. The SRA I will assist with managing or maintaining the data feeds and the data in the database, and help build and design any additional data architecture needed to continue current and future data projects.

In addition to the database, PORTAL and Bike Ped Portal provide web sites where users can access and visualize the data so some front‑end experience or familiarity is desirable but not necessary. We expect this position to grow with increasing responsibility.

• Database and Website Management (90%)
• Other duties assigned (10%)

The SRA I will be responsible for helping with managing or maintaining the data feeds and the data in the database. In addition to the database, PORTAL and Bike Ped Portal provide web sites where users can access and visualize the data. The SRA I will help manage and maintain primarily the back‑end of the web interface with some front‑end work, and help in developing new analysis and visualization applications and tools for both projects.

Other duties assigned at the discretion of the supervisor, which may include troubleshooting and some management of other web related projects that may come up.

Primary Activity: R – Research

• 2+ years of relevant data engineering experience.
• Deep familiarity with Postgre
  
  SQL (or another relational database) and Python.
• 2+ years of PL/SQL experience.
• Advanced understanding of working with big data (>20 TB) and concurrently managing multiple data sources, database tuning such as changing parameters, creating indexes, partitioning tables, and clustering data.
• Very good at creating complex queries and analyzing data.
• 2+ years of experience working with Linux, including installing packages, scheduling cron jobs, diagnosing problems, and connecting to servers remotely with SSH or similar tools.
• 2+ years of experience with back‑end development environments:
  Django framework, Code Igniter framework, and building and…