Senior Research Assistant

Overview

Position Announcement

Position Details

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 | Term of Service 12 month

Brief Description of PSU/School/Dept

The Transportation Research and Education Center (TREC) at Portland State University (PSU) is a multidisciplinary hub for all things transportation. We are home to the Initiative for Bicycle and Pedestrian Innovation (IBPI), the data programs PORTAL and Bike Ped Portal
, the Better Block PSU program, and PSU’s membership in Pac Trans, the Pacific Northwest Transportation Consortium
. Our continuing goal is to produce impactful research and tools for transportation decision makers, expand the diversity and capacity of the workforce, and engage students and professionals through education, seminars, and participation in research.

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; and
• 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, requires 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 size 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 websites 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%)

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 websites 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 (10%)

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

Minimum Qualifications

Bachelor’s or Master’s Degree with at least two years relevant experience.

• 2+ years of relevant data…