Research Scientist​/Engineer - Department of Global Health

Research Scientist/Engineer 3

The Department of Global Health has an outstanding opportunity for a Research Scientist/Engineer 3 to join their team. Reporting to Principal Investigator Dr. Kristen Danforth, the Research Scientist/Engineer 3 will support a suite of projects studying the implementation and scale up of services for the prevention and treatment of rheumatic heart disease (RHD). The program ("ADUNU")—a partnership of the Uganda Heart Institute, the RHD Research Collaborative of Uganda, and the Ugandan Ministry of Health—is the first large-scale, replicable model for RHD early detection and longitudinal care.

ADUNU trains nurses to perform echo cardiographic screening in clinics, schools, and communities, builds confirmatory diagnostic capacity, and uses a national cloud-based registry (the ACT platform) to track patients and support delivery of secondary prophylaxis. The program is now scaling up and expanding to additional districts in Uganda and RHD endemic countries.

Data collection design (40%)

• Develop survey questions assessing implementation contexts, processes, and outcomes through application of existing and emerging scientific knowledge and best practices
• Work with local teams in partner countries to facilitate data collection
• Developing and finalizing data collection tools, ensuring data collection activities align with SOPs, adhering to study timelines, and troubleshooting data collection challenges with support of full study teams
• Design qualitative interview guides and/or focus group discussion guides informed by implementation research frameworks
• Lead the methodological design and research strategy for the Implementation Science and Economic work groups.

Data analysis (40%)

• Ownership of processing and analyzing qualitative data for the University of Washington team
• Independently conduct analyses of qualitative data and support quantitative data analysis
• Lead authorship on research findings for publication and drive dissemination efforts
• Collaborate with project team members in interpreting data and preparing technical and programmatic reports, graphic displays of data, and manuscripts for publication, contributing scientific knowledge and training in research methodology
• Maintain complete, accurate, legible records. Thoroughly document any modifications.

Manage Research Activities (10%)

• Write and maintain IRB protocols, deadlines and approvals. This includes the UW IRB as well as any required partner IRB review
• Respond to program implementation requests from local partner teams
• Contribute to the writing of study status reports to funders as requested

Other (10%)

• Attend regular meetings across work groups
• Communicating with collaborators
• Other duties as assigned

To be considered for this opportunity your application must demonstrate you meet both the minimum qualifications and additional qualifications listed below. Equivalent education and/or experience may substitute for minimum qualifications except when there are legal requirements, such as a license, certification, and/or registration

Minimum Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Public Health, Public Policy, Epidemiology or a related field and four years of relevant experience in qualitative data collection and analysis and formal training in quantitative data collection and analysis
• Equivalent education and/or experience may substitute for minimum qualifications except when there are legal requirements, such as a license, certification, and/or registration

Preferred Qualifications

• Training or experience in implementation science OR health economics research
• Familiarity with UW systems such as Zipline (IRB) and REDCap
• Strong communication skills (oral, writing, presentations)
• Skilled in using Microsoft office and Canva
• Master's degree in public health plus 2 years of experience or Doctoral Degree in Public Policy, Epidemiology or related field
• Experience in qualitative data collection and analysis
• Formal training in quantitative data collection and analysis

• Travel to low-resource settings (e.g. Uganda) required 1-2x per year; travel within US required (1-2x per year)
• Periodically…