Research Assistant​/ Technician 2

Staff
- Non Union

Job Category Non Union Technicians and Research Assistants

Job Profile Non Union Salaried
- Research Assistant /Technician 2

Job Title Research Assistant/ Technician 2

Department Naturalistic Neuroimaging Lab | Department of Psychiatry | Faculty of Medicine

Compensation Range $4,463.88 - $5,310.28 CAD Monthly

Posting End Date August 12, 2026

Note:

Applications will be accepted until 11:59 PM on the Posting End Date.

Job End Date August 9, 2027

At UBC, we believe that attracting and sustaining a diverse workforce is key to the successful pursuit of excellence in research, innovation, and learning for all faculty, staff and students. Our commitment to employment equity helps achieve inclusion and fairness, brings rich diversity to UBC as a workplace, and creates the necessary conditions for a rewarding career.

We are seeking a research assistant to be a member of the Naturalistic Neuroimaging Lab (PI: Tamara Vanderwal). Our lab uses complex, dynamic conditions to study neural and physiological responses in child psychiatric disorders, with a focus on adolescent depression. We primarily use movie-fMRI, but also conduct eye-tracking, behavioural, and other types of studies with children and youth of all ages.

The lab is located at BC Children’s Hospital, and we run research participants both at BCCHR and sometimes at UBC.

This is a full time (1.0

FTE) research assistant position that requires both technical aptitudes (e.g., basic coding, working with sensitive equipment) and people skills (e.g., working with children and families with mental health issues in a research setting). The RA will help facilitate the day-to-day working of the lab, with a focus on data collection and running experimental sessions with children and youth.

The RA will be a member of the NNL and will report directly to Dr. Vanderwal.

The RA will work on many different research projects that are at different stages. They will help support various lab activities including knowledge translation and educational workshops, teaching, etc. Duties will change over time based on research cycles, and will include:

• Preparing Research Ethics Board submissions for new study protocols. This includes synthesizing information from grant applications, team discussions, and meetings with the PI into an online portal called Research Information Systems (RISe).
• Creating and updating REDCap databases
• Leading recruitment activities for studies, including creating and posting both online and hardcopy recruitment materials, answering emails and messages from potential participants, and screening participants for various studies
• Coordinating study visits and MRI scan sessions
• Consenting and assenting children and families, and running experimental study sessions both in the neurophysiological lab and at the MRI research facility. For example, this sometimes includes showing movies and task-based stimuli to the participant via a computer using specific software programs, attaching electrodes to a participant’s body to collect information about their heartrate or skin, or using eye-tracking technology. The RA’s job is to help the participant understand and feel comfortable with the study procedures, and to ensure that high-quality data is collected during the session.
• Conducting some stages of data preprocessing and basic statistical analyses
• Responsibility for proper storage and organization of research data
• Conducting literature searches, maintaining literature databases, providing summaries
• Helping with manuscript and grant writing, including figure preparation, tables, references, proofreading, preparing submission documents, etc.
• Assist PI with the development of lab processes, manuals, onboarding documents, and tracking of expenses. This includes making updates as instructed to lab onboarding materials and writing out step-by-step instructions for using certain equipment (basically documenting what they have been taught by the PI, graduate students, and their own learning from tutorials and manuals). These materials are used by students and trainees in the lab, and the RA will play a role together with…