How to Apply

A cover letter is required for consideration for this position and should be included as the first page of your resume. The cover letter should address your specific interest in the position and outline skills and experience that directly relate to this position.

Summary

The Michigan Institute for Data Science (MIDAS) seeks a Data Scientist.

MIDAS is an organization under the University of Michigan Office of Research. Our mission is to strengthen U-M’s preeminence in Data Science and Artificial Intelligence (AI), and enable their transformative use in a wide range of research disciplines to achieve lasting societal impact. We lead strategic thrusts in Data Science and AI research; enable collaborative grants, provide research training, and build research resources. Through these approaches, we facilitate the development of cutting-edge methods and the application of these methods to important problems in all research disciplines. We foster a world-class Data Science and AI research community at U-M and promote its diversity and inclusion. We also build coalitions with academia, industry, government and the community, and support data-to-insight transfer for positive social change.

The Data Scientist will focus on improving the data science and AI research capacity and infrastructure, through coordinating and developing research tools and resources, translating cutting-edge methodology research into practical solutions that benefit multiple domains, planning and teaching technical workshops for researchers, facilitating the development of groundbreaking research ideas and teams, and occasionally providing consultation to researchers.

The culture of the MIDAS core team is one that strives toward shared goals through collaboration, creativity, initiative, and excellence. We continuously develop a diverse range of new programs and improve existing ones. The ideal candidate will be a team player who is willing to take initiative, thinks out of the box, and enjoys a fast-paced environment.

Responsibilities*

• Research support (90%):
  • Develop resources that improve the research capacity across research domains (40%). Examples include tools to make the research workflow fully reproducible; algorithms that apply a cutting-edge analytical method to a set of research questions in one research field; open data and open source code development. The data scientist will both coordinate such effort with other researchers, and participate in the hands-on work.
  • Facilitate the development of innovative research ideas and teams (10%);
  • Coordinate and participate in developing and delivering technical training for faculty, staff and postdoctoral researchers (20%).
  • Support communities of practice in data science and AI (10%).
  • Other research activities, including participating in research proposals and projects and providing consultation to researchers (10%).
• Communication and Administrative (10%):
  • For MIDAS research and related activities, collect data and assist in evaluation in order to assess program effectiveness, develop contents for reports.
  • Develop scientific contents for website and newsletter, promotional materials and other forms of dissemination.

Required Qualifications*

• PhD degree in a quantitative field;
• More than 3 years of experience in one or more essential areas of data science and AI research, for example:
  • Databases and data management.
  • Software engineering.
  • Using at least one programming language to construct full research pipelines, including data ingestion / clean-up, modeling, visualization and analysis.
  • Machine learning.
  • Modern statistical methods.
• Experience with collaborative online research platforms, such as GitHub, GitLab, and distributed revision control.
• Conceptual understanding of at least one of the MIDAS focus areas:
  • Responsible data science and AI;
  • Social science research with diverse data types (text, image, video, digital trace, etc).
  • Cutting-edge analytics to advance healthcare research.
  • AI enabled science and engineering research.
  • The application of AI methods to facilitate science and engineering research.
• Professionalism, strong work ethic, demonstrated sense of responsibility, discretion and reliability.
• Ability to set priorities, exercise initiative, solve problems, adapt to changes quickly, make independent judgments, and work effectively both independently and collaboratively as part of a team.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills; timely and consistent communication and follow-through with the leadership, the team and stakeholders.
• Strong interpersonal skills and the ability to drive consensus.
• Strong organizational skills and attention to detail.

Desired Qualifications*

• More than three years of employment experience in one or more essential areas of data science and AI research.
• Broad interest in data science and AI and their application domains.
• Teaching experience in data science and AI.
• Experience engaging with highly technical researchers across a variety of methodological fields, research domains, and computational platforms.
• A track record of productive research, reflected in publications, projects, and current and past collaborations.
• Familiarity with the U-M research environment.

Underfill Statement

This position may be filled at the HR title of Research Area Specialist Senior or Research Area Specialist Intermediate, depending on the experience and qualifications of the selected applicant.

Background Screening

The University of Michigan conducts background checks on all job candidates upon acceptance of a contingent offer and may use a third party administrator to conduct background checks. Background checks are performed in compliance with the Fair Credit Reporting Act.

Application Deadline

Job openings are posted for a minimum of seven calendar days. The review and selection process may begin as early as the eighth day after posting. This opening may be removed from posting boards and filled anytime after the minimum posting period has ended.

U-M EEO/AA Statement

The University of Michigan is an equal opportunity/affirmative action employer.

U-M COVID-19 Vaccination Policy

COVID-19 vaccinations, including one booster when eligible, are required for all University of Michigan students, faculty and staff across all campuses, including Michigan Medicine. This includes those working remotely and temporary workers. More information on this new policy is available on the U-M Health Response website or the UM-Dearborn and UM-Flint websites.