The University of Wisconsin–Madison’s Population Health Institute is seeking a Data Scientist II or III to help illuminate the drivers of health and health equity through advanced analytics. The role blends rigorous statistical practice with reproducible workflows and interactive dashboards, delivering actionable insights to researchers and local decision-makers. This position may be hybrid, with some onsite work in Madison, Wisconsin.
Location and Work Arrangement
Madison, Wisconsin, with a hybrid work setup that may require some onsite presence.
Compensation and Benefits
The starting salary is $85,000 per year, negotiable based on experience and qualifications.
- Generous vacation, holidays, and sick leave
- Competitive health, dental, and other insurance options
- Retirement benefits and savings opportunities
Responsibilities
- Develop reproducible data workflows and reports that clearly convey patterns to researchers and administrators
- Prepare analysis-ready datasets through cleaning, quality assurance, transformations, restructuring, and integrating multiple data sources
- Document methods addressing research questions and contribute to reproducible research practices and analysis workflows
- Independently select and apply data science techniques to uncover data patterns and answer research questions defined by the lead researcher, including visualization, statistical analysis, machine learning, and data mining
- Organize and automate project steps for data preparation and analysis
Required Qualifications
- At least five years of relevant experience in health-related applied research, statistics, and analytics
- Advanced proficiency with Python and R for statistical analysis
- Experience using and managing workflows on open-source platforms like GitHub for version control and collaboration
- Proficiency in interactive dashboards and applications built with Shiny, Quarto, Streamlit, or Dash for visualization and dissemination
- Experience handling diverse datasets, including national mortality, community health indicators and outcomes, and non-traditional sources such as grassroots reporting or social media mining
- Experience developing analytic approaches to improve data management, analysis, visualization, and presentation, including data quality frameworks
Preferred Qualifications
- Proficiency in SQL for querying and optimizing large relational datasets
- Strong understanding of cloud data ecosystems, including storage, warehousing, data pipelines, and big data processing; experience with AWS, Azure, or GCP and tools like Snowflake, Spark, and Databricks is highly desirable
- Familiarity with building data extraction processes, including APIs and automated ETL pipelines
- Ability to identify data needs, curate data from multiple sources, assess limitations and data quality, and document for specific uses
- Interest in integrating Generative AI/LLMs to enhance data analysis and to build conversational tools that help public users explore data products
Education
Data Scientist II: Master’s degree in Population Health, Epidemiology, Data Science, or a related field is preferred. Data Scientist III: PhD in Population Health, Epidemiology, Data Science, or a related field is preferred.
Technologies
R, Python, SQL, GitHub, Shiny, Quarto, Streamlit, Dash, AWS, Azure, GCP, Snowflake, Spark, Databricks
Department
School of Medicine and Public Health, Population Health Institute
How to Apply
For the best experience completing your application, use Chrome or Firefox. To apply, choose either “I am a current employee” or “I am not a current employee,” then upload your materials. The application has a single attachment field; include a cover letter and resume, either as one combined file or multiple files in that field.
Contact Information
Brittany Brown, brittany.brown@wisc.edu, 608-265-2978
Diversity and Inclusion
Diversity is a source of strength, creativity, and innovation at UW–Madison. We value the contributions of every person and are committed to equity and inclusion in teaching, research, outreach, and service. UW–Madison is an Equal Opportunity Employer. Qualified applicants will be considered regardless of race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, national origin, age, pregnancy, disability, or veteran status. Reasonable accommodations for applicants with disabilities or pregnancy-related needs can be requested at any stage of the process. Employment may require a criminal background check and references may be asked to discuss past misconduct; the university provides safety and security information in accordance with applicable policies.
