Summary

We are seeking a database analyst and programmer to provide key data extraction, management, exploratory data analysis, and reporting services to research investigators working with healthcare administrative and electronic health record data. The ideal candidate will have database management experience and will be skilled in using SQL, SAS, and other statistical programming tools (e.g., R Stats). Essential to the role is a dedication to assessing and communicating the quality of data sources and iterative problem-solving in partnership with research investigators to arrive at optimal approaches to data preparation and analysis to answer essential research questions. Excellent verbal and written communication skills are essential to success in this role in collaborating with research teams. Current projects are related to Military Exposures among Veterans.

This position is located within IQuESt, the Center for Innovation in Quality, Effectiveness, and Safety. We are the largest center for Health Services Research within the Southwest. We conduct high-quality scientific research that improves the health of patients across the nation, by helping to ensure the patient-centered delivery of scientific discoveries.

This position is eligible to work three days from the office and two days from home. 

Job Duties

• Prepares detailed specifications from which programs will be written. In partnership with research investigators, documents data extraction, data preparation (including linking datasets), data management, and data analysis plans for research projects.
• Designs, codes, tests, debugs, documents, and maintains programs that support answering a range of research questions. Includes designing for reproducibility through programming and documentation that maps the path from original datasets through quality checks and analysis decisions to analysis output. Designs and develops research software.
• Designs and develops research databases (e.g., using MS Access) for research participant recruiting and tracking and/or for research project data management. Configures and customizes third-party software.
• Configures and customizes data management and statistical software for specific research project needs.
• Advises on hardware and software decisions.
• Advises research investigators and staff on hardware and software that are appropriate for specific research needs and approved for use by the organization.
• Applies existing custom research software to both well-defined and complex problems. Applies existing custom research software previously developed by others as part of long-term research projects, adapting as needed for changes in data sources and new research questions. May provide technical guidance and work direction to lower-level information systems personnel.
• Serves as a technical resource for research investigators and research staff.
• Provides technical expertise as an essential member of collaborative research teams.
• Extracts, manages, and analyzes data in a cloud-computing environment (e.g., VA VINCI).
• Organizes and manipulates administrative health care data and electronic health record data to support answering health services research questions.
• Monitors changes to data sources that may affect data quality or usefulness. 
• Alerts team members to potential data quality issues.
• Communicates with corporate data warehouse managers on behalf of the project team for data acquisition and troubleshooting.
• Prepares datasets in consultation with research statisticians and methodologists to support complex analyses.
• Supports team functioning by using shared project folders and sharing code with other analysts. 
• Demonstrates a commitment to quality and attention to detail.
• Provides and documents thorough validation of data so that investigators can be confident that prepared datasets are appropriate for answering research questions.
• Attends and actively participates in project team meetings.
• Performs other job-related duties as assigned. 

Minimum Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree. Two years of relevant experience may substitute for degree requirement.
• Two years of relevant experience.

Department - Specific Requirements

• SQL and R programming.
• Machine Learning and NLP.

Preferred Qualifications and Skills

• Master's or PhD degree in Statistics, Data Science, Management Information Systems, Computer Science, or an allied science related field.
• Experience with data extraction, transformation, and loading from a large healthcare data. 
• Excellent verbal and written communication are essential to success in this role for collaborating with research teams.