Research Data Scientist

$62,630 - $115,426/Yr

Southwest Research Institute - Austin, TX

Full-time - Mid Level

Remote - Austin, TX

Professional, Scientific, and Technical Services

About the position

The successful candidate will be based in our Austin, TX facility and will support numerous research & development and test & evaluation projects related to defense, forensics, and national security. The candidate will be based in our Austin, TX headquarters within the Quality Assurance & Data Science Business Area. The candidate must be motivated to contribute in a team environment, collaborate across multiple scientific and technical disciplines, and be excited to develop new skills. The candidate must have the flexibility to balance multiple ongoing tasks while operating efficiently with minimal supervision. As needed, the candidate should be able to direct others to accomplish project tasks. The candidate must be detail-oriented and be able to appropriately document their work. Job functions will include performing data analytics and statistical analyses, training and optimizing machine learning and predictive models, generating visualizations, and developing automated data processing pipelines on chemical, biological, radio frequency (RF), visual (imagery), and text-based data.

Responsibilities

• Performs data analytics, specifically data clean-up, data processing, machine learning modeling, statistical analysis, multivariate data analysis, and/or data visualization, as related to scientific data.
• Applies technical skills to plan and execute assigned project work including development of data pre-processing routines, data summarizations, data visualizations and plotting, development and application of machine learning and artificial intelligence models, development of detection algorithms, and development and deployment automated processing pipelines.
• Maintains operational capabilities of computational assets as needed by project requirements.
• Leads meetings with company clients by preparing and presenting materials in meetings.
• Appropriately annotates developed computer code/scripts with comments and through user guides/manuals.
• Performs maintenance and updates of scripts/code for routine data analysis.
• Presents technical results through the drafting of technical reports and presentation materials.
• Presents experimental results and recommended actions at internal project meetings.
• Supports business development efforts as needed by drafting technical sections of proposals, providing proposal review, assessing levels of effort required to complete proposed work, and brainstorming technical solutions to client problems.
• Other duties as assigned.

Requirements

• Proficiency in performing data analytics, predictive analytics, machine learning, multivariate data analysis, and data mining as it relates to scientific data.
• Software programming/scripting proficiency in R, Python, Java, and/or MATLAB.
• Experience and proficiency with Microsoft Excel, Word, and Powerpoint.
• Strong analytical, organizational, and problem-solving abilities are required.
• Ability to lead group of co-workers in execution of a task.
• Working knowledge of statistics, experimental error, and quantification as it applies to scientific data.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills.
• Ability to communicate technical information to non-technical audiences.
• Competent in using Linux/Unix operating system command line interface.
• Ability to work independently and to interact effectively with individuals on multi-disciplinary teams.
• Team player with a positive attitude.

Nice-to-haves

• Experience in analytical chemistry or biochemistry including chromatography, mass spectrometry, spectroscopy, hyperspectral imaging, proteomics, metabolomics, RF signal processing, genomics, or other biochemical analysis methods.
• Experience in developing proteomics or metabolomics data analysis pipelines.
• Experience with NextFlow, SnakeMake, or similar workflow/pipeline management systems.
• Experience in developing natural language processing (NLP) and/or machine vision models.
• Previous research and development experience related to chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear, and/or explosive (CBRNE) threats.
• Working knowledge of good software development practices such as version control systems (e.g., Git) and Agile development (e.g., workflows, sprints).
• Ability to develop and query relational databases (MySQL or similar).
• Familiarity with Amazon Web Services (AWS), Google Cloud Platform, or Microsoft Azure cloud computing.
• Ability to think creatively, demonstrate curiosity, and lead research teams.
• Sufficient business knowledge to support marketing, and bids and proposal efforts.

Benefits

• 401(k)
• Dental insurance
• Health insurance