Postdoctoral Research Associate, Computational & Community - Engaged Precision Health Research

The University of Virginia Precision Health Initiative is seeking highly qualified applicants for a one-year Postdoctoral Research Associate position renewable annually for up to three years based on performance and funding. This position is part of the Provost's Office Grand Challenges Precision Health Initiative, which supports transdisciplinary research and training to optimize health outcomes for individuals and entire populations, across a wide range of complex and chronic diseases. The UVA Precision Health Initiative conducts research that engages populations in Virginia to generate new discoveries, with the goal of improving the health of all Virginians.

The candidate will contribute to implementing research initiatives that apply big-data analytics, data science, and community-engaged methods to improve both individual and population health outcomes in conjunction with faculty from the School of Medicine (Department of Public Health and Center for Public Health Genomics) and the School of Nursing (Department of Nursing Research). Mentorship will be provided by senior colleagues, Drs. Ishan Williams and Ariel Williams. Candidates will gain comprehensive mentorship and training in precision health, spanning computational data analysis, community-based participatory research, community needs assessments, partnership-building, and related grant development opportunities.

The successful candidate will be embedded within an innovative program bridgingcomputational biomedical informaticsandcommunity-engaged research, with scientific focus areas including:

• All of Us Research Program

• Genomic and Electronic health record (EHR) integration

• Community partnership-driven research

Responsibilities:

• Conduct statistical and computational analyses usingR, Python, SAS, and/or SQL

• Support cloud-based analytics in environments such as All of Us Research Program, Terra or Google Cloud Platform (GCP)

• Integrate multimodal datasets (EHR + genomics and other omics)

• Lead data cleaning, pipeline development, visualization, and reproducibility efforts

• Help formalize University-Community agreements and protocols for conducting community-engaged research

• Assist with developing surveys for a cohort study

• Conduct community needs assessments

• Assist with health literacy/education information and community education forums

• Assist with targeted team training on the responsible conduct of community engaged population research

• Lead and co-author papers for submission to peer-reviewed journals

• Communicate research findings at key conferences and within community settings/organizations

• Contribute to the submission of federal and foundation grant proposals

• Provide near-peer-mentorship to PhD students and other early-career-scholars on the research team

• Project management and grant submission tasks as needed

• Other tasks including various writing and content creation (e.g., research briefs to partners), tool development, technical assistance, and presentations

• Participate in UVA Precision Health Initiative Events, including, but not limited to: Seminar Series, Grand Rounds, Research in Progress Presentations, Relevant Training Workshops, etc. through regular attendance and presentation at least once per year. Will be invited to play an active role in planning the annual symposium and hosting speakers for seminars and other events

Qualifications:

Education: An earned Ph.D. in a research-oriented field, Bioinformatics, Computational Biology, Biostatistics, Genomics, Data Science, Nursing, Public Health, Biology, Biomedical Sciences or a related field is required by the start date of the position.

Experience: The ideal candidate is an early-career researcher with prior experience conducting community based participatory research, working with large datasets and cutting-edge statistical methods, and some knowledge or interest in public health, and/or health disparities.

Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities:

• Content expertise in some of the following areas: public health, health disparities, community based participatory research, and ethics training.

• Methods expertise in one or more of the following areas:

  • Proficiency inR, Python, SAS, or SQL

  • Strong scientific writing and communication skills

  • Survey data analysis; research-practice partnerships; conducting applied research in community settings.

Preferred Expertise:

• Familiarity withAll of Us Researcher Workbenchor similar platforms (UK Biobank, Biobank Japan, FinnGen, BioVU, eMERGE, etc.)

• Experience withbig data, EHR datasets, or genomics / multi-omics

• Proficient with Box, RedCap, Google Suite, Microsoft Suite (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, Teams), Zoom, Qualtrics or similar survey data collection tools, and ability to learn new software quickly and introduce new useful applications and platforms to the team.

Compensation:

The Anticipated Hiring Range for this position is $62,232 to $65,640, commensurate with qualifications. For more information on the benefits available to postdoctoral associates at UVA, visit postdoc.virginia.edu and https://hr.virginia.edu/benefits.

For this position, the selected candidate will need to complete the required background checks prior to the start date of the position.

Physical Demands:

This is primarily a sedentary job involving extensive use of desktop computers. The job occasionally requires local and regional travel to attend in-person meetings with research team members, and walking some distance to attend meetings, and programs.

To Apply:

Apply online at http://jobs.virginia.edu/us/en/job/R0078418/Postdoctoral-Research-Associate-Computational-&-Community-Engaged-Precision-Health-Research.Complete the application, and upload the following Required materials:

• Cover letter (addressed to Ishan Williams)

• CV/Resume

• Coding Sample (Should correspond to a primary research project)

• Statement of research interests (including community engagement experiences and working with diverse populations, and future directions)

• Contact information for three references who can comment on your scholarly accomplishments and potential.

* Please submit all materials into the CV/Resume submission field; multiple documents can be submitted into this one field. You can combine all of your materials together into one PDF document and submit them. Internal applicants must apply through their UVA Workday profile.Applications that are missing materials will not receive full consideration.

For questions about the position, please contact Dr. Ishan Williams at icw8t@virginia.edu. Questions regarding the application process should be directed to Marcus Rozier, Academic Recruiter, at hjv5vm@virginia.edu.

This is a restricted position and Research Associates are appointed annually. Continuation is dependent upon satisfactory performance and the availability of funding.

Review of applications will begin 10 days after posting and will remain open until filled.

The University of Virginia is an equal opportunity employer. All interested persons are encouraged to apply, including veterans and individuals with disabilities. Click here to read more about UVA's commitment to non-discrimination and equal opportunity employment.