Senior Data Scientist

Agency

Department

About Texas A&M AgriLife

Texas A&M AgriLife is comprised of the following Texas A&M University System members:

• Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service
• Texas A&M AgriLife Research
• College of Agriculture and Life Sciences at Texas A&M University
• Texas A&M Forest Service
• Texas A&M Veterinary Medical Diagnostic Laboratory

As the nation’s largest most comprehensive agriculture program, Texas A&M AgriLife brings together a college and four state agencies focused on agriculture and life sciences within The Texas A&M University System. With over 5,000 employees and a presence in every county across the state, Texas A&M AgriLife is uniquely positioned to improve lives, environments and the Texas economy through education, research, extension and service.

Click here to learn more about how you can be a part of AgriLife and make a difference in the world!

Position Information

Texas A&M AgriLife’s Institute for Advancing Health Through Agriculture (IHA) Healthy Living program, based at the AgriLife Center at Dallas, seeks a highly skilled and experienced Senior Data Scientist to work in close collaboration and coordination with the Healthy Living team, led by IHA Associate director, Dr. Rebecca Seguin-Fowler, whose work focuses on community-based research to promote health and reduce chronic disease. This position requires a dynamic combination of analytical expertise, research proficiency, and leadership skills to drive impactful community-focused research.

Texas A&M AgriLife is an organization that supports healthy living for all Texans, through the research of targeted agricultural practices that yield nutritious food sources, outreach programs that train community members on growing their own food, and preservation of natural resources via eco-friendly means, all while following practices that lead to a stronger Texas economy. Overseen by the Office of the Vice Chancellor and Dean for the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, Texas A&M AgriLife includes the Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service, Texas A&M AgriLife Research, the College of Agriculture & Life Sciences at Texas A&M University, Texas A&M Forest Service, and Texas A&M Veterinary Medical Diagnostic Laboratory.

The Texas A&M AgriLife Institute for Advancing Health Through Agriculture (IHA) is the world’s first academic institute to bring together precision nutrition, responsive agriculture, and social and behavioral research to reduce diet-related chronic disease in a way that considers environmental and economic effects. The IHA comprises three focus areas—healthy living, precision nutrition, and responsive agriculture—and unites experts from various fields such as agriculture, nutrition, behavioral sciences, social sciences, life sciences, engineering, data and computation science, and economics.

Healthy Living programs implement, evaluate, and disseminate scientific solutions, applicable to all Texans, for improved public health. The Healthy Living Team works on a broad portfolio of extramurally funded, community-engaged research and active collaborations with community partners, cooperative extension, and many academic and nonprofit organizations throughout Texas and beyond. We aim to understand the means of building communities around healthy living and about facilitating the delivery of current, accurate, evidence-based programs, guidelines, and information that supports healthier living for Texans. Areas of particular interest to Healthy Living include food access; food systems; food and nutrition insecurity; dietary patterns and behaviors; diet/food intervention and program development and evaluation; physical activity behaviors and intervention development; policy system and environmental change; citizen science and community engaged research; and mHealth technologies for monitoring, assessment, and interventions.

The IHA’s Healthy Living program is housed at the Texas A&M AgriLife Center at Dallas, which focuses on scientific research, public outreach, and education programs. The Center is a regional hub for all Texas A&M AgriLife activity. It is one of 13 AgriLife Centers across the state - each focusing on issues specific to their region. Initiatives at Dallas hinge on healthy living, urban agriculture and forestry, and water and land resource management.

The Senior Data Scientist will provide a wide range of advanced statistical expertise, guidance, and support to researchers, staff scientists, faculty, and research teams. Primary responsibilities include leading project conceptualization, development, implementation, and evaluation; managing and overseeing the use of appropriate analysis methods and techniques in the research, design, and implementation of data analytics; leading analysis reports and results sections of academic manuscripts; and supporting grant proposal development.

Responsibilities

• Manage and oversee the use of appropriate methods and techniques in the research, design and implementation of data analytics.
• Provide direction for development of advanced statistical research/modeling activity along with predictive modeling.
• Provide expertise in statistical/data analysis (e.g., generalized linear modeling/regression), data science management, data mining, data visualization both for research and communication with stakeholders and audiences, predictive modeling, security.
• Lead research project conceptualization, development, implementation, and evaluation.
• Contribute to the development of grant proposals to secure funding for research initiatives: designs the statistical plan, including power and sample size calculations, or funding proposals for a variety of study designs such as randomized controlled trials, community-randomized trials, and longitudinal cohorts.
• Analyzes and interprets data using accepted statistical methods, including mixed models for clustered randomized trials.
• Guides staff on models and develops training of used statistical methods and techniques.
• Identifies (and leads applications/proposals for access when necessary) public use data sets for use in various projects and papers
• Provides management and oversight of the documentation of statistical methods and techniques used in the preparation and statistical analysis algorithms. Recommends actions for review based on findings and assist with the implementation of activities.
• Oversees documentation of the entire process of statistical approaches and techniques used in preparation and statistical analysis. Provides clear and concise set of findings.
• Prepares reports and analysis and results sections of manuscripts and presentations, including written descriptions of methods and summarizing results in text, tabular, and graphic form.
• Other duties as assigned.

Required Qualifications:

• Bachelor’s degree in related field (e.g., nutrition, public health, epidemiology) or equivalent combination of education and experience.
• Ten years of related experience.
• Proficiency in statistical programming languages (e.g., R, SPSS, STATA, SAS), interactive data visualization tools (e.g., Tableau, Power BI), and database applications. Knowledge of use of data mining.
• Demonstrated experience leading the preparation of research manuscripts and securing grant funding.
• Experience with human subjects research and working on research grants.
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills with ability to effectively communicate with faculty and staff.
• Detail oriented and ability to organize tasks and prioritize work with minimal supervision.

Preferred Qualifications:

• Experience working with and accessing national data sets (e.g., NHANES, WHI, Framingham Heart Study, etc.).
• Experience developing valid, reliable composite scoring and screening instruments (e.g., Life’s Simple 7; dietary screeners; etc.).
• Experience supervising, mentoring, or managing research staff and providing technical guidance and support to research staff on data management, analysis, and project execution.
• Knowledge and understanding of the mission and role of the Land Grant University System, including community-campus partnership and the Extension system.

What You Need to Know

Salary: Compensation for this position is commensurate based on the selected candidate’s qualifications.

Flexible Work Arrangements: Flexible work schedule and remote work may be available for this position, pending employee eligibility requirements are met in accordance with AgriLife Alternate Work Location Procedures. Please note that this procedure is subject to change at any time without prior notice.

Why Work at Texas A&M AgriLife?

When you choose to work for Texas A&M AgriLife, you become part of an organization that is an established leader in agriculture and life sciences with a wide range of capabilities to meet the needs of our statewide, national, and international constituents.

In addition, Texas A&M AgriLife offers a comprehensive benefit packing including the following:

• Health, dental, vision, life and long-term disability insurance with Texas A&M AgriLife contributing to employee health and basic life premiums 
• 12-15 days of annual paid holidays  
• Up to eight hours of paid sick leave and at least eight hours of paid vacation each month
• Automatic enrollment in the Teacher Retirement System of Texas  
• Employee Wellness Initiative for Texas A&M AgriLife

Applicant Instructions

Applications received by Texas A&M AgriLife must either have all job application data entered or a resume attached. Failure to provide all job application data or a complete resume could result in an invalid submission and a rejected application. We encourage all applicants to upload a resume or use a LinkedIn profile to prepopulate the online application.

All positions are security-sensitive. Applicants are subject to a criminal history investigation, and employment is contingent upon the institution’s verification of credentials and/or other information required by the institution’s procedures, including the completion of the criminal history check.

Equal Opportunity/Affirmative Action/Veterans/Disability Employer.