New

Research Data Scientist

University of Wisconsin Madison
sick time
United States, Wisconsin, Madison
21 North Park Street (Show on map)
Oct 16, 2025
Current Employees: If you are currently employed at any of the Universities of Wisconsin, log in to Jobs Hub to apply through the internal application process. Job Category:Academic Staff Employment Type:Regular Job Profile:Data Scientist III Job Summary: As a Research Data Scientist, the incumbent will use real world data including Electronic Health Record (EHR) data to support groundbreaking data-driven research. The ideal candidate is curious, self-motivated, and able to work with minimal supervision. The selected candidate must be committed to supporting our research community and upholding SMPH core values of respect, integrity, teamwork, excellence, leadership, innovation, collaboration, accountability, and communication. For example, a project could involve building a system to identify a specific patient cohort by extracting complex information, like family history, from unstructured clinical notes and joining it with structured diagnostic codes. In other projects, you might leverage the latest LLMs to develop on-demand, natural language querying tools for researchers. On a day-to-day basis, the incumbent could expect to engage in the following activities in supporting researchers that use the clinical research data service: Ensure data quality and integrity through rigorous preprocessing, cleaning, and validation techniques. Conduct exploratory data analysis to uncover insights and inform model development. Design, develop, validate, and deploy advanced machine learning and NLP models (including LLMs) to extract critical insights from unstructured EHR data, ensuring the reliability and accuracy of these models for research environments. Build predictive models to forecast disease risk and progression using data extracted from notes, health outcomes and treatment effectiveness translating model outputs into actionable scientific and clinical insights. Collaborate with cross-functional teams, including data engineers, clinicians, and product managers, to integrate NLP solutions into healthcare research. Communicate results and insights effectively to both technical and non-technical stakeholders. Document methodologies, processes, and findings comprehensively. Stay current with the latest advancements in AI, NLP, and healthcare analytics to propose and implement innovative solutions to complex research challenges. Work closely with data governance and security to ensure compliance with privacy regulations (e.g., NIST, HIPAA) when working with healthcare data; and address bias and fairness issues in AI models when dealing with sensitive health data. It is anticipated that this position will be remote and requires work be performed at an offsite, non-campus work location. This position is part of the Wisconsin Research, Innovation and Scholarly Excellence (RISE) Initiative. Through accelerated and strategic faculty hiring, research infrastructure enhancement, interdisciplinary collaboration, and increased student and educational opportunities, RISE addresses complex societal challenges of importance to the state, nation and world. Building on UW-Madison's strengths, RISE expands the University's successful track record of connecting with communities and industry on collaborative solutions. Over the next three academic years, UW-Madison will substantially increase current hiring levels, bringing 150 new RISE faculty to campus. Candidates hired through RISE will join a community of scholars working across disciplines, schools and colleges on research, teaching and outreach endeavors. The community will engage regularly in venues such as seminar series and colloquia to share ongoing projects and identify opportunities to work together. The University will support the community, facilitating access to research infrastructure, and funding to support broad and rich collaboration. Further information regarding RISE can be found at: https://rise.wisc.edu/. Key Job Responsibilities: Composes and assembles reproducible workflows and reports to clearly articulate patterns to researchers and/or administrators Participates in interdisciplinary and collaborative efforts with other departments, schools and colleges Organizes and automates project steps for data preparation and analysis Documents approaches to address research questions and contributes to the establishment of reproducible research methodologies and analysis workflows Prepares data sets for analysis including cleaning/quality assurance, transformations, restructuring, and integration of multiple data sources Serves as an institutional subject matter expert and liaison to key internal and external stakeholders regarding data science best practices and methodologies and represents the interests of data science Identifies and implements or guides others in implementing appropriate data science techniques to find data patterns and answer research questions chosen by the lead researcher including data visualization, statistical analysis, machine learning, and data mining Department: School of Medicine and Public Health, Office of Informatics and Information Technology, RISE. Are you passionate about improving patient health outcomes, optimizing healthcare processes, and advancing science? Join our dynamic Informatics and Information Technology team at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health in Madison, Wisconsin. We are committed to revolutionizing healthcare through implementation of advanced data science approaches, conducting cutting-edge data-centric research, and generating real-world evidence to improve patient health outcomes at UW Health and beyond. This position is within the School of Medicine and Public Health's Office of Informatics and Information Technology (IIT). IIT is a multidisciplinary team of data scientists, engineers, developers, and IT support staff. We offer a variety of Informatics and IT services to departments and research staff within the School of Medicine and Public Health and beyond to support the conduct of high-quality clinical and translational research. Informatics: We provide innovative solutions and training for a broad spectrum of clinical and translational research utilizing real-world data to facilitate rapid translation of research findings into clinical practice, with an emphasis on precision medicine, healthcare delivery, and population health. Technology Solutions: We provide technology solutions to the School of Medicine and Public Health including cybersecurity, educational technology, and IT support. Compensation: The starting salary for the position is $95,000; but is negotiable based on experience and qualifications. Employees in this position can expect to receive benefits such as generous vacation, holidays, and sick leave; competitive insurances and savings accounts; retirement benefits. For more information, refer to the campus benefits webpage and the SMPH Academic Staff Benefits Flyer Required Qualifications: Extensive experience in NLP and machine learning with a focus on healthcare data, including expertise across the NLP spectrum from classic libraries (e.g., spaCy, NLTK) to modern LLM frameworks (e.g., Hugging Face Transformers, LangChain). Proficiency in Python and deep learning frameworks (PyTorch/PyTorch Lightning or TensorFlow/Keras). Strong analytical, critical-thinking, and problem-solving skills with a demonstrated ability to work both independently and in a collaborative team environment. Excellent written, verbal, and presentation communication skills, evidenced by a strong track record of scientific publications. Detail-oriented with a commitment to data accuracy and integrity. Preferred Qualifications: Hands-on experience navigating and analyzing complex Electronic Health Record (EHR) data, including both structured fields (e.g., diagnoses, labs) and unstructured clinical notes. Knowledge of medical terminologies and coding systems (e.g., ICD-10, CPT), healthcare data standards (e.g., HL7, FHIR), and regulations (e.g., HIPAA) A strong foundation in biostatistics, particularly as it applies to observational research, study design, and causal inference. Experience packaging data science solutions into reproducible tools, APIs, or applications for use by a broader research community. Strong communication and people skills are required. The ideal candidate is curious, self-motivated, and able to work with minimal supervision. The selected candidate must be committed to providing quality customer service and uphold SMPH core values of respect, integrity, teamwork, excellence, leadership, innovation, collaboration, accountability, and communication. Education: MD or PhD preferred; focus in Computer Science, Data Science, Informatics, Epidemiology, Biostatistics, or related disciplines preferred How to Apply: To apply for this position, please click on the "I am a current employee" button or "I am not a current employee" button under Apply Now. You will be prompted to upload the following documents. Cover Letter Resume *Please note, there is only one* attachment field. You must upload all of your documents in the attachment field. Applicants are to submit a cover letter and resume detailing their training and experience relating to the required and preferred qualifications referenced above. The application reviewers will be relying on written application materials to determine which qualified applicants will advance in the recruitment process. We will notify selected applicants to participate further in the selection process directly. References will be requested of final candidates. All applicants will be notified after the search is complete and a candidate has been selected. University sponsorship is not available for this position, including transfers of sponsorship and TN visas. The selected applicant will be responsible for ensuring their continuous eligibility to work in the United States (i.e. a citizen or national of the United States, a lawful permanent resident, a foreign national authorized to work in the United States without the need of an employer sponsorship) on or before the effective date of appointment. This position is an ongoing position that will require continuous work eligibility. If you are selected for this position you must provide proof of work authorization and eligibility to work. Contact Information: Cody Roekle, croekle@wisc.edu 608-263-7676 Relay Access (WTRS): 7-1-1. See RELAY_SERVICE for further information. Institutional Statement on Diversity: Diversity is a source of strength, creativity, and innovation for UW-Madison. We value the contributions of each person and respect the profound ways their identity, culture, background, experience, status, abilities, and opinion enrich the university community. We commit ourselves to the pursuit of excellence in teaching, research, outreach, and diversity as inextricably linked goals. The University of Wisconsin-Madison fulfills its public mission by creating a welcoming and inclusive community for people from every background - people who as students, faculty, and staff serve Wisconsin and the world. The University of Wisconsin-Madison is an Equal Opportunity Employer.** Qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to, including but not limited to, race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, national origin, age, pregnancy, disability, or status as a protected veteran and other bases as defined by federal regulations and UW System policies. We promote excellence by acknowledging skills and expertise from all backgrounds and encourage all qualified individuals to apply. For more information regarding applicant and employee rights and to view federal and state required postings, visit the Human Resources Workplace Poster website. To request a disability or pregnancy-related accommodation for any step in the hiring process (e.g., application, interview, pre-employment testing, etc.), please contact the Divisional Disability Representative (DDR) in the division you are applying to. Please make your request as soon as possible to help the university respond most effectively to you. Employment may require a criminal background check. It may also require your references to answer questions regarding misconduct, including sexual violence and sexual harassment. The University of Wisconsin System will not reveal the identities of applicants who request confidentiality in writing, except that the identity of the successful candidate will be released. See Wis. Stat. sec. 19.36(7). The Annual Security and Fire Safety Report contains current campus safety and disciplinary policies, crime statistics for the previous 3 calendar years, and on-campus student housing fire safety policies and fire statistics for the previous 3 calendar years. UW-Madison will provide a paper copy upon request; please contact the University of Wisconsin Police Department.