The Minnesota Population Center seeks to advance knowledge of human populations and institutions across time and space with a focus on health, well-being, economic and demographic behavior, and human-environment interactions. You can contribute to this goal by helping develop measures of structural racism and discrimination that may be linked to cohort and survey datasets.

We seek a senior data analyst to join our team of research and information technology professionals. Diversity and inclusion are core values of our organization; we are committed to creating a work environment that celebrates and promotes diversity, and advances a culture of inclusion for persons from historically excluded and underrepresented groups. We strongly encourage members of underrepresented groups to apply.

The senior data analyst will develop measures of structural racism and discrimination for two National Institutes of Health-funded projects. The Center for Antiracism Research and Health Equity (CARHE) project (50% time – 20 hours per week) examines links between exposure to structural and community violence at different points in the life course and cognitive decline and Alzheimer’s Disease and Related Dementias (ADRD). You will assist in transforming, cleaning, and creating variables from criminal justice system datasets as needed for the proposed analyses. The National Couples’ Health and Time Study (NCHAT) project (50% time – 20 hours per week), housed at the Minnesota Population Center, examines links between individual’s and couples’ health and well-being and measures of structural discrimination (e.g., structural racism, structural cis-heterosexism). You will work across secondary data collections, pivoting between discrete tasks with defined deadlines and longer-term projects as needed. The environment is highly collaborative, and you will work closely with research scientists, senior data analysts, data analysts, and student research assistants to develop the measures.

The position is jointly funded by the University of Minnesota’s Center for Antiracism Research and Health Equity (CARHE) and the Minnesota Population Center (MPC), and the position will be housed at the MPC. You will work closely with faculty, staff and students at both centers.

RESPONSIBILITIES

The signature activity for this position is the production of indicators related to structural racism and discrimination, typically from secondary data sources. This is an ideal position for someone who is highly organized and motivated by task completion. The position requires an individual who is able to collaborate with other small research teams on targeted projects, clearly communicate timeline updates, and maintain multiple concurrent streams of work.

Tasks may include:
● Data acquisition and management: identify, acquire, and manage secondary data sets used to create the indicators. Examples of the secondary data sets include Uniform Crime Reports, Bureau of Justice Statistics, the Decennial Census of Population and Housing, and the American Community Survey.
● Preparation of indicators of structural racism and discrimination: construct measures through appropriate data transformations and linkages, and create documentation describing the processes and data organization.
● Develop automated solutions for data acquisition and indicator preparation: automate, as much as possible, the data acquisition and indicator preparation processes so that we can add measures derived from new data releases.
● Resolving comparability issues: reviewing data and documentation to ensure differences are being addressed appropriately and are clearly documented
● Writing variable documentation: summarizing key information about each variable
● Performing data quality checks: reviewing finalized data and documentation
● Attend (virtual) weekly meetings with PI (CARHE) or with the PI and research team (MPC).
● Attend (virtual) monthly meeting with research team (CARHE).

CARHE-specific tasks include:
● Manage data linkage process: manage the process to upload the structural racism indicators to the Kaiser Division of Research for linkage with the KHANDLE and STAR records, acquire the linked and de-identified data from Kaiser, and transfer to UC Davis.

This position will have a starting salary of $50,000 - $55,000, depending on qualifications.

The University of Minnesota offers a comprehensive benefits package including: 

• Competitive wages, paid holidays, vacation and sick leave
• Low cost medical, dental, and pharmacy plans
• Health care and dependent daycare flexible spending accounts
• Excellent retirement plans with employer match
• Disability and employer paid life insurance
• Wellbeing program with reduced insurance premiums
• Tuition reimbursement opportunities covering 75%-100% of eligible tuition
• Student loan forgiveness opportunity
• Opportunities for growth and promotion
• Employee Assistance Program

For more information regarding benefits, click here.

Required Qualifications:

● A master’s degree in public health, public policy, sociology, economics, or related field, or enrollment in a doctoral program in public health or similar social sciences field and equivalent master’s coursework.
● One or more years of research training.
● Experience with at least one major statistical software package (SPSS, Stata, SAS, or R), with a preference for R or Stata.
● Experience with the acquisition, use and management of secondary data sources (e.g., Uniform Crime Reports, US Decennial Census, American Community Survey).
● Strong written, verbal, and interpersonal communication skills with audiences from various disciplines, communities, and cultures.
● Demonstrated ability to work independently and as a member of a diverse team.
● Experience communicating updates on time-sensitive tasks with teams/supervisors.
● Experience working on projects or in environments that require excellent organization skills and the ability to manage multiple streams of work.

Additional selection criteria:

● Experience constructing longitudinal datasets from secondary data sources (e.g., Uniform Crime Reports, American Community Survey, US Decennial Census).
● Experience with structural racism measurement in secondary datasets, research on structural racism and health, or research on community violence, policing, and/or incarceration.