$27.09/hr

Initial applicant review will begin on or around December 6th, 2022. Posting will remain open until filled.

This position is Career Contingent upon grant funding. The position has an estimated 3 years of funding with possibility of renewal.

The University of California, Merced, is the newest of the University of California system's 10 campuses and the first American research university built in the 21st century. With more than 9,000 undergraduate and graduate students, UC Merced offers an environment that combines a commitment to diversity, inclusion, collaboration, and professional development. With bachelor's, master's and doctoral degree programs, strong research and academic partnerships, and community involvement, the UC Merced campus is continually evolving and requires talented, knowledgeable, and dynamic educators, researchers, management and staff.

Ranked among the best public universities in the nation by U.S. News and World Report, UC Merced is uniquely equipped to provide educational opportunities for highly qualified students from the San Joaquin Valley and throughout California. The campus enjoys a special connection with nearby Yosemite National Park, is on the cutting edge of sustainability in construction and design and supports the economic development of Merced and the region.

In Fall 2016, UC Merced broke ground on a $1.3 billion public-private partnership that is unprecedented in higher education. The Merced 2020 Project nearly doubled the physical capacity of the campus, enhancing academic distinction, student success and research excellence. In 2018, UC Merced opened the Downtown Campus Center, a $33 million, three-story administrative building located in the heart of Merced.

To set the course of UC Merced’s evolution, in 2021 UC Merced will enact its first-ever 10-year strategic plan. This plan will guide how the values of equity and justice influence our pathway toward earning Carnegie R1 research status, growing enrollment, upholding our identity as a minority-serving institution, and operationalizing how commitments to equity, diversity and inclusion are enacted within each campus unit. UC Merced is expected to engage in sophisticated thinking, planning, and implementation of actions that effectively diversify the professoriate and staff, improve campus climate for all campus constituency groups, and strengthen our equity, diversity, and inclusion infrastructure and capacity.

The INSITE research team is seeking to recruit a data management person with wide-ranging interests in biology and applied math. INSITE's research aims to integrate studies of marine and terrestrial symbioses across the fields of ecology, evolution, physiology, bioinformatics, applied mathematics, and conservation biology to establish a foundational set of expectations and a roadmap for the integrative understanding of symbioses under climate crises. Our integrated research approach established a training platform intended to break down interdisciplinary barriers to promote effective and seamless integration of multiple STEM disciplines. INSITE's Research Data Manager and Technology Coordinator will provide broad technical and software support for data products and related key NSF grant and sub-grant activities within the Institute. The Research Data Manager will work directly with the Institute's team members to support creating the necessary repositories for curating and sharing datasets, code, and models; standardizing data integration, preprocessing, and workflows; coordinating model deployment; and visualization of outcomes. The Research Data Manager will identify, evaluate, deploy, and maintain the necessary software and frameworks, enable and curate access to the necessary infrastructure, and provide the necessary technical tutorials for team members. The Research Data Manager will also work with others at the Institute to ensure that the Institute's public data, model, and software products are Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, and Reusable (FAIR) for the general scientific community. The position will report to the INSITE Director and Associate Director and will work closely with each of the research leads, the Graduate Training Director, the Outreach Coordinator, the External Assessment/Evaluator, and other data stakeholders at the Institute.

The second part of this position is to work on the FAIROS RCN. Dr. Jessica Blois leads a new NSF-supported research coordination network (RCN) focused on advancing ethical scientific practices in the use of palaeoecological, contemporary ecological, paleoclimatic, and archaeological data. The overarching aim is to build technical and social capacity among data resources by supporting technical implementation of ethical open science applications and developing communities of practice around FAIR (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, and Reusable) and CARE (Collective benefit, Authority to control, Responsibility, and Ethics) open science principles. Specifically, our project will: 1) Improve interoperability and reproducibility of data by developing guidance for community-curated data resources across the paleoecology and archaeology disciplines, and promote adoption of broader metadata standards for interconnectivity of data. 2) Enable data curation and stewardship by promoting FAIR data curation principles among practitioners, especially through engagement with early-career researchers. 3) Support data equity and improve democratization by promoting CARE data curation principles. The primary role of the data curation and outreach specialist is to translate the guidance and standards developed by RCN members into public-facing materials.

KEY RESPONSIBILITIES

• Work with the institute members to coordinate data, code, and model availability to the team.

• Create, curate, and manage the institute’s data and model-sharing repositories, including a wide variety of data sets (DNA, Proteomics, Transcriptomics, models) and their associated metadata.

• Identify, evaluate, and develop best practices, conventions, and metadata standards for the institute’s data and ML model products. Create necessary shared ontologies for data and metadata.

• Train institute members in relevant conventions, practices, and standards for data, model, and code sharing and archival.

• Work with stakeholders to ensure availability and use by the team is maintained in version control repositories following applicable best practices for data and software sharing.

• Support creating automated workflows and pipelines for processing data and analysis: Work with UC Merced, Michigan State University, Resilient Oceans, and other universities and organizations who are members of the Institute to locate and utilize the necessary available data, models, computing, storage, and other relevant technical resources and infrastructure.

• Work with UC Merced and the broader FAIROS team at collaborating institutions to translate the different forms of guidance and standards developed by RCN members into public-facing materials for disciplinary specialists, early career researchers, and the public. This includes:

  • Convert the various best practices documentation into short workshops that can be deployed virtually.

  • Develop training videos, white papers, and other resources focused on promoting better data science and curation practices aimed at the core disciplinary communities, early career researchers, and/or the public.

  • Help develop FAIROS data analysis lessons using the data resources within the RCN community for deployment in university educational settings.

• Develop guidance aimed at biodiversity data generators on the set of options for data curation within the different disciplinary communities supported by the FAIROS RCN.

• Support FAIROS project team implementation of training and outreach workshops at professional society meetings.

• Support PI Blois in project communication and organization by:

  • Attending steering committee meetings.

  • Ensuring timely and transparent communications to all team members related to outreach goals and needs.

  • Attending and helping support the organization of annual symposia.

  • Engaging in and helping support the organization of webinar series.

• Other duties as assigned.

EDUCATION and EXPERIENCE

• High school diploma and/or equivalent certification/experience/training. (Required)

• Bachelor's degree in STEM or related major with strong analytical skills. (Preferred)

• Advanced degree in Data Science/management. (Preferred)

• Incumbents are expected to possess the skills, knowledge, and abilities essential to the successful performance of the duties assigned to the positions. These skills, knowledge, and abilities are typically acquired through a combination of extensive study and experience. (Required)

• Experience in data management and analysis. (Required)

CRITICAL KNOWLEDGE AND SKILLS

• Ability to quickly master new software.

• Strong communication skills.

• Proficiency in data science stack and general frameworks. (Preferred)

• Familiarity with and in-depth understanding of FAIR principles and metadata standards, in particular vocabularies and ontologies for biodiversity data, data provenance, biological, mathematical, and digital media. (Preferred)

• Experience with High Performance Computing, cloud computing platforms. (Preferred)

• Experience with Artificial Intelligence / Machine Learning, deep learning frameworks. (Preferred)

• Experience with programming in data analytics and visualization frameworks, in particular in R and Python. (Preferred)

• Experience with biological and/or environmental datasets. (Preferred)

• Experience with working in dynamic research environments. (Preferred)

• Experience with interdisciplinary projects. (Preferred)

Background check and fingerprinting will be required.

How to Apply:
An online application is required for each position to apply.The University of California, Merced is aware that some web-based application processes may be cumbersome for differently abled applicants. Where appropriate, alternative accommodations will be provided. For applicants with disabilities who need additional assistance using TAM, or reasonable accommodations during the interview or search process, please contact ucmjobs@ucmerced.edu.

Equal Employment Opportunity:
The University of California, Merced is an Equal Opportunity/Affirmative Action employer advancing inclusive excellence. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, creed, religion, national origin, citizenship, sex, age, marital status, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, disability, pregnancy, or status as a disabled veteran or Vietnam-era veteran, or other protected categories covered by the UC Nondiscrimination and Affirmative Action Policy. UC Merced intentionally promotes and maintains a discrimination- and harassment-free workplace by demonstrating it neither condones nor tolerates employment practices that discriminate against or harass any person or specific group of persons on the basis listed above. We seek candidates who will support our vision to cultivate a vibrant, equity-minded, inclusive excellence university community. When applying to UC Merced, we strongly encourage you to reflect on our Principles of Community and our 2021 strategic plan.

Vaccination Program Policy:

As a condition of employment, you will be required to comply with the University of California SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19) Vaccination Program Policy. All Covered Individuals under the policy must provide proof of Full Vaccination or, if applicable, submit a request for Exception (based on Medical Exemption, Disability, and/or Religious Objection) or Deferral (based on pregnancy) no later than the applicable deadline. For new University of California employees, the applicable deadline is 14 days after their first date of employment.

Smoke and Tobacco Free Policy:
The University of California, Merced is a smoke and tobacco free workplace. Information and the Smoke and Tobacco Free policy is available at http://smokefree.ucmerced.edu.

E-Verify:
All employers who receive Federal contracts and grants are required to comply with E-Verify, an Internet-based system operated by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) in partnership with the Social Security Administration (SSA). E-Verify electronically verifies employment eligibility by comparing information provided on the I-9 form to records in the DHS and SSA databases. Certain positions funded by federal contracts/subcontracts requires UC Merced to notify job applicants that an E-Verify check will be conducted and the successful candidate must pass the E-Verify check.

Pay, Benefits & Work Schedule:
For information on the comprehensive benefits package offered by the University of California visit: http://ucnet.universityofcalifornia.edu/compensation-and-benefits/

This position is eligible for the UC Merced Employee Referral Program (ERP). If you were referred by a UC Merced employee, please identify that employee by name in your application as follows:

Step 5 of 7 (on the application) Referrals

How did you hear about the job? (select) “other”

Additional information? (select) “other”

Specific Referral Source? (write in) first and last name of referring employee

Referring employee MUST be named on application for eligibility