Research Analytics Scientist

Key Skills

Algorithms, Big Data Technology, Data Mining, Data pipelines, Data structuring, Debugging, Effective communication skills, Machine learning techniques, MapReduce, Natural Language Processing (NLP), NoSQL, Software Development

Job Description

Stanford's Graduate School of Business has built a global reputation based on its immersive and innovative management programs. We provide students a transformative leadership experience, pushing the boundaries of knowledge with faculty research, and offering a portfolio of entrepreneurial and non-degree programs that deliver global impact like no other. We are committed to advancing diversity, equity, and inclusion in service of our mission of developing innovative, principled, and insightful leaders who change lives, change organizations, and change the world. We invite you to be part of this mission.

The Data, Analytics, and Research Computing team (DARC) of the Stanford Graduate School of Business seeks a Research Analytics Scientist. The scientist will draw on both deep technical knowledge and interpersonal skills to facilitate and accelerate academic research at the GSB Research Hub. 

We are a specialized research support team that possesses an insatiable curiosity for data, research, and technology. We bring dedication to our work, and a commitment to growth and balance on our team. Expect to work with bright minds on challenging problems, continually evaluate emerging tools, and apply new techniques to solve research problems. As these technologies and research questions evolve, so will your role.

As a member of the team, you will have the opportunity to work and consult with researchers, faculty, students, and staff in various disciplines on a wide array of technical tasks. Your clients will include GSB faculty who are drawn from a broad spectrum of academic backgrounds, research interests, methodological specialties, and technical backgrounds. As a RAS, you will typically engage multiple faculty clients at a time, and these engagements might last anywhere from a few days to several months. Your role will require you to listen carefully and critically in order to understand the faculty member’s research goals and the obstacles they face in:

• Formulating concrete technical steps towards their goals
• Creating new, unique datasets
• Transforming existing datasets to make them model and analysis ready
• Storing and processing large, complex and variable data sets
• Analyzing and visualizing their data
• Understanding and building upon the existing literature

You will then conceive, propose, and deliver innovative solutions to these research challenges. Examples of such solutions might include:Machine learning algorithms

• Text feature extraction (OCR, NLP, regex, etc.)
• Image/Video/Audio processing (Face tracking, Classification, etc.)
• API programming
• Custom full-stack applications
• Automated web scraping
• Crowdsourcing pipelines

In addition to working with individual faculty, you will be expected to contribute significantly on research and development to continuously improve our research support arsenal, depending on your background and your interests. Examples of such endeavors might include: 

• Developing exploratory text- and image-based machine learning projects using the unique datasets that we’ve created for faculty projects 
• Crafting internal and/or external tutorials and training materials on new or complex technical tools
• Testing the boundaries of the data that can be collected via our crowdsourcing pipeline
• Understanding field-specific literature or literature associated with potentially useful tools/techniques

Please Note: This position requires regular, on-site work at the Stanford GSB campus, but a full-time on-campus presence is not required for this role.

Your primary responsibilities include:

• Design Big Data systems that are scalable, optimized and fault tolerant.
• Work closely with scientific staff, IT professionals and project managers to understand their data requirements for existing and future projects involving Big Data.
• Develop, test, implement, and maintain database management applications. Optimize and tune the system, perform software review and maintenance to ensure that data design elements are reusable, repeatable, and robust.
• Contribute to the development of guidelines, standards, and processes to ensure data quality, integrity and security of systems and data appropriate to risk.
• Participate in and/or contribute to setting strategy and standards through data architecture and implementation, leveraging Big Data, analytics tools and technologies.
• Work with IT and data owners to understand the types of data collected in various databases and data warehouses.
• Research and suggest new toolsets/methods to improve data ingestion, storage, and data access.

To be successful in this position, you will bring:

• Bachelor’s degree in scientific or analytic field and five years of relevant experience, or a combination of education and relevant experience.
• Knowledge of key data structures, algorithms, and techniques pertinent to systems that support high volume, velocity, or variety datasets (including data mining, machine learning, NLP, data retrieval).
• Experience with relational, NoSQL, or NewSQL database systems and data modeling, structured and unstructured.
• Experience in parallel and distributed data processing techniques and platforms (MPI, Map/Reduce, Batch).
• Experience in scripting languages and experience in debugging them, experience with high performance/systems languages and techniques.
• Knowledge of benchmark software development and programmable fields/systems, ability to analyze systems and data pipelines and propose solutions that leverage emerging technologies.
• Ability to use and integrate security controls for web applications, mobile platforms, and backend systems.
• Experience deploying reliable data systems and data quality management.
• Ability to research, evaluate, architect, and deploy new tools, frameworks, and patterns to build scalable Big Data platforms.
• Ability to document use cases, solutions, and recommendations.
• Demonstrated excellence in written and verbal communication skills.

The expected pay range for this position is $142,000 - $169,000 per annum. Stanford University provides pay ranges representing its good faith estimate of what the university reasonably expects to pay for a position. The pay offered to a selected candidate will be determined based on factors such as (but not limited to) the scope and responsibilities of the position, the qualifications of the selected candidate, departmental budget availability, internal equity, geographic location and external market pay for comparable jobs.

At Stanford University, base pay represents only one aspect of the comprehensive rewards package. The Cardinal at Work website (https://cardinalatwork.stanford.edu/benefits-rewards) provides detailed information on Stanford’s extensive range of benefits and rewards offered to employees. Specifics about the rewards package for this position may be discussed during the hiring process.