Research Data Scientist - University of Chicago : Job Details

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About The Department

Department: EPIC - Climate Impact Lab (CIL)

About The Department: The Energy Policy Institute at the University of Chicago (EPIC) produces data-driven research that advances society's understanding of the global energy challenge and translates research insights into real-world impacts through strategic outreach and training for the next generation of global energy leaders. EPIC acts as an interdisciplinary hub for energy and environmental research across the University of Chicago. Combining the insights of economists, policy analysts and business experts with the technical expertise of engineers and scientists, EPIC's faculty affiliates work together to bring robust, cross-cutting research to the forefront of the global energy debate.

Job Summary: This role participates in scientific research projects. Ensures compliance of research activities with institutional, state, and federal regulatory policies, procedures, directives and mandates. Analyzes possible solutions using standard procedures. Writes articles, reports and manuscripts. Assists in drafting presentations on research findings.

Successful candidates will work with the Climate Impact Lab, a unique collaboration of experts - economists, climate scientists, and computational scientists - working to build data-driven estimates of the local and global costs of climate change. Our research involves using econometric methods and globally comprehensive data to quantify the impacts of climate change sector-by-sector, community-by-community around the world. It will allow decision-makers in the public and private sectors to understand the risks climate change presents and mitigate those risks through smarter investments and public policy. The research has also been used to produce the world's first empirically-derived estimate of the social cost of carbon — the cost to society from each ton of carbon dioxide emitted. This figure will be continuously updated as research progresses and can serve as the basis for energy and climate policies.

Responsibilities

• Develops and enhances climate and impact research tools.
• Manages and optimizes petabyte-scale data storage systems.
• Collaborates with researchers for new analyses with large datasets.
• Trains research assistants in tool usage and provides support.
• Oversees code management and organization within the lab.
• Ensures efficient data storage accessibility and integrity.
• Contributes insights to research and produces output for policymakers.
• Develops, maintains, and extends computational tools and data storage systems for climate and impact research.
• Supports researchers in conducting new analyses by working with petabyte-scale in multiple computing environments.
• Trains research assistants in the use of new and existing computational tools.
• Acts as a point of contact for code management and data storage at the Lab.
• Contributes to research on the impacts of climate change.
• Produces output for policymakers and publication in media outlets.
• Supports data collection and analytical needs of research projects. Conducts literature reviews and helps write reports and manuscripts. Ensures project compliance with different policies, procedures, directives, and mandates.
• Takes responsibility for the following non-laboratory duties: transcribing and coding data; developing data collection instruments; presenting research; and recruiting and scheduling research subjects. Acquires higher-level skills and knowledge in the process.
• Performs other related work as needed.

Minimum Qualifications: A college or university degree in a related field.

Work Experience: 2-5 years of work experience in a related job discipline.

Preferred Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in a related field.
• Background in research-related work in economics, climate science, data science, computer science, or a similar quantitative field.
• Statistics or econometrics training.

Technical Skills or Knowledge

• Strong background in Python; data analysis tools (pandas, xarray), climate data storage formats such as NetCDF and Zarr.
• Familiarity with version control (git).
• Basic skills with geospatial and temporal data visualization.
• Strong background in distributed computing tools (dask).
• High-performance computing clusters.
• Linux command line/bash scripting.
• Familiarity with R and/or STATA.

Preferred Competencies

• Strong communication skills.
• Strong multi-disciplinary collaboration skills.
• Train team members with software tools.

Application Documents

• Resume/CV (required)
• Cover Letter (required)
• Documents must be uploaded via the My Experience page, in the Application Documents section.