What are the responsibilities and job description for the Lead Data Analyst position at Texas A&M AgriLife?
Job Title
Lead Data Analyst
Agency
Texas A&M Agrilife Research
Department
Dallas
Proposed Minimum Salary
Commensurate
Job Location
Dallas, Texas
Job Type
Staff
Job Description
About Texas A&M AgriLife
Texas A&M AgriLife is comprised of the following Texas A&M University System members:
- Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service
- Texas A&M AgriLife Research
- College of Agriculture and Life Sciences at Texas A&M University
- Texas A&M Forest Service
- Texas A&M Veterinary Medical Diagnostic Laboratory
As the nation’s largest most comprehensive agriculture program, Texas A&M AgriLife brings together a college and four state agencies focused on agriculture and life sciences within The Texas A&M University System. With over 5,000 employees and a presence in every county across the state, Texas A&M AgriLife is uniquely positioned to improve lives, environments and the Texas economy through education, research, extension and service.
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Position Information
Texas A&M AgriLife’s Institute for Advancing Health for Agriculture (IHA) Healthy Living program
, based at the AgriLife Center at Dallas, seeks a highly skilled and experienced Lead Data Analyst to work in close collaboration and coordination with the Healthy Living team, led by IHA Associate director, Dr. Rebecca Seguin-Fowler, whose work focuses on community-based research to address and ameliorate health disparities. This position requires a unique blend of analytical expertise, research acumen, and leadership capabilities to support impactful community-engaged research.
Texas A&M AgriLife is an organization that supports healthy living for all Texans, through the research of targeted agricultural practices that yield nutritious food sources, outreach programs that train community members on growing their own food, and preservation of natural resources via eco-friendly means, all while following practices that lead to a stronger Texas economy. Overseen by the Office of the Vice Chancellor and Dean for the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, Texas A&M AgriLife includes the Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service, Texas A&M AgriLife Research, the College of Agriculture & Life Sciences at Texas A&M University, Texas A&M Forest Service, and Texas A&M Veterinary Medical Diagnostic Laboratory.
The Texas A&M AgriLife Institute for Advancing Health Through Agriculture (IHA) is the world’s first academic institute to bring together precision nutrition, responsive agriculture, and social and behavioral research to reduce diet-related chronic disease in a way that considers environmental and economic effects. The IHA comprises three focus areas—healthy living, precision nutrition, and responsive agriculture—and unites experts from various fields such as agriculture, nutrition, behavioral sciences, social sciences, life sciences, engineering, data and computation science, and economics.
Healthy Living programs implement, evaluate, and disseminate scientific solutions, applicable to all Texans, for improved public health. The Healthy Living Team works on a broad portfolio of extramurally funded, community-engaged research and active collaborations with community partners, cooperative extension, and many academic and nonprofit organizations throughout Texas and beyond. We aim to understand the means of building communities around healthy living and about facilitating the delivery of current, accurate, evidence-based programs, guidelines, and information that supports healthier living for Texans. Areas of particular interest to Healthy Living include health disparities, food access, food systems, food and nutrition insecurity, dietary patterns and behaviors. diet/food intervention and program development and evaluation; physical activity behaviors and intervention development; policy system and environmental change; citizen science and community engaged research; and mHealth technologies for monitoring, assessment, and interventions.
The IHA’s Healthy Living program is housed at the Texas A&M AgriLife Center at Dallas, which focuses on scientific research, public outreach, and education programs. The Center is a regional hub for all Texas A&M AgriLife activity. It is one of 13 AgriLife Centers across the state - each focusing on issues specific to their region. Initiatives at Dallas hinge on healthy living, urban agriculture and forestry, and water and land resource management.
The Lead Data Analyst, under general direction, serves as a data manager and technical lead on complex data projects. Provides technical oversight for the application of and compliance with technical standards. Completes reports and summaries for management and users including project status reports, problem reports, and progress summaries.
Responsibilities:
- Lead the design, implementation, and management of data analysis workflows.
- Review, document, and develop data structures.
- Develop and apply statistical models and methodologies, including mixed models for clustered randomized trials, longitudinal data analysis, and multilevel modeling to analyze complex datasets.
- Design statistical plans, including power and sample size calculations, for funding proposals for a variety of study designs such as randomized controlled trials, community-randomized trials, and longitudinal cohorts.
- Establish data collection system and oversees data collection activities, including programming forms and cleaning data. Ensure data integrity, accuracy, and security across all projects.
- Acquire, load, and merge data from various sources to produce reports and data dashboard.
- Develop and perform assessments to identify problematic data, make corrections, and eliminate causes of problems.
- Describe data collection, cleaning, and analysis in clear and succinct documentation.
- Document entire process of statistical approaches and techniques used in preparation and statistical analysis. Provide clear and concise set of findings.
- Prepare reports and analysis and results sections of manuscripts, including written descriptions of methods and summarizing results in text, tabular, and graphic form.
- Collaborate with researchers to interpret data findings and derive actionable insights. Prepare datasets for sharing with other investigators, funding bodies, and with the public.
- Contribute to the development of grant proposals to secure funding for research initiatives.
- Other duties as assigned.
Required Qualifications:
- Bachelor’s degree in related field or equivalent combination of education and experience.
- Six years of related experience.
- Proficiency in statistical programming languages (e.g., R, SPSS, STATA, SAS), data visualization tools (e.g., Tableau, Power BI), and database applications.
- Demonstrated experience leading the preparation of research manuscripts and securing grant funding.
- Excellent verbal and written communication skills with ability to effectively communicate with faculty and staff.
- Detail oriented and ability to organize tasks and prioritize work with minimal supervision.
Preferred Qualifications:
- Master’s or Ph.D. in nutrition epidemiology or related field (e.g., public health, nutrition, statistics, clinical research, and other related education and experience that enables the candidate to achieve job expectations).
- More than six years of related experience.
- Experience working with and accessing national data sets (e.g., NHANES, WHI, Framingham Heart Study, etc.).
- Experience developing valid, reliable composite scoring and screening instruments (e.g., Life’s Simple 7; dietary screeners; etc.).
- Knowledge and understanding of the mission and role of the Land Grant University System, including community-campus partnership and the Extension system.
What You Need to Know
Salary: Compensation for this position is commensurate based on the selected candidate’s qualifications.
Why Work at Texas A&M AgriLife?
When you choose to work for Texas A&M AgriLife, you become part of an organization that is an established leader in agriculture and life sciences with a wide range of capabilities to meet the needs of our statewide, national, and international constituents.
In addition, Texas A&M AgriLife offers a comprehensive benefit packing including the following:
- Health, dental, vision, life and long-term disability insurancewith Texas A&M AgriLife contributing to employee health and basic life premiums
- 12-15 days of annual paid holidays
- Up to eight hours of paid sick leave and at least eight hours of paid vacation each month
- Automatic enrollment in the Teacher Retirement System of Texas
- Employee Wellness Initiative for Texas A&M AgriLife
Applicant Instructions
Applications received by Texas A&M AgriLife must either have all job application data entered or a resume attached. Failure to provide all job application data or a complete resume could result in an invalid submission and a rejected application. We encourage all applicants to upload a resume or use a LinkedIn profile to prepopulate the online application.
All positions are security-sensitive. Applicants are subject to a criminal history investigation, and employment is contingent upon the institution’s verification of credentials and/or other information required by the institution’s procedures, including the completion of the criminal history check.
Equal Opportunity/Affirmative Action/Veterans/Disability Employer.
