About the Role
As a UW employee, you have a unique opportunity to change lives on our campuses, in our state and around the world. UW employees offer their boundless energy, creative problem-solving skills and dedication to build stronger minds and a healthier world.
UW faculty and staff also enjoy outstanding benefits, professional growth opportunities and unique resources in an environment noted for diversity, intellectual excitement, artistic pursuits and natural beauty.
The Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) is an independent research center at the University of Washington. Its mission is to deliver to the world timely, relevant, and scientifically valid evidence to improve health policy and practice. IHME carries out its mission through a range of projects within different research areas including the Global Burden of Diseases, Injuries, and Risk Factors; Future Health Scenarios; Cost Effectiveness and Efficiency; Resource Tracking; and Impact Evaluations. Our vision is to provide policymakers, donors, and researchers with the highest-quality quantitative evidence base so all people live long lives in full health.
IHME is committed to providing the evidence base necessary to help solve the world’s most important health problems. This requires creativity and innovation, which are cultivated by an inclusive, diverse, and equitable environment that respects and appreciates differences, embraces collaboration, and invites the voices of all IHME team members.
IHME has an outstanding opportunity for a Research Manager on the Data Quality and Impact team to provide leadership, management, and supervision. Our goal is to establish purpose-driven data assessment as its own research agenda in order to:
amplify its importance to all research teams at IHME;
quantify how the data and patterns within it affect the analytic strategies and results;
become more strategic in our data seeking;
achieve higher quality in our research and create efficiencies producing it;
and demonstrate to external stakeholders the compelling power of opening access to data and filling gaps in it as a global public good.
The Data Quality and Impact team is a key research partner across the Institute, highlighting and helping to address consequential gaps in the health data landscape.
Working with the Team Leader, the individual helps drive effective resource allocation and coordination to align data management practices, training and job aides, and resources with priority needs. This position will be integral to the annual goal-setting and scoping processes, and monitoring progress against them. Candidates should have a focused interest in data management, quality, and understanding how data influences results. This position will also play a central role in coordinating the ongoing creation, maintenance and internal compliance with, and close-out of Data Use Agreements in conjunction with various University of Washington and external partners. The Research Manager is key to strengthening institute-wide capacity for timely, consistent, and high-quality data assessment. The Research Manager must be adept at facilitating communication among technical and project staff with varying degrees of experience from a variety of cultural settings and disciplines.
Progress towards project goals and delivery on objectives is crucial to IHME’s success at expanding the quantitative evidence base for population health. Overall, the Research Manager will be a critical member of an agile, dynamic team. This position is contingent on project funding availability and need.
DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES
Research Command
Serve as an expert in the data sources that IHME uses and seeks in different research areas. Act as a resource across teams.
Understand data needs from the research questions posed by researchers and senior staff and assess how trainings and protocol resources meet those needs.
Employ creative and independent decision-making to create, modify, and deliver training aides that strengthen capacity for timely, consistent, and high-quality data assessment.
Assess data use agreements and advise on implications.
Data and Team Management
Create, modify, and execute training aides that strengthen capacity for timely, consistent, and high-quality data cataloguing, assessment, and use across research teams.
Develop, roll-out, and support implementation of a system, including protocols and job aides, that enable efficient and effective data cataloguing and assessment across teams. Consult with team leaders, the Data Services Manager, and other key actors to develop the most appropriate system.
Conduct background research related to specific data sources, research-specific needs, and data access.
Develop and manage a system for cataloguing and tracking data use agreements, renewals, and application.
Develop and manage an automated system that enables integration of data use agreement stipulations with data access, security, and attribution when data is used in analyses. Must work in conjunction with other key internal partners such as the Data Services Team, Infrastructure, Enterprise Data Management, and Research Operations teams to achieve this.
Facilitate requests for access to restricted access data.
Organize and implement workplans to assess data gaps, understand where they exist and why, and formulate actions to address them.
Systematically help to assess strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats to data quality and coverage.
Help to create and apply quantitative metrics of data quality and coverage that can be applied to data in use by and available to IHME.
Expertly carry out communications, relationship building, and project management with faculty and senior leaders from governmental, nonprofit, research, academic, and donor organizations in order to attain project goals and facilitate productive collaboration.
Organize and support research team meetings to coordinate deadlines and address issues and/or problems.
Manage and contribute to the process for team scoping with the Team Leader.
Supervisory/Management
Supervise employees, to include: hiring and training, assigning work hours, managing workflow, priority setting, contributing to professional growth and performance development, resolving complaints, and provide course-correcting guidance when necessary.
Mentor junior employees by providing guidance in the development of professional skills and helping them to understand how analytic and methodological undertakings link to project deliverables.
With Team Leader and managers, formulate and implement effective strategies for motivating teams and helping to ensure high achievement among all individuals on them.
Uphold strong principles of two-way communication, respectful debate, and engagement with the team and colleagues as a whole to ensure clear communication and common understanding of priorities and the rationale behind them.
General
Give input to proposals and make recommendations for resource needs on proposed projects in conjunction with the Team Lead.
Directly engage with high-level external partners and collaborators, including decision-makers in government, donor, inter-governmental, and scientific organizations as related to research-specific topics.
Other duties as assigned
MINIMUM REQUIREMENTS
Master’s degree in social sciences or related field plus 4-5 years of related project management experience in a highly complex scientific environment, or equivalent combination of education and experience.
Equivalent education/experience will substitute for all minimum qualifications except when there are legal requirements, such as a license/certification/registration.
ADDITIONAL REQUIREMENTS
Previous project management and relationship management experience, organized and detail-oriented, with an ability to work both independently and collaboratively to achieve objectives.
Demonstrated outstanding intellectual capability and knowledge of global health and development issues.
Strong desire and ability to learn intellectual content to facilitate highly complex scientific projects.
Demonstrated record of oral and written communication skills with multiple audiences required.
High-level relationship management skills are critical to communicate with stakeholders at multiple levels, including donors, researchers, field site representatives, administrators, and other external audiences.
Adept diplomacy and exemplary interpersonal skills required. Must be agile at forming respectful and rewarding relationships with people with different levels of experience and expertise from a variety of cultural, linguistic, and professional settings.
Excellent interpersonal skills; a cooperative team player, energetic, able to develop productive relationships with IHME colleagues and external collaborators.
Experience supervising and developing employees that are high performing, collaborative, and mission and goal oriented.
Exceptional listening skills and ability to relate to, influence, and coach employees of all levels in the organization.
Experience in one or more of the following: coordinating computational and analytic processes; designing and giving training in the social sciences; coordinating systematic reviews and other research-related tasks; facilitating research production activities; organizing and assessing data and results on a large scale.
Ability to thrive in a fast-paced and collaborative environment to manage multiple priorities while coordinating resources needed to meet deadlines.
A commitment to working to alongside others at IHME to illuminate the health impacts of systemic racism and to work within IHME to make our organization more diverse and inclusive. See IHME’s DEI statement here.
CONDITION OF EMPLOYMENT
Weekend and evening work sometimes required.
This position is open to anyone authorized to work in the U.S. The UW is not able to sponsor visas for staff positions.
Office is located in Seattle, Washington. This position is eligible to work fully remote in the U.S.
Application Process:
The application process may include completion of a variety of online assessments to obtain additional information that will be used in the evaluation process. These assessments may include Work Authorization, Cover Letter and/or others. Any assessments that you need to complete will appear on your screen as soon as you select “Apply to this position”. Once you begin an assessment, it must be completed at that time; if you do not complete the assessment you will be prompted to do so the next time you access your “My Jobs” page. If you select to take it later, it will appear on your "My Jobs" page to take when you are ready. Please note that your application will not be reviewed, and you will not be considered for this position until all required assessments have been completed.
Applicants considered for this position will be required to disclose if they are the subject of any substantiated findings or current investigations related to sexual misconduct at their current employment and past employment. Disclosure is required under Washington state law.
Committed to attracting and retaining a diverse staff, the University of Washington will honor your experiences, perspectives and unique identity. Together, our community strives to create and maintain working and learning environments that are inclusive, equitable and welcoming.
The University of Washington is a leader in environmental stewardship & sustainability, and committed to becoming climate neutral. The University of Washington is a leader in environmental stewardship & sustainability, and committed to becoming climate neutral.
The University of Washington is an affirmative action and equal opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, national origin, age, protected veteran or disabled status, or genetic information.
To request disability accommodation in the application process, contact the Disability Services Office at 206-543-6450 or dso@uw.edu.
COVID-19 VACCINATION REQUIREMENT
Employees of the University of Washington are required to be fully vaccinated against COVID-19 unless a medical or religious exemption is approved. Being fully vaccinated means that an individual is at least two weeks past their final dose of an authorized COVID-19 vaccine regimen. As a condition of employment, newly hired employees will be required to provide proof of their COVID-19 vaccination. View the Final candidate guide to COVID-19 vaccination requirement webpage for information about the medical or religious exemption process for final candidates.