Research Data Analyst

Primary Purpose: To support data infrastructure and data centered applications as integral parts of the Global Institute for Water Security (GIWS) (https://www.usask.ca/water/), and its internal research projects, and/or any of the projects GIWS supports, such as the Global Water Futures Observatories (GWFO) (https://gwf.usask.ca/index.php) program and International Network for Alpine Research Catchment Hydrology (INARCH).

Nature of Work: You will be a member of the GIWS Data Management team and under the supervision of the Data Team Lead.

Typical Duties or Accountabilities: As a full-time employee working within GIWS Data Management team and under the supervision of the DM Team Lead, your main duties will include:

• Becoming fully knowledgeable on the workings of our existing and future telemetry systems of our network of observatories, and the various processes by which near real-time data is acquired and deposited into our relational COTS database system (WISKI), and helping to add detailed documentation on these workings;
• Ability to detect, troubleshoot, and back-propagate missing data whenever outages occur at any one of several stages in the telemetry systems (especially upon notification by a technician);
• Adding and maintaining highly detailed records on observatory networks, sites, stations, journal and dataset publications, etc. into the GWFNet Data Catalogue (https://gwfnet.net), and participating in design discussions of new forms of metadata records as required;
• Contributing to the DM team’s Wiki pages and other online content;
• Assisting researchers in following best practices and standards for long-term data stewardship, including backup, efficiency of storage utilization and reduction of redundancy;
• Ensuring that stored data remains readily accessible to internal and external stakeholders;
• Becoming familiar with large but well-known, important datasets, and helping to identify opportunities for sharing these across the Projects towards efficiency and massive reduction of duplication;
• Becoming familiar with our comprehensive GWF Data Policy and building strong internal relationships with project researchers and stakeholders and giving advice on complying with the Data Policy; and,
• Participating in the development and delivery of Data Management webinars, posters, and presentations on data management best practices, our data infrastructure, and the appropriate and efficient use of our HPC computing resources.
• Assisting project stakeholders in organizing and preparing their data for submission into federated repositories (such as FRDR), ensuring completeness of metadata prior to curator review;
• Responding to inquiries and requests for subsets of data from large datasets;
• Helping with regular checks that telemetry systems are operating and depositing real-time data (WISKI database http://giws.usask.ca/KistersWeb/main.php public sign on is with “public” and “public”); and,
• Helping with regular monitoring of disk drive space on large internal storage systems.

Education and Experience: A Bachelor’s degree in computer science, computer engineering, or a field related to hydrology and/or environmental science with strong computer science skills is required. Training in Linux, SQL databases, Python and/or other programming languages are considered to be strong assets.

Skills:

• Absolutely must possess an always-friendly, positive attitude with the ability to work independently and demonstrated ability to work well in a team setting (proposing and defending own ideas while graciously accepting ideas from others)
• Must possess a keen willingness and affinity to learn
• Excellent problem-solving, and analytical skills
• Excellent computer skills in general
• Must be familiar with relational database systems (e.g., MS SQL Server, PostgreSQL, MySQL)
• Must have working knowledge and at least some experience with Linux
• Must have some computer programming and scripting experience (e.g., C/C++, Python, Java, C#; Bash)
• Ability to propose commonsense approaches to difficult challenges (e.g., troubleshooting telemetry data outages, ameliorating disk storage shortages, proposing metadata templates); able to work in an imperfect context with iterative improvement
• Excellent documentation and communication skills
• Ability to turn on “being meticulous”, e.g. when entering records into GWFNet or when helping to create README files and other metadata for data publication submissions into, e.g., the Federated Research Data Repository (FRDR)

Assets: Any of the following skills would be considered strong assets:

• MATLAB/R (strong asset)
• Fieldwork experience
• Experience with geographical location data

Inquiries regarding this position can be directed to Michelle Martel-Andre at [email protected]

Department: Global Inst for Water Security
Status: Term 24 months with the possibility of extension
Employment Group: ASPA
Full Time Equivalent (FTE): 1.0
Salary: The salary range, based on 1.0 FTE, is $49,301.00 - 77,033.00 per annum. The starting salary will be commensurate with education and experience.
Salary Family (if applicable): Specialist Professional
Salary Phase/Band: Phase 1
Posted Date: 6/6/2023
Closing Date: 6/12/2023 at 6:00 pm CST
Number of Openings: 1
Work Location: On Campus

The successful applicant will be required to provide the following current verification(s) where 'Yes' is indicated below. Further information is available at: https://careers.usask.ca/tips-for-applying.php

Criminal Record Check: Not Applicable
Driver's License and Abstract Check: Not Applicable
Education/Credential Verification: Not Applicable
Vulnerable Sector Check: Not Applicable

Please review the University of Saskatchewan's health and safety requirements for faculty, staff and students in consideration of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The University is committed to employment equity, diversity, and inclusion, and are proud to support career opportunities for Indigenous peoples to reflect the community we serve. We are dedicated to recruiting individuals who will enrich our work and learning environments. All qualified candidates are encouraged to apply; however, in accordance with Canadian immigration requirements, Canadian citizens and permanent residents will be given priority. We are committed to providing accommodations to those with a disability or medical necessity. If you require an accommodation to participate in the recruitment process, please notify us and we will work together on the accommodation request. We continue to grow our partnerships with Indigenous communities across the province, nationally, and internationally and value the unique perspective that Indigenous employees provide to strengthen these relationships. Verification of Indigenous Membership/Citizenship at the University of Saskatchewan is led and determined by the deybwewin | taapwaywin | tapwewin: Indigenous Truth policy and Standing Committee in accordance with the processes developed to enact the policy. Successful candidates that assert Indigenous membership/citizenship will be asked to complete the verification process of Indigenous membership/citizenship with documentation. The University of Saskatchewan’s main campus is situated on Treaty 6 Territory and the Homeland of the Métis. We pay our respects to the First Nations and Métis ancestors of this place and reaffirm our relationship with one another. Together, we are uplifting Indigenization to a place of prominence at the University of Saskatchewan.