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RESEARCHER, COST EFFECTIVENESS

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; Costs and Cost Effectiveness; 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 excellent opportunity for a Researcher to join the Costs and Cost-Effectiveness team. The team analyzes the cost-effectiveness of interventions and health spending by leveraging IHME’s experience, analytical framework, and databases on cost-effectiveness, health financing, and burden of disease estimation and forecasts. To support universal health coverage, IHME will generate incremental cost-effectiveness ratios (ICERs) for a broad set of interventions at national and local levels by extending and improving its meta-regression analysis of published estimates. ICERs are a metric for comparing health interventions, and represent the difference in cost between two possible interventions, divided by the difference in their effect. The meta-regression analysis will synthesize results for published research and account for variation across epidemiological and socioeconomic context, study design and methods, and intervention characteristics.

You will be integrally involved in producing, critiquing, improving, and disseminating results. You already have a command of economics, epidemiology, statistics, disease modeling, or related interests, and we will help you develop an understanding of our core research and methodology. Our researchers work with senior research leads and external collaborators and take part in the intellectual exchange about how to improve upon and disseminate the results.

You are expected to interact successfully with a wide range of partners and to describe complex concepts and materials concisely. Overall, Researchers are critical members of agile, dynamic research teams. This position is contingent on project funding availability.

RESPONSIBILITIES:

• Develop a core understanding of cost-effectiveness analysis and meta-regression methods.
• Under the guidance of experienced scientist and/or faculty, carry out quantitative analyses and statistical modeling to produce results designated on a given timeline as part of collaborative research projects.
• Extract data from various sources and databases. Format, transform, review, and assess data sources to determine their relevance and utility for ongoing analysis. Understand key data sources and variations in these across and within countries.
• Develop and execute improvements to the analytic strategies and accompanying code that improve code performance, diagnostics, and predictability or run-times.
• Review, assess, and improve results and methods.
• Consult with external collaborators and key stakeholders to resolve differences in competing sets of estimates, jointly understand and explain analytic approaches, and review and respond to recommendations for analytic modifications, new data, and ways of representing the results.
• Apply computational and statistical tools and algorithms for the preprocessing, analysis, and visualization of source data.
• Document code and analytic approaches systematically so that analyses can be replicated by other team members.
• Lead discussion in research meetings about results and analyses to vet, improve, and finalize results.
• Contribute to creation of presentations, manuscripts, and funding proposals. Co-author paper(s).
• Maintain scientific awareness and intellectual agility with data, methods, and analytic techniques.
• Other duties as assigned that fall within reasonable scope of research team.

MINIMUM REQUIREMENTS:

• Master’s degree in public health, epidemiology, statistics, biostatistics, math, data science, economics, quantitative social sciences, or related discipline plus 1 year of related experience, or equivalent combination of education and experience.

ADDITIONAL

• Demonstrated interest in health interventions and their effects upon population health.
• Experience in population health methods or other applicable statistical analyses using large datasets, and ability to understand and explain the scientific underpinnings of those methods.
• Strong analytic, critical thinking, and quantitative skills.
• Ability to professionally and effectively communicate and work with other staff at all levels in order to achieve team goals for the analyses and related outputs.
• Results- and detail-oriented individual who can initiate and complete tasks under tight deadlines and changing priorities both independently and in a team environment. Flexibility with hours and workload is key.
• Working ability to program in R or Python and willingness to program predominately in Python.
• Excellent communication skills, both oral and written.
• Ability to work both independently and in collaboration with a team.
• A long-term interest in a Research Scientist or Managing Research Scientist position contributing to the overall mission of our research.
• A commitment to working 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: http://www.healthdata.org/get-involved/careers/dei.

DESIRED

• Experience with cost-effectiveness analysis.
• Knowledge of meta-analysis and meta-regression methods.
• Demonstrated familiarity working with the Global Burden of Disease framework, understanding of its main attributes, and ability to apply it in analyses.
• Track record of success in authorship or co-authorship on scientific papers, presenting results, and representing research at meetings.

Conditions of Employment:

• Evening and weekend work may be required.
• Office is located in Seattle, Washington. This position is eligible to work fully remote; work schedule required to overlap 50% with IHME office hours, between 8am and 6pm Pacific Time.
• The University of Washington requires students and personnel to be vaccinated against COVID-19. Under state regulations, individuals who are not fully vaccinated are required to wear masks while in all UW buildings and facilities. To learn more about the requirements, please review the following:  https://www.washington.edu/coronavirus/vaccination-requirement/

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 an equal opportunity, affirmative action employer. To request disability accommodation in the application process, contact the Disability Services Office at 206-543-6450 / 206-543-6452 (TTY) or dso@uw.edu.

Application Process:

The application process for UW positions 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 Workforce 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 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
Governor Inslee's Proclamation 21-14.2 requires employees of higher education and healthcare institutions 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.