Project Officer, Simulation Studies
Simulation Studies
Job posting information
Job type: Staff
Salary range: $7,084- $7,792 per month
Location: Seattle, WA; Remote eligible within USA
Date posted: July 16, 2024
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 organization at the University of Washington (UW). 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 (GBD), Injuries, and Risk Factors; Future Health Scenarios; Cost Effectiveness and Efficiency; Resource Tracking; and Impact Evaluations.
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 exciting opportunity to join the team as a Project Officer on the Simulation Studies project, with an emphasis on future scenarios of burden.
POSITION PURPOSE
The primary purpose of the position is to facilitate the implementation of multidisciplinary research on projects related to the GBD enterprise, requiring timely coordination, management, and communication among different internal and external audiences.
The Project Officer will manage enterprise workflow, from data, to analytic engines, to results critique, to improvement. To create the needed indicators, the position manages collation of all available relevant quantitative data, both from external sources and data produced by other teams within IHME. The Project Officer will help facilitate the modeling of diseases, injuries, and risks, and help to manage various analytic engines that are used to apply innovative analytic methods. Finally, they ensure the results are vetted and eventually disseminated appropriately through a variety of mechanisms such as web presence, interactive tools and data visualizations, conference presentations, scientific publications, and materials for non-scientific audiences.
To succeed, the Project Officer must develop a working understanding of the Simulation Science team’s intellectual and analytic approach, as well as the inner workings, timelines, and goals. They must also become conversant in the variety of quantitative methods and modeling approaches of which the research makes use, including (but not limited to) those related to statistics and epidemiology, as well as developing an understanding of the cutting-edge simulation modeling practices. In addition to becoming articulate about methods and results, the Project Officer must be adept at facilitating communication among technical and project staff with varying degrees of experience and from a variety of cultural settings and disciplines. Finally, the Project Officer must fully understand the project goals and be able to translate those goals into action by managing resources (including people) to achieve important deadlines for the delivery of complex products and tasks. Overall, the Project Officer will be a critical member of an agile, dynamic team. This position is contingent on project funding availability.
Research command
- Develop a command of the intellectual material related to the Simulation Science team, and the relevant results, as they act as inputs to the research area and the projects the individual must facilitate. Individual is expected to develop an astute understanding of the material presented in journal articles, policy reports, and presentations that result from the projects on which they work.
- Become thoroughly familiar with the details of complex interdisciplinary projects included in IHME’s portfolio, including their goals, objectives, and activities. As a knowledgeable resource on a project’s intellectual substance, be integrally involved with all processes and key activities during the lifecycle of the project and be able to summarize the project’s progress to internal and external audiences.
- Develop a command of the computational, diagnostic, and visualization needs of the portfolio and the associated competencies, skills, and resources required to achieve the research’s goals.
- Perform background research as needed to aid in project management, publications writing, and proposal development.
Project Management - Facilitate complex projects involving cutting-edge quantitative data collection, analyses, and tools for dissemination.
- Monitor and assess adherence to data and code quality protocols among researchers, data professionals, and software engineers, track progress against deadlines, and help resolve roadblocks.
- Expertly carry out communications, relationship building, and project management with faculty and senior leaders from governmental, non-profit, research, academic, and donor organizations in order to attain project goals and facilitate productive collaboration.
- Liaise with project managers and faculty across many teams in order to leverage the wealth of data generated by IHME as part of potential simulation goals.
- Drive research forward by managing dynamic teams of researchers and professional staff. Turn intellectual agendas set by researchers into action plans that can be implemented effectively across multiple project participants to achieve demanding and time-sensitive project milestones. Confidently and effectively participate in project assignments with a solid grounding in project specifics and current status. Track progress and manage coordination and communication across the team.
- Manage high-quality data collation, cleaning, and integration into the analytic process.
- Develop study protocols, process descriptions, and training materials to ensure efficient operations across the team.
- Coordinate needs and actions across multiple teams internally to ensure data access, analyses, and diagnostics are appropriately connected and undertaken efficiently to produce results in a timely manner.
- Facilitate routine analytic processes and modeling efforts to derive key indicators and estimates based upon set protocols and parameters.
- Monitor, report, and forecast workflow and deadlines through effective portfolio management.
- Coordinate software sprints, implementation of research code and documentation versioning, and improvements to code.
- Coordinate new release versions of central software and tools.
- Facilitate creation of software documentation for the purpose of institutional knowledge sharing.
Supervisory/management - Supervise employees to include hiring and training, leading workflow; priority setting; reviewing work and establishing quality standards; conducting regular performance assessments, providing mentorship and professional development for employees, and making recommendations for disciplinary action as needed.
- Identify training needs and opportunities for team members to grow their skills and advance their careers; Ensure that the team has the necessary resources to complete their tasks effectively.
- Promote positive morale and positive progress towards objectives across all teams; lead effective and efficient team meetings that are structured, inclusive of consultation and constructive feedback, and result in identifiable next steps for team members.
- Keep team members motivated and engaged, recognizing their achievements, and addressing any issues that may affect morale.
- Monitor individual and team performance, providing feedback, and helping to resolve any performance issues; assist the team in overcoming obstacles, making decisions, and resolving conflicts.
- Ensure that the team adheres to company policies, procedures, and regulatory requirements.
- Attend required trainings about team leadership, management, and related topics as designated by ODT and the IHME Director
General - Facilitate the development of new research proposals, including creating budgets to match proposed scopes of work, developing project management plans, and editing scientific narratives.
- Interpret financial reports and participate in the budgeting process.
- Manage events and meetings, including logistical support and materials creation. Participate in internal or external trainings, as needed.
- Formulate effective strategies for motivating research teams and helping to ensure high achievement among all individuals on them.
- Perform additional duties as assigned that fall within the reasonable scope of this position as a member of the GBD team and of IHME overall.
- Other duties as assigned
Bachelor’s degree in social sciences, sciences, or related field plus three years’ related experience, 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.
- Must exhibit strong desire and ability to learn new intellectual content across different disciplines in a timely fashion.
- Demonstrated management and supervisory experience required.
- Incumbent must be able to work independently, be flexible, and juggle competing priorities.
- Strong oral and written communication skills and relationship management skills are critical.
- Strong project management skills, including demonstrated ability to take multiple priorities and translate them into project completion through expert planning.
- Excellent interpersonal skills; a cooperative team player, energetic, able to develop productive relationships with colleagues and external collaborators.
- Interest in global health research.
- Ability to thrive in a fast-paced, dynamic environment is critical.
- Experience with agile software development methodologies and sprint planning using JIRA a plus.
- 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: https://www.healthdata.org/about/dei.
- Weekend and evening work sometimes required.
- This position is open to anyone authorized to work in the US.
- Working internationally is only allowed for IHME sponsored work that requires in -country participation.
- Office is located in Seattle, Washington. This position is eligible to work fully remote in the US; work schedule required to overlap 50% of IHME office hours, between 8 a.m. and 6 p.m. Pacific Time as agreed upon between employee and supervisor.
Application information
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 access 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.
The Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) is an independent research center at the University of Washington (UW). 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 (GBD), 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.