Associate Research Scientist

The Data Science Institute (DSI) of Columbia University in the City of New York invites applications to fill the position of Associate Research Scientist.

DSI is a world-leading institution in data science research and education dedicated to promoting "Data for Good", leveraging data to address societal challenges while integrating humanistic perspectives with scientific and technological advancements.

Established in 2012, DSI is a university-level Institute of more than 400 faculty and researchers from 17 schools, institutes, and colleges across Columbia University. The Institute features a robust industrial affiliates program and maintains strong connections with New York City's economic development initiatives, including its dynamic and fast-growing start-up community. Our focus is on conducting world-class research and training data scientists to become leaders in academia, industry, and government.

DSI invites applications for a highly qualified researcher who has a strong, distinctive research agenda or the potential to create one, and whose strengths complement our existing or emerging research in data science foundations and domain applications. We are open to candidates from a wide range of backgrounds, but especially candidates with a strong technical background in areas such as artificial intelligence, causal reasoning, machine learning, natural language processing, optimization, security and privacy, and statistics. We envision a successful candidate to become the leader of a significant research initiative within the Institute.

To this end, we expect the successful candidate to:

• Conduct independent cutting-edge research in the foundations and/or application of data science or related fields, and/or be involved in interdisciplinary research through a collaboration between the Data Science Institute and the various schools at the University;
• Identify and attract external funding to support their research agenda;
• Reinforce Columbia's Data Science Institute as an academic leader in data science.

We expect the Associate Research Scientist to establish and advocate for best practices in scientific reproducibility of all results, and to promote the ethical use of data.

Minimum Qualification(s):

• Candidates must have a Ph.D.

Preferred Qualification(s):

• Candidates are strongly encouraged, but not required, to have postdoctoral experience.

Required Qualification(s):

Additionally, candidates are expected to have:

• A record of outstanding research, commensurate with years of professional experience, as evidenced by publications, grants, software outputs, and other scholarly measures of impact;
• A record of successful research collaborations;
• Excellent written and oral presentation skills for reaching audiences both in and out of one's own field;
• Strong interpersonal, organizational, and communication skills, and the willingness to work with multiple researchers, technical staff, post-docs, and doctoral students;
• Strong analytical, computational, and quantitative abilities.
• Experience managing large and complex projects involving a wide variety of constituents and stakeholders;
• Experience participating in open source software development; significant contributions to open source projects are highly valued for this role;
• Experience with statistical software;
• Good at multitasking and assisting project members;
• Skilled at interacting with internal and external partners;
• Ability to stay abreast of and adopt industry best practices;
• Industry experience is a plus, particularly if it includes a record of product impact, patents and technology transfer

Columbia University is an Equal Opportunity Employer / Disability / Veteran

Pay Transparency Disclosure

The salary of the finalist selected for this role will be set based on a variety of factors, including but not limited to departmental budgets, qualifications, experience, education, licenses, specialty, and training. The above hiring range represents the University's good faith and reasonable estimate of the range of possible compensation at the time of posting.