Director, Associate Professor

Position Description:

Associate Director, CTSI Data Science

Position Summary

The Associate Director is responsible for advancing scientific knowledge through the use and development of semantic tools, methodologies and approaches and applying that knowledge to innovative research. The Director will apply their experience in the collection, integration and mining of phenotypic and multi-omics data, to advance the understanding of biological pathways, networks and genetic interactions. Direct experience developing integration strategies and methodologies in the support of biomedical research and relevant experience in one or more disease areas (i.e., cardiovascular, oncology, neurology, GI, infectious diseases, etc.). This position reports to the Associate Provost, Clinical and Translational Research.

The successful candidate will develop and manage a team to work with external partners and deliver state-of-the-art data solutions that incorporates metadata, semantics, search, analytics and visualization and use advanced techniques such as machine learning (ML) and artificial intelligence (AI) to support the continuum of research across MCW/CTSI.

Under the Direction of the CTSI Director, CTSA PI and in collaboration with the MCW/CTSI Chief Research Informatics Officer and the Director of the Data Science Institute, the Associate Director, CTSI Data Science will work closely with institutional centers of excellence at MCW and partner institutions to promote complementation between the CTSI and their translational research, education, and activities in order to achieve synergistic goals of faster, with more cost-effective outcomes.

Responsibilities

The Associate Director will work collaboratively to provide investigators and investigative teams with the informatics solutions necessary to be effective in translating discoveries into health improvements by creating a mutually learning "Health Care Enterprise-CTSA - eco system" that broadens the reach of our translational research engine into health systems and facilitates access to patient stakeholders in order to generate and test hypotheses and implement best practices.

The Associate Director will play a leading role in identifying and implementing innovative models and best practices in the biomedical informatics domain, be responsible for the delivery of data processes, tools, and methods to manage research project information and advance knowledge within the context of the emerging enterprise reference architecture. This role will work collaboratively to develop, and implement tools, systems, and methods to facilitate the mining of large complex multi-platform datasets to advance the understanding of disease.

This role will be expected to establish close partnerships with colleagues from multiple disciplines to translate research/business needs into innovative solutions, collaborate with institutional leadership to identify strategic opportunities, provide the vision of growth in data science from the combined experience as a biomedical informaticist working with basic scientists and healthcare professionals.

This role will be expected to provide education, and engage the research community and other relevant parties in the areas of target identification, integrative informatics, NLP, big data, -omics technologies, scientific portfolio knowledge management, predictive science, precision healthcare, (AI) and the use of patient information in research and development.

This role also serves as a key point of integration between CTSI and MCW's newly established Data Science Institute (DSI). The DSI includes a Division of Biostatistics as well as systems biology, data integration, and semantics expertise. The DSI is growing its faculty and educational offerings with priorities that include machine learning, bioinformatics, natural language processing, imaging informatics, and more. The CTSI and DSI have a joint vision of organizing the data science and informatics community at MCW and across all SE Wisconsin, and this position will be essential to CTSI's collaboration with DSI to make it a reality.

This position will collaborate with the MCW/CTSI partner institutions to provide support for grant submissions, publications, collaborate with the CTSI Center for Biomedical Informatics (CBMI) core and Translational Research Informatics related efforts at the institution: MCW/CTSI, Departments, Partners and Collaborators to develop a unique resource of biological, population, clinical and research expertise to facilitate translational research.

This role will serve as an external representative for biomedical informatics and data science for the CTSI at local, state, and national level including the CTSA Consortium and its flourishing informatics community, and will strengthen existing partnerships and seek out new connections at the local, regional, and national CTSA level. The candidate will be expected to write grants and publish papers related to biomedical data science and overall research.

Position Requirements:

QUALIFICATIONS

• MD, MD/PhD or PhD in biomedical informatics, data science, machine learning, artificial intelligence, biostatistics, or a related field
• Prior knowledge and/or experience in one or more of data integration, machine learning, deep learning, predictive modeling; natural language processing; information theory; innovative clinical decision support; and development of data-driven learning network systems for improved discovery, prediction, and diagnostics required
• Prior academic appointment in informatics or relevant discipline preferred
• 7-10 Years of Experience in Scientific Computing role in Healthcare and/or Life Sciences
• Publication record in the field is preferred
• Previous experience building and managing teams of informatics scientists preferred
• Track record in applications of quantitative/biostatistical pathway modeling preferred
• Experience in applications of visualization preferred
• Experience in systems-level modeling preferred
• Prior work with multi-omics datasets and data integration strategies preferred
• Demonstrated experience in working across diverse scientific disciplines preferred.
• Excellent organizational and interpersonal communication skills to provide computing support to scientists.
• Clear communication in writing and presentation
• Experience applying technology pragmatically to solving scientific problems preferred
• Experience with data visualization tools, and strong programming skills/experience, preferred.
• Hands-on experience with cancer genomics and epigenetics data analysis a plus.

MCW as an Equal Opportunity Employer and Commitment to Non-Discrimination
The Medical College of Wisconsin (MCW) is an Equal Opportunity Employer. We are committed to fostering a diverse community of outstanding faculty, staff, and students, as well as ensuring equal educational opportunity, employment, and access to services, programs, and activities, without regard to an individual's race, color, national origin, religion, age, disability, sex, gender identity/expression, sexual orientation, marital status, pregnancy, predisposing genetic characteristic, or military status. Employees, students, applicants or other members of the MCW community (including but not limited to vendors, visitors, and guests) may not be subjected to harassment that is prohibited by law or treated adversely or retaliated against based upon a protected characteristic.