Methodology Research Support Officer on Scottish Longitudinal Study (SLS)

The Longitudinal Studies Centre Scotland (LSCS) wishes to recruit a Methodology Research Support Officer on Scottish Longitudinal Study (SLS). This is a dual role to (i) provide research support to academic users of the SLS dataset including leading on and managing research project design, data support and statistical advice. As part of a large infrastructure project facilitating access to the LSCS research data holdings, providing support over the full lifecycle of an external researcher’s access to the SLS Development and Support Unit (SLS-DSU) service. And (ii) contribute to the general development of the SLS-DSU as a whole, including contributing to team research projects, offering expert statistical and research advice, along with creating funding opportunities.

The Opportunity:

We are seeking a motivated researcher with good quantitative research skills to work with us supporting the Scottish Longitudinal Study (SLS), a large-scale linkage study created using data from Scottish administrative and statistical sources, including Census data and Vital Events data (more details on SLS here: http://sls.lscs.ac.uk ).

You will help facilitate research access to the Longitudinal Studies Centre Scotland (LSCS) data holdings, providing research support over the full lifecycle of an external researcher’s access to the service. At the LSCS and within it the SLS-DSU we specialise in data creation, linkage and data access and on supporting the research use of the SLS and promoting its research potential. Core responsibilities for this post include research planning and project development; statistical computing; statistical disclosure control, promotion and enhancing impact of the SLS data.

Your skills and attributes for success: Masters degree in relevant specialism (e.g. statistics, social science, health or demography or other discipline with a large quantitative analysis component)

• Excellent written communication skills and ability to produce working papers and other documents and reports.
• Demonstrable experience of data analysis of survey, health or administrative data.
• Evidenced ability in writing syntax/code for preferred statistical package.
• Ability to learn new stats packages as required particularly in the R statistical language (e.g. the eDataShield and SYNTHPOP packages) and to use effectively to support projects.

The University of Edinburgh is a charitable body, registered in Scotland, with registration number SC005336. Is e buidheann carthannais a th’ ann an Oilthigh Dhùn Èideann, clàraichte an Alba, àireamh clàraidh SC005336.