Research Informatics Associate

professional opportunities that span the campus and community. University employees can choose from a wide range of professional training opportunities for career growth, skill development and lifelong learning and enjoy exclusive perks for numerous retail, restaurant and performing arts discounts, savings on local child care centers and special rates on select campus events. UNC-Chapel Hill offers full-time employees a comprehensive benefits package , paid leave, and a variety of health, life and retirement plans and additional programs that support a healthy work/life balance.

Primary Purpose of Organizational Unit

Our mission is to improve the health and well-being of North Carolinians and others whom we serve. We accomplish this by providing leadership and excellence in the interrelated areas of patient care, education and research.

Patient care: We promote health and provide superb clinical care while maintaining our strong tradition of reaching underserved populations and reducing health disparities across North Carolina and beyond.

Education: We prepare tomorrow’s healthcare professionals and biomedical researchers from all backgrounds by facilitating learning within innovative and integrated curricula and team-oriented interprofessional education to ensure a highly skilled workforce.

Research: We develop and support a rich array of outstanding health sciences research programs, centers and resources. We provide infrastructure and opportunities for collaboration among disciplines throughout and beyond our university to support outstanding research. We foster programs in the areas of basic, translational, mechanistic and population research.

Position Summary

Flexible work arrangements, including virtual/hybrid work locations, are an integral part of the School of Medicine’s Working Forward initiative. As such, this position’s work location is designated as virtual. Please note that the designated work location is subject to change based on the unit’s business needs.

The NC TraCS Informatics and Data Science (IDSci) service participates in research informatics innovation initiatives and provides informatics support to the School of Medicine, Gillings School of Global Public Health, and other health affairs schools. The Research Informatics Associate will support innovative clinical, translational, and population health research by developing and enhancing research data resources, databases, and informatics solutions.

As a member of the NC TraCS Informatics and Data Science (IDSci) team, this position collaborates with investigators, clinicians, data scientists, and research staff to transform complex clinical data into high-quality, research-ready assets. The role requires expertise in data engineering, data integration, and clinical research informatics to build scalable solutions that accelerate scientific discovery, support investigator-driven research, and ensure compliance with research governance and regulatory requirements.

Key Responsibilities:

• Design, develop, and maintain large-scale clinical-data centric research databases and informatics resources that support clinical and health research.
• Build and optimize data integration, transformation, and harmonization processes to combine data from disparate data sources (e.g., electronic health data from multiple sites, claims data).
• Collaborate with multidisciplinary research teams to translate scientific objectives into scalable data and technology solutions.
• Manage multiple informatics projects while developing documentation, technical standards, and reproducible workflows.
• Contribute informatics expertise to grant proposals, manuscripts, presentations, and other research dissemination activities.
• Ensure adherence to institutional policies and regulatory requirements related to data governance, security, confidentiality, and HIPAA compliance.

This is an exciting opportunity for a data-driven professional who is passionate about advancing clinical research through technology and collaboration. The successful candidate will play a vital role in building the data infrastructure that enables innovative research and improves health outcomes across North Carolina and beyond.

Minimum Education and Experience Requirements

Master’s or Bachelor’s and 0-2 years’ experience; or will accept a combination of related education and experience in substitution.

Required Qualifications, Competencies, and Experience

This position requires three years of work experience working with health care/clinical data in an analytic capacity. Additional requirements include:

• Experience writing data transformation, integration, or harmonization processes using SQL, Python, Azure Data Factory, or other tools. Application of this work to research needs is a plus.
• Experience creating and managing batch jobs, scheduled tasks, or automated workflows.
• Expert-level knowledge of SQL programming, data modeling, and relational database systems such as Oracle, Microsoft SQL Server, MySQL, etc., especially applying these skills to research data uses.
• Experience with at least one of the following data models: OMOP, PCORnet, Epic Clarity, Epic Caboodle, UNC Carolina Data Warehouse. Experience with an enterprise data model for a large health system will also suffice.
• Excellent independent work function with ability to manage multiple projects at once while delivering high-quality work on time.
• Strong written and oral business communication skills and the ability to clearly convey technical concepts to non-technical research collaborators.

Preferred Qualifications, Competencies, and Experience

• Experience working with health care data in an academic research environment.
• Additional programming competencies outside of SQL, such as R, Python, or Java.
• Demonstrable understanding of regulations around clinical data used for research purposes, particularly HIPAA and Institutional Review Board rules.
• Strong troubleshooting and data investigation skills.
• Expert knowledge of utilizing health care vocabularies (ICD, CPT, RxNorm, SNOMED etc.) and/or OMOP vocabulary/concept tables.
• Experience working any of the following health-related data types: claims data, clinical notes, imaging data, waveform data, etc..
• Experience working with Azure Data Factory, MS Fabric and Fabric Pipelines, or Databricks.

Special Physical/Mental Requirements

Not Applicable.

Campus Security Authority Responsibilities

Not Applicable.

Special Instructions

This is a Remote Position. Working hours are Monday – Friday, 8:00 am – 6:00 pm EST, with flexibility available within that window.

Organization

The nation’s first public university is at the heart of what’s next, preparing a diverse student body to become creators, explorers, innovators and leaders in North Carolina and throughout the world. Carolina’s nationally recognized, innovative teaching, campus-wide spirit of inquiry and dedication to public service continue the legacy that began in 1795 when the University first opened its doors to students.

Here, in one of America’s most beautiful college settings, we offer exceptional careers in richly diverse fields. Come explore what UNC-Chapel Hill has to offer you.