NIST PREP Research Associate in Statistical Software Development for the Illicit Drug Landscape

This position is part of the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) Professional Research Experience Program (PREP). NIST recognizes that its research staff may want to collaborate with researchers at academic institutions on specific projects of mutual interest and, therefore, requires those institutions to be recipients of a PREP award. The PREP program involves staff from a wide range of backgrounds conducting scientific research across various fields. Individuals in this position will perform technical work supporting the collaboration’s scientific research.

Research Position: Statistical Software Development for the Illicit Drug Landscape

Position Overview: This position supports an ongoing, interdisciplinary effort within the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) to gain insights from data collected as part of the Rapid Drug Analysis and Research (RaDAR) program. NIST collaborates with public health and public safety stakeholders across the U.S. to analyze real-time data regarding the chemical makeup of illicit drugs. Because this landscape is opaque and rapidly evolving, the team is developing novel statistical and computational tools to model usage patterns, detect emerging trends, and surface analytical insights for stakeholders.

The successful candidate will focus primarily on software development for data science and statistical applications, with an emphasis on building and maintaining an interactive R Shiny web application (or similar tooling) that enables analysts and external stakeholders to explore and answer their own questions about drug compound data. The role also includes contributing to the implementation of statistical methods for projects that arise, such as detecting previously unobserved compounds and emerging trends. This is well-suited to a master’s-level scientist who enjoys translating statistical and scientific requirements into robust, usable software.

Citizenship: U.S. Citizenship Preferred

Key Responsibilities

• Dashboard Development: Design, build, and maintain a production-quality R Shiny application that allows non-statistical users to interactively query, visualize, and interpret high-dimensional drug compound data. Translate stakeholder analysis questions into reusable interface components and workflows.
• Software Engineering Practices: Develop modular, well-documented, and maintainable R code. Implement reactive data pipelines that remain performant on large, frequently updated datasets.
• Method Implementation: Collaborate with statisticians to implement and operationalize analysis methods—including approaches for detecting emerging or previously unobserved compounds—as tested, reusable functions and dashboard features.
• Data Analysis & Visualization: Conduct exploratory data analysis, data provenance and quality evaluation, and create publication- and presentation-quality visualizations (e.g., ggplot2, plotly) to support both the dashboard and team research.
• Collaboration & Communication: Work closely with statisticians, chemists, and public health stakeholders to gather requirements, iterate on tools, and present software capabilities and analytical findings to technical and non-technical audiences.

Qualifications

• Master’s degree in Statistics, Biostatistics, Data Science, Computer Science, or a related quantitative field.
• Strong programming proficiency in R, including demonstrated experience developing R Shiny applications.
• Experience with software development best practices: version control (Git), modular code organization, documentation, and testing.
• Working knowledge of statistical concepts sufficient to collaborate effectively with statisticians and to implement analytical methods correctly.
• Proficiency in data manipulation and visualization in R (e.g., tidyverse).
• Familiarity with reactive programming patterns and performance optimization for interactive applications is desirable.
• Exposure to spatial, temporal, or spatio-temporal data, or to anomaly/novelty detection methods is a plus.
• Experience or interest in applying analytical tools to public health, chemistry, forensic science, or epidemiological data.
• Experience communicating technical ideas and tools to non-technical users.

Privacy Act Statement
Authority:  15 U.S.C. § 278g-1(e)(1) and (e)(3) and 15 U.S.C. § 272(b) and (c)
Purpose:  The National Institute for Standards and Technology (NIST) hosts the  Professional Research Experience Program (PREP) which is designed to provide valuable laboratory experience and financial assistance to undergraduates, post-bachelor’s degree holders, graduate students, master’s degree holders, postdocs, and faculty.
PREP is a 5-year cooperative agreement between NIST laboratories and participating PREP Universities to establish a collaborative research relationship between NIST and U.S. institutions of higher education in the following disciplines including (but may not be limited to) biochemistry, biological sciences, chemistry, computer science, engineering, electronics, materials science, mathematics, nanoscale science, neutron science, physical science, physics, and statistics. This collection of information is needed to facilitate administrative functions of the PREP Program.
Routine Uses:  NIST will use the information collected to perform the requisite reviews of the applications to determine eligibility, and to meet programmatic requirements. Disclosure of this information is also subject to all the published routine uses as identified in the Privacy Act System of Records Notices:  NIST-1: NIST Associates.
Disclosure:  Furnishing this information is voluntary. When you submit the form, you are indicating your voluntary consent for NIST to use of the information you submit for the purpose stated.

SURA is an Equal Opportunity Employer. We believe that no one should be discriminated against because of their differences, such as age, disability, ethnicity, gender, gender identity and expression, religion, or sexual orientation. All employment decisions shall be made without regard to age, race, creed, color, religion, sex, national origin, ancestry, disability status, veteran status, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, genetic information, marital status, citizenship status, or any other basis as protected by federal, state, or local law.

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