Pay Method: Hourly
Min Salary: $18.66
Max Salary: $28.35

See full job details at https://jobs.oregonstate.edu/postings/103362

Employment Category

Limited Duration.

This recruitment will be used to fill one limited duration, full-time (1.0 FTE) Research Analyst 2 position for OSU-Cascades in Bend, Oregon. The Research Analyst 2 position in the Human and Ecosystem Resiliency and Sustainability Lab (HERS) exists for the purpose of research and data collection/management. This is a grant-funded position and is thus subject to availability of funds.  Funding is currently available for 12 months, after which continued employment will be contingent upon additional funding.  

The mission of the HERS Lab is to advance, apply and facilitate global, national and regional research on sustainable and resilient human communities and ecosystems. The HERS Lab delivers expertise in ecological assessment and monitoring, natural resource conservation, and sustainability theory and practice to support evidence-based conservation for the 21st Century. As a subdivision of the HERS Lab, the Northwestern Hub for Bat Population Research and Monitoring (NW Bat Hub) addresses this mission by studying the persistence and extinction risks of bats in the context of growing threats from white-nose syndrome and rapid environmental changes occurring across the Pacific Northwest and beyond. The NW Bat Hub provides expertise on the natural history and ecology of bats, methods of survey design and acoustic call processing for species identification, and statistical analysis.  

Position Summary

The NW Bat Hub’s research and monitoring projects involve the collection and maintenance of a large volume of bat acoustic call recordings and associated metadata for an understanding of species distributions and activity. The Research Analyst 2 will serve as a Data Manager within the NW Bat Hub and be involved in compiling, organizing, processing, and analyzing this data and work under the direct supervision of the Bat Hub Coordinator.  

OSU-Cascades, located in Bend, Oregon, is a campus of Oregon State University. Established in 2001, the university currently enrolls more than 1,300 students in bachelor’s and master’s degree programs. The campus expanded to a four-year university in 2015, opened its 10-acre campus in fall 2016, and the Oregon legislature approved additional funding in 2017 and 2018 for continued campus expansion, which is currently in progress. The campus has ambitious enrollment goals to reach 3,000 students by 2025 and is engaged in building a culturally diverse and community-centric educational environment.

Position Duties

75% Research Development and Analysis

· Assists the Bat Hub Coordinator in the overall maintenance of bat acoustic data and associated metadata following the Bat Hub’s established protocols.

· Assists in the development of survey research instruments (paper or electronic datasheets).

· Gathers and compiles raw data from a variety of sources including interacting with state and federal agency partners.

· Compiles and organizes metadata (e.g., site-related data [spatial coordinates, habitat characterizations]) from field deployments collected on either paper datasheets or electronic mobile devices.

· Performs quality assurance/quality control (QA/QC) procedures throughout the data management process to maintain overall data integrity. Specifically, writes Python code and uses geographic information systems (GIS) software to verify the accuracy of field metadata and in reference to associated acoustic data.

· Regularly develops new Python (and/or other programming language) code for complex data management tasks and integrates code with geographic information systems (GIS) software (i.e., ArcPy) and relational databases such as Microsoft Access and PostgreSQL.

· Compiles and organizes bat acoustic data from storage media onto a server and cloud storage.

· Performs processing of bat acoustic data including running filtering operations to separate files with bat call data from those without, attributing call files with metadata, and running auto-classification procedures of call files with call identification software (e.g., Sonobat).

· Maintains a database of all associated metadata and bat acoustic data, including compiling auto-classification and manually reviewed call file results and entering these data into a database matching these data with associated field metadata.

· Assists in researching, designing, and developing database systems for future implementation of database improvements.

· Assists higher-level research analysts and statisticians by compiling analyzed bat call data into formats suitable for statistical analysis.

· Develops, displays, and maintains data in graphs, summary tables, and charts.

10% Report Preparation

· Assists in reporting by performing queries of the database in response to data requests from the Bat Hub Coordinator and its partners as directed by the Bat Hub Coordinator. Prepares these queries into formats necessary for the desired request.

· Summarizes data into various formats including drafting summary tables, graphs, and charts, and assists in writing short reports, simple research monographs and/or sections of major reports.

10% Overall Lab Project Support

Assists the Bat Hub Coordinator in other tasks associated with day-to-day operation of the Bat Hub and its projects and deliverables.

5% Project Review

· May assist the Bat Hub Coordinator in overseeing project work of lower-level research Bat Hub staff for accuracy and completeness.

Minimum Qualifications

College level courses in statistics (at least six quarter hours); research methods and techniques (e.g., research design, sampling, surveying, etc.); and computer software application or packages (e.g., Statistical Analyses System, Lotus 1-2-3, etc.); OR Three years of experience assisting with the gathering, compiling, analyzing, and reporting of research information and statistical data plus assisting with the drafting of this information into narrative or statistical reports; OR An equivalent combination of training and experience. Transcripts must be submitted for all required and/or related courses.

Additional Required Qualifications

Demonstrated strong organizational skills with the ability to take initiative, prioritize workload, and work independently in order to meet deadlines
· Exceptionally high accuracy level and attention to detail
· Strong written and verbal communication skills
· Skills and experience in data management such as implementing quality assurance/quality control (QA/QC) procedures to maintain overall data integrity, organizing data among storage resources, maintaining a database, and responding to data requests by efficiently retrieving and compiling data into legible formats
· Working knowledge of relational databases either hosted locally (e.g., Access) and/or online (e.g., PostgreSQL)
· Working knowledge of GIS software such as ArcGIS products (ArcMap, ArcGIS Pro, ArcPy, Collector, Survey123)
· Working knowledge of Python or other programming languages
· Proficient in Microsoft Office (Outlook, Word, Excel)
· Demonstrable commitment to enhancing and promoting diversity

Preferred (Special) Qualifications

Education and/or experience in Eco-informatics, Bioinformatics, Data Science, or Computer Science
· Experience managing large volumes of natural resources or ecological data from multiple sources
· Experience managing geospatial data in the cloud (i.e., via ArcGIS Online)
· Experience processing bat acoustic data using call analysis software (e.g., Sonobat)

Anticipated Appointment Begin Date: 08/09/2021

Anticipated Appointment End Date: 08/08/2022