Associate Scientist I, American Cancer Society
Category : Alumni
Location Atlanta, Georgia
Position Type Full-time
At the American Cancer Society, we’re leading the fight for a world without cancer. Our employees and 1.5 million volunteers are raising the bar every single day. We actively seek candidates from diverse backgrounds including communities of color, the LGBTQ community, veterans, and people with disabilities. The greater the diversity of our people, the better we can serve our communities.
**Final title for position is subject to candidate’s qualifications**
JOB SUMMARY
The Population Science Department uses the collective expertise of epidemiologists, biostatisticians, behavioral scientists, research analysts, and study management experts to better understand the behavioral, social, physical, environmental, and societal factors that affect cancer prevention, risk, treatment, and survivorship. This work is conducted using data and biospecimen resources collected from participants in the American Cancer Society’s long-term prospective cohort studies- Cancer Prevention Study-II (CPS-II) and Cancer Prevention Study-3 (CPS-3), two of the country’s largest cohort studies.
The five Associate Scientist positions will collaborate with Population Science staff, external collaborators, and vendors on to collect, manage or use data or biospecimen resources collected from participants in CPS-II and/or CPS-3 cohorts.
MAJOR RESPONSIBILITIES
Position 1: Work as part of the Biospecimens management team to manage data associated with ongoing tissue acquisition, gut and oral microbiome samples, and other biospecimens. This includes manipulating data from Access databases, merging data from a variety of sources, importing data into a biospecimen tracking system according to standard operating procedures, and providing statistical programming support (information and datasets) for Population Science staff and external collaborators.
Position 2: Provide programming support of medical record data associated with ongoing cancer outcome verification in CPS-3 by assisting with participant consent process, monitoring data collection efforts, receiving and managing data deliveries, manipulating and organizing data, and delivering and maintaining high quality data for analytic use.
Position 3: Provide programming support as part of the study management team that overseeing participant-generated data via a participant web-portal. This includes exporting data from the CPS-3 online survey platform, importing, exporting and converting various files to/from SAS, merging data from various sources, data cleaning and quality control, working in a team environment to explore ways to improve participant engagement and retention.
Positions 4 & 5: Work with ACS doctoral scientists to design and conduct internal research studies using American Cancer Society datasets (primarily the Cancer Prevention Study II and 3), provide statistical programming support (information, datasets, and statistical analysis) for collaborative studies with outside researchers, generate presentations and reports for internal and external use, and contribute to the preparation of papers for publication including conducting scientific literature reviews, and contribute to general data analysis and data management needs of the department.
Position Requirements
SKILLS
- Strong problem-solving skills and ability to produce high quality work independently.
- Highly motivated with strong attention to detail and organization skills.
- Proficient in SAS and/or R required. Ability to learn additional programming languages as needed.
- Strong quantitative skills.
- Adept at obtaining, manipulating, and processing electronic data.
- Exceptional teamwork and interpersonal skills; ability to communicate in a cross-functional environment with strong oral/written communication skills.
- Ability to manage multiple tasks simultaneously and efficiently.
- Experience in electronic data management
SPECIALIZED TRAINING OR KNOWLEDGE (varies by positions)
- Programming experience in analytic work, preferably in a scientific or epidemiologic research environment.
- Additional analytic skills related to bioinformatics linkages with “omics” databases are preferred, but not required.
- For select positions, knowledge of additional programming languages (e.g. Python, MPlus) or experience with a LIMS (laboratory information management system), Shiny applications, advanced graphics design, bioinformatics, text analytics and/or latent variable analysis preferred.
SPECIAL MENTAL OR PHYSICAL DEMANDS
Office desk work with extensive time spent typing, using a mouse, and viewing screens.
The American Cancer Society has adopted a vaccination policy that requires all staff, regardless of position or work location, to be fully vaccinated against COVID-19 (except where prohibited by state law).
ACS provides staff a generous paid time off policy; medical, dental, retirement benefits, wellness programs, and professional development programs to enhance staff skills. Further details on our benefits can be found on our careers site at: jobs.cancer.org/benefits. We are a proud equal opportunity employer.
