Data Scientist (MHIHS1231)

Are you an enthusiastic and driven individual with an excellent working knowledge of data systems, processing and analysis? Do you want take a leading role in the data processing and analysis for a suite of trials representing some of the largest studies in Lung Cancer Screening active anywhere in the world? Do you want to join a large, successful multi-disciplinary team delivering these studies which have the potential to shape how Lung Cancer Screening and Smoking Cessation together might be delivered to many thousands of future eligible participants? 

Leeds Institute of Health Sciences is seeking to appoint an enthusiastic and motivated Data Scientist/Programmer with experience in data management and programming using large datasets from multiple sources in health care.

The post will provide an excellent opportunity to contribute to high impact health research in the field of cancer screening and specifically to aid the conduct of the Yorkshire Lung Screening Trial and its associated studies. 

The successful applicant should hold a Master’s degree (or have appropriate equivalent experience), have good communications skills, demonstrable programming and analytic skills and experience of working with large, complex datasets. The candidate will be expected to use programming languages such as SQL to collate and manage data, provide oral and written reports, contribute to publications and work within a team environment.

 The Yorkshire Lung Screening Trial (YLST) is the UK’s largest randomised trial of Lung Cancer Screening, funded by Yorkshire Cancer Research. Lung Cancer Screening is provided for high-risk participants in a community setting as part of a Lung Health Check. Alongside the main trial is a biomarker sub-study whereby participants attending Lung Health Checks separately consent to blood sample collection to investigate possible circulating markers of lung cancer. Embedded within YLST is the Yorkshire Enhanced Stop Smoking Study (YESS) whereby current smokers attending the mobile units are invited to participate in a study of a personalised stop-smoking intervention in the context of screening. YESS is the largest study looking at the best way to integrate smoking cessation into screening anywhere in the world. 

The successful applicant will be a member of the YLST team with overall responsibility for Data Management and facilitating trial conduct within YLST and the biomarker sub-study. Specifically, the post holder will use programming and analytic skills to manage and collate a number of relevant healthcare datasets for the purpose of ongoing trial management, clinical processes, interim monitoring and analyses. Important sources of data for the trial include primary care data from participating general practices, secondary care data from the PPM+ system in Leeds Teaching Hospitals, YLST-specific data, and national cancer and death registrations currently under the auspices of NHS digital. . You will be based in Leeds with the core trial team and will also work closely with the PPM+ team and with our external partners, including the YLST Statisticians and YESS team to facilitate data management. The post provides an excellent opportunity to contribute to high impact health research in the field of cancer screening. The successful applicant should hold a masters degree, have good communications skills, demonstrable programming and analytic skills and experience of working with large, complex datasets. The candidate will be expected to use programming languages such as SQL to collate and manage data, provide oral and written reports, contribute to publications and work within a team environment.

The post holder will report to Professor Richard Neal, and be encouraged to develop their own ideas for improving research and study conduct in an area that requires management and interrogation of large complex healthcare datasets. 

Funding is available for 12 months in the first instance.

To explore the post further or for any enquiries you may have, please contact:

Dr Mat Callister 

Telephone: 0113 206 4159, email: matthew.callister@nhs.net

Further Information

The University of Leeds is committed to providing equal opportunities for all and offers a range of family friendly policies. The University is a charter member of Athena SWAN and holds the Bronze award. The School of Medicine gained the Silver award in 2016.  We are committed to being an inclusive medical school that values all staff, and we are happy to consider job share applications and requests for flexible working arrangements from our employees.

Closing Date: 29 Sep 2019
Category: Research