Reserach Data Specialist

Who We Are: We are The Institute for Neurodegenerative Disorders (IND), founded in 2000, an independent 501(c)(3) nonprofit research institute based in New Haven, CT. We are committed to advancing research, diagnosis, and treatment of neurodegenerative diseases. IND is a rapidly growing, dynamic research institute conducting numerous clinical studies and projects focused on neurodegenerative disorders. The staff at IND includes physicians, nurses, and research and clinical operations support staff. IND studies include both focused single site biomarker and imaging studies and large multi-center studies. We’re proud that IND leadership is responsible for the overall leadership of   the Parkinson’s Progression Markers Initiative (PPMI), an international observations study begun in 2010 in collaboration with The Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research. PPMI has achieved unprecedented growth, expanding to over 50 global clinical sites with 4000 participants. Learn more about us: https://www.indd.org/  

Who You Are: You are someone who enjoys transforming complex clinical and research data into clean, structured, and reliable datasets that enable meaningful analysis. You are technically strong, detail-oriented, and naturally curious, with a passion for solving data challenges and improving data quality. You thrive in collaborative environments, enjoy partnering with researchers and cross-functional teams, and can translate data needs into practical solutions.

You’ll love this role if you are excited by the opportunity to help build the data foundation of a growing research organization. You enjoy writing code, creating efficient and repeatable data processes, and turning complex datasets into research-ready resources. If you want your work to directly support scientific analysis, accelerate discoveries, and contribute to advancing neurodegenerative disease research, you'll find this role both challenging and rewarding.

What You’ll Do – Major Responsibilities

• Extract, clean, and transform clinical, imaging, biomarker, and multi-modal datasets into structured, usable formats.
• Support the development and maintenance of datasets for internal and external research use.
• Assist in building and maintaining data pipelines and workflows for data integration and regular updates.
• Assist in establishing and maintaining a standardized pipeline for derived data generation and integration into larger datasets.
• Write and maintain code (Python - SQL) to support data processing and dataset creation.
• Assist in establishing and maintaining publicly available code for these data preparation processes
• Assist in establishing and maintaining publicly available code for dataset validation processes
• Prepare datasets for use by the Statistics Core and research teams, ensuring consistency and usability.
• Perform data cleaning and validation checks to ensure datasets are accurate, consistent, and ready for downstream analysis.
• Collaborate with cross-functional teams, including Data & Technology, Data Management, and clinical staff, to support data-related needs.
• Document data workflows, datasets, and processes to support reproducibility and transparency.
• Support preparation of datasets for external sharing and collaboration.
• Create basic data visualizations and summaries to support understanding and communication of datasets.
• Identify opportunities to improve data processes, efficiency, and workflow consistency.

Qualifications/Requirements: 

• Master’s degree in Informatics, Data Science, Computer Science, Bioinformatics, or related field
• 2–4 years of experience in data wrangling, dataset preparation, and/or database management
• Proficiency in Python and SQL
• Experience working with structured and unstructured datasets
• Ability to clean, transform, and prepare data with some guidance
• Strong attention to detail and data quality
• Effective communication skills and ability to collaborate with cross-functional teams
• Growing ability to translate research needs into technical data solutions
• Willingness to travel <10%.

Beyond the Job

At IND, we believe that when our people are supported, they can do their best work. We’re committed to taking care of our team so they can focus on the important work of advancing research. In addition to joining a mission-driven, innovative team with a collaborative and inclusive culture, you will also enjoy:

• Competitive base salary: $100k - $125k (D.O.E.)
• Bonus eligible
• Medical, dental, and vision Insurance
• Flexible Spending Accounts (FSA)
• Employer-paid life and disability insurance
• Paid time off: Flexible vacation, sick and holidays
• Contribution to retirement plan (403b)
• Professional development opportunities
• Professional liability insurance
• CME and professional organization membership support

IND is an equal opportunity employer. We encourage applications from individuals who will help us build and sustain a diverse, equitable, and inclusive workplace. Diversity may include, but is not limited to, race, religion, ethnicity, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, socioeconomic background, geographic origin, ability and disability, political beliefs, and age. We value the unique perspectives and experience each team member brings to advancing our mission.