RESEARCH HEALTH SCIENCE SPECIALIST

Full Job Description

Position is located at the VA Bedford Healthcare System, Bedford, MA.

The Research Health Scientist assists the PI on grant-funded research into the relationship between military service and the development of ALS.

To qualify for this position, applicants must meet all requirements by the closing date of this announcement, 04/14/2026.

Experience: You must possess general experience in managing, understanding, and analyzing big data from federal national health databases; research training regarding environmental exposures and related disease risk as well as communication skills, including previous lead authorship on multiple peer-reviewed publications; experience with advanced regression modeling, causal inference, SAS, R, Microsoft Office Suite.

AND Education: You must possess a bachelor or graduate degree from an accredited college or university in a field related to the medical field, health sciences, or allied sciences.

(Copies of transcripts are required at the time of application) You will be rated on the following Competencies for this position: Data Management Problem Solving Research Technical Competence Written Communication Analytic reasoning Experience refers to paid and unpaid experience, including volunteer work done through National Service programs (e.g., Peace Corps, AmeriCorps) and other organizations (e.g., professional; philanthropic; religions; spiritual; community; student; social).

Volunteer work helps build critical competencies, knowledge, and skills and can provide valuable training and experience that translates directly to paid employment.

You will receive credit for all qualifying experience, including volunteer experience. Note: A full year of work is considered to be 35-40 hours of work per week.

Part-time experience will be credited on the basis of time actually spent in appropriate activities.

Applicants wishing to receive credit for such experience must indicate clearly the nature of their duties and responsibilities in each position and the number of hours a week spent in such employment.

Physical Requirements: The work is predominantly sedentary. Typically, the employee sits comfortably to do the work.

However, there will be some walking, standing, bending and carrying of items of moderate weight such as large binders, banker style file boxes, meeting materials, papers, books or small parts.

Hand and eye coordination for delicate testing procedures may be the only special physical demand required to perform the work. Major Duties:

Data management, including identifying and organizing VA data within VINCI Integration of big data sets from disparate VA and DOD data sources.

Statistical analysis of the resultant integrated data set, including advanced regression modeling accounting for time-varying exposures, and causal inference.

Interpretation and communication of results of statistical analyses for the study team through tables, graphs, prose, and oral presentations Drafting manuscripts, reports, and grant proposals for submission for peer-reviewed publication and future funding.