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The Lastinger Center for Learning is an education innovation hub within UF’s College of Education focused on creating equitable education systems that improve teaching and learning across early childhood and K-12 education. Specifically, the Center targets kindergarten readiness, 3rd grade reading proficiency, and algebra proficiency as critical milestones in children’s educational trajectory that are predictive of success in school and life. The Center works at the nexus of research, practice, and policy to develop sustainable systems that leverage educational technologies and improve the implementation of research-based practices. Housed in one of the nation’s elite public research universities, the Center operates as a dynamic, entrepreneurial workplace focused on executing against UF’s service mission to strengthen the human condition and improve the quality of life.

As a Center entirely funded through contracts and grants, the Lastinger Center is dependent upon its ability to deliver and communicate the impacts of highly effective professional learning programs. Therefore, the mission of the Data Science Post-Doctoral Associate is to improve the evidence-based approach to product development, increase dissemination of our work to the field, and architect our data system to serve the needs of our product teams and a broad external research community.  

Duties and responsibilities include:

• Contribute to the Center’s data system design and development, and its data science strategy. 
• Design and implement quantitative research and evaluation studies for Lastinger funded projects. 
• Plan and report results of evaluation or research studies for internal and external partners. 
• Coordinate staff training and professional development related to data science, datasets, accessing data, dashboards. 
• Maintain relevant funded project deliverables in coordination with Principal Investigators. 
• Coordinate with the Learning Science Coordinator, Technology Manager, Research Manager, Chief Academic Officer and Chief Experience Officer on data issues and needs. 
• Co-author research reports and articles and manage contributors to reports and articles. 
• Contribute to funding proposal narratives related to data science.  
• Serve as a liaison among Center personnel, the UFL AI community, researchers, and external organizations related to our data science work. 
• Continue individual scholarly agenda. 

Requirements: 

• PhD awarded by anticipated start date in fields such as information studies, statistics, education research methods or related disciplines. 
• Commitment to collaborating on research and publications. 
• Excitement about working on a multidisciplinary team. 
• Excellent organizational and planning skills. 
• Outstanding quantitative research skills. 
• Strong publication record. 
• Familiarity with education dimensions of data-intensive technologies and practices. 
• Interest in transforming education through the application of data science. 
• Commitment to the responsible use of data for the benefit of society. 
• Knowledge of SAS, R, Python, and SQL, or data visualization software 

Preferences: 

• Experience in machine learning, deep learning, natural language processing and other AI methods in social sciences datasets. 
• Proficiency in causal inference modeling and other advanced statistical approaches. 
• Expertise in advanced computational methods such as network analysis, graph databases, and structured and unstructured data mining tools. 

Applicants for the Post-Doctoral Associate position should send: (1) a letter of application addressing required and desired qualifications, (2) curriculum vitae, (3) a sample publication, and (4) contact information for at least three references who may be contacted and asked to send a letter of recommendation through the online application system. Applicants should reference requisition .

Selected candidate will be required to provide an official transcript to the hiring department upon hire. A transcript will not be considered “official” if a designation of “Issued to Student” is visible. Degrees earned from an educational institution outside of the United States are required to be evaluated by a professional credentialing service provider approved by National Association of Credential Evaluation Services (NACES).

If an accommodation due to a disability is needed to apply for this position, please call 352-392-2477 or the Florida Relay System at 800-955-8771 (TDD). Hiring is contingent upon eligibility to work in the US. Searches are conducted in accordance with Florida's Sunshine Law.

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