Software Engineer, Data Scientist, Data Analyst

Boston VA Research Institute, Inc. (BVARI)

We are a Boston-based epidemiology and biomedical research organization. We are actively engaged in several clinical trials, pharmacoepidemiology, chronic disease epidemiology, genetic epidemiology, biostatistical and genomics research. Our research team oversees study data related activities and Quality improvement activities to improve the way translational research is conducted and clinical care is delivered. The multi-disciplinary center consists of a highly talented group of biomedical researchers, clinicians, epidemiologists, biostatisticians, data analysts/programmers, project coordinators, and informatics team with academic affiliations to Harvard Medical School and Boston University.

We are looking for candidates with a service-oriented mentality, high sense of ownership of the assigned tasks and ability to solve problems presented by data.

Our research group has a full-time Research Software Engineer opening. In this position, you will design, build, and maintain web applications and data science pipelines for our exciting research and clinical operations projects. You will work across the full software development lifecycle—from concept and architecture to deployment and maintenance—collaborating with a strong, collegial, diverse, and talented team of computer scientists, statisticians, and clinicians at BVARI, the VA Boston Healthcare System, Harvard Medical School, and the Boston University School of Medicine.

Why should a Research Software Engineer work at a VA-associated research institute? The VA has the largest integrated medical records database in the United States, with comprehensive clinical information on over 22 million patients (2 trillion+ rows, 22,000+ columns of data), including large amounts of both structured and unstructured data. The VA also has large databases of genomic and imaging data.

Working with our group offers the opportunity to execute high-impact projects with large-scale real-world healthcare data that is unavailable at most other institutions.

• Develop, test, and maintain web applications using Python with Flask, Streamlit, Bootstrap, and SQL.
• Create website user interfaces using HTML and CSS.
• Assist our team of data scientists in developing data science pipelines for use in these applications.
• Collaborate with designers to translate wireframes and prototypes into functional features.
• Develop unit and integration tests.
• Identify and correct software bugs.
• Create and maintain technical documentation.
• Participate in code reviews, technical discussions, and architecture decisions.
• Build, maintain, and deploy software using CI/CD processes.
• Collaborate with a range of clinical and research stakeholders.

• Outstanding Python programming skills and significant software development experience.
• Experience with Flask, Streamlit, or a similar Python web framework.
• Proficiency with SQL.
• Experience with developing software for use in clinical care is a plus.
• Experience with electronic medical record data or clinical databases is a plus.
• Experience with React is a plus.
• Experience with medical standards such as DICOM and FHIR API is a plus.
• Interest in working in a research environment is a plus.
• Strong communication and collaborative skills.
• Ability to drive projects independently with moderate support.
• Close attention to detail and strong organization skills.

The employee must be a resident of Massachusetts upon the start date.

Please note we are unable to provide work authorization and/or visa sponsorship.

This job operates in a professional office environment. This role routinely uses standard office equipment such as computers, phones, photocopiers, filing cabinets and fax machines.

The physical demands described in this job description are representative of those that must be met by an employee to successfully perform the essential functions of this job.

While performing the duties of this job, the employee frequently is required to stand; walk; use hands; and reach with hands and arms.

If you are male application…