26-124 Research Data Engineer/Statistical Programmer Part-time at Colorado State University in Fort Collins, CO

Job description

Job Description Position Summary: In the summer of 2026, CIRA was awarded two year’s worth of funding by the Weather Program Office to conduct a project, “Using Quick Response Surveys to Develop and Pilot Test Flood Risk Communication”. The Quick Response Survey (QRS) project seeks a part-time (70% FTE) Research Data Engineer or Statistical Programmer to develop and maintain a reproducible data-management system for surveys of public perception and response to hazardous weather. The existing QRS repository includes approximately 13,000 responses from 34 survey waves organized into three distinct but structurally similar hazard databases. The initial work will include regularizing the historical databases and processing approximately 15 to 20 additional survey waves. The selected individual will develop a system that can scale to support future national implementation involving as many as 150 forecast offices conducting an average of four surveys per year. The position will be performed remotely, will involve regular collaboration with QRS researchers and institutional partners, and will report directly to the SBES Data and Methods Advisor. The period of performance for this project runs through April 2028. If necessary, a no-cost extension will be requested. Description of Unit: The Cooperative Institute for Research in the Atmosphere (CIRA) at Colorado State University (CSU) seeks to fill a part-time (70% FTE) Research Data Engineer/Statistical Programmer position designed to conduct collaborative research and development with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). The individual in this position will work in a fully remote capacity. For a complete position description, including information regarding our organization, our collaborators, the full position summary and job duties, please visit: https://www.cira.colostate.edu/welcome-about/jobs/ For full consideration, please apply by Monday, November 23, 2026, 11:59 PM (MT). Essential Job Duties: Review and harmonize approximately 13,000 historical responses from 34 survey waves into three consistently structured and documented hazard databases. Develop and maintain a master variable crosswalk and standardize variable names, labels, response codes, missing-value conventions, and derived-variable procedures across survey waves. Design and implement a reproducible pipeline using Stata, Python, and other appropriate tools to import, clean, validate, harmonize, and append survey data from Qualtrics and other approved sources. Develop the pipeline to process a set of approximately 15 to 20 survey waves and scale to approximately 600 waves annually without substantial rewriting of the core processing system. Incorporate forecast-office-distributed surveys and purchased probability, quota, panel, or other vendor-provided samples while preserving recruitment source, survey wave, weights, quotas, and other available sample-design information. Establish procedures for identifying, documenting, and managing changes to survey questions, response options, variable names, survey modules, and incoming data structures. Create automated quality-control checks and exception reports for unexpected variables, coding changes, duplicate records, missing metadata, invalid values, and other data inconsistencies. Produce fully documented and analysis-ready data files in Stata, R, and CSV formats, with Stata files and processing decisions readable and auditable by project researchers. Maintain processing code, variable crosswalks, codebooks, data dictionaries, change histories, and standard operating procedures in an approved version-control environment. Follow applicable Institutional Review Board requirements. Conditions of Employment: Must be legally authorized to work in the United States by the start of the position and through the entirety of the project (2 years from start date), because CIRA will not sponsor any type of visa for this position now nor in the future. Supervisi