Social Science Statistician

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Make a difference

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Starting Salary£38,445.00

LocationFlexible Aberdeen/Dundee/Edinburgh

This is a Permanent, Full Time vacancy that will close in a month at 23:59 BST.

The Vacancy

Are you keen to use your quantitative skills in tackling practical problems to improve our environment? BioSS (Biomathematics and Statistics Scotland) is looking for an innovative and motivated early-career statistician or data scientist to join our growing social sciences team. This is an outstanding opportunity to advance your career in a stimulating, supportive environment while tackling engaging and complex societal, environmental, and ecological challenges.

The role offers the chance to develop and apply innovative statistical and data-analytic methods to social science questions relating to the natural environment. Working as part of a collaborative, interdisciplinary team, you will engage with both qualitative and quantitative researchers across BioSS and beyond, and work closely with applied scientists from industry and leading UK research organisations including the James Hutton Institute, Forest Research, and other SEFARI institutes.

We want our staff to have rewarding and engaging careers, and we will support you to develop professionally by building a personal portfolio of research that reflects your interests and ambitions. BioSS is eligible to apply for UKRI funding and we will encourage you to contribute to and develop research proposals with colleagues and collaborators.

This position is a permanent post based at BioSS in Aberdeen , with some flexibility to work from our locations in Dundee or Edinburgh, or remotely from home. At BioSS we value work-life balance and offer a supportive and flexible working environment, with a standard 35-hour working week, self-managed hours and flexible working arrangements that allow staff to structure their working time around organisational. Staff receive a generous annual leave entitlement of up to 40.5 days per year, together with an employer pension contribution of 15% of salary into a Personal Pension Plan, with flexibility over employee contributions. We also provide access to a confidential Employee Assistance Programme offering support to employees and their families with work-related or personal issues.

For full details, please see Potential applicants may contact Dr Altea Lorenzo-Arribas ( ) in confidence to discuss this position.

What you’ll do:

• Deliver collaborative research and statistical consultancy in the application areas of social science and socio-economics.

• Collaborate with social scientists on research projects with a strong statistical component, specifically working with Forest Research, and projects in the next Scottish Government (RESAS) Strategic Research Programme.
• Deliver innovative research, developing social science statistics/data analytic methods with potential relevance to the RESAS-funded Strategic Research Programme.
• Support more senior staff in seeking and winning external funding for research and consultancy projects.
• Contribute to the development of a distinct group of quantitative scientists within BioSS focused on quantitative social science.
• Represent BioSS at meetings with stakeholders from scientific and non-scientific backgrounds, expanding our collaborative network.
• Engage with government agencies, NGOs, universities, research institutes and commercial organizations.
• Contribute to the development and delivery of BioSS training courses for scientists.

What We’re Looking For:

Essential Qualifications & Skills:

• A PhD in statistics or another closely related quantitative discipline, or an MSc with commensurate post-qualification development and work experience.
• Experience with developing, and applying, modern statistical methods to real-world problems in the social sciences.
• Evidence of ability to initiate, manage and maintain scientific collaborations, and an ability to work independently.
• Broad familiarity with the current statistical methods used in social and socio-economic research.
• Enthusiasm for promoting the use of statistical methods to aid research in the social and socio-economic sciences, and for interacting with applied scientists.
• Strong general statistical skills, and an understanding of relevant statistical methods, including survey design, mixed models, generalised linear models, longitudinal modelling, and multivariate analysis.
• Proficiency in statistical programming (for example, in R).
• Evidence of good written communication.
• Ability to give effective spoken presentations, to both quantitative and wider scientific audiences.

Desirable skills and experience:

• A broad range of areas of statistical experience and expertise would fit the remit of the post well, including:
• statistical design of social-science studies, including survey design
• ordinal regression
• latent variable models
• statistical graphical modelling
• causal inference
• model-based integration of data from multiple sources
• synthetic data and data simulation
• A track record of research and collaboration, preferably in a field relevant to the remit of the post. (e.g., scientific journal papers, conference papers and presentations, policy briefs, consultancy reports, digital tools, open-source software, etc).
• Familiarity with software often used by social science and socio-economic researchers (e.g., SPSS, Stata).
• Experience of communicating with government and commercial clients.
• Experience of developing funding applications.

Closing date:

Interview date:

Other Details:

BioSS is a member of the SEFARI (Scottish Environment, Food and Agriculture Research Institutes) collective ( we have an international reputation for research, consultancy, and training in statistics, mathematical modelling, and bioinformatics. At BioSS, you will be part of a forward-thinking, diverse, and supportive team working across multiple statistics and modelling disciplines, collaborating on applications in plant & crop science, animal health & welfare, environmental science & ecology, offshore renewables, and human health & nutrition. We value collaboration, innovation, and the continuous development of our team members.

BioSS is formally part of, and administered by, The James Hutton Institute, a Scottish charity No. SC . The James Hutton Institute is an equal opportunity employer. We celebrate diversity and are committed to creating an inclusive environment for all employees. We encourage applications from underrepresented groups in STEM, particularly women, BAME and LGBTQ+. The James Hutton Institute is happy to discuss flexible working.

Our Commitment to Equality and Diversity

We will not consider the use of 3rd party recruitment agencies for the sourcing of candidates for this position.

The James Hutton Institute is an equal opportunity employer. We celebrate diversity and are committed to creating an inclusive environment for all employees.

The James Hutton Institute is a: Stonewall Diversity Champion; Athena SWAN Silver Status Holder; Disability Confident Committed Employer and a Living Wage Employer.

The James Hutton Institute is Happy to Talk Flexible Working.

The Company

The James Hutton Institute combines strengths in crops, soils and land use and environmental research, and makes a major contribution to the understanding of key global issues, such as food, energy and environmental security, and developing and promoting effective technological and management solutions to these.

James Hutton (1726 – 1797) was a leading figure of the Scottish Enlightenment, an eighteenth century golden age of intellectual and scientific achievements centred on Edinburgh. He is internationally regarded as the founder of modern geology and one of the first scientists to describe the Earth as a living system. His thinking on natural selection influenced Charles Darwin in developing his theory of evolution.

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