Research Scientist - Aging and Disability Public Health Surveillance - Washington, DC

Job Description

Job Description

JOB SUMMARY:

NORC at the University of Chicago is seeking a Research Scientist to join the Public Health Research Department in our Washington, DC Office.

NORC's Public Health Analytics Program conducts research and surveillance on age-related chronic disease and disability. The program's portfolio includes the Dementia DataHub (DementiaDataHub.org), the Vision and Eye Health Surveillance System (VEHSS), SoundCheckMap, fall prevention research, and additional projects on aging-related conditions. The work is funded through NIH grants, federal contracts, and foundation support, and is conducted in partnership with academic institutions, federal agencies, and industry collaborators. The program uses Medicare claims, national surveys, and other secondary data to measure disease burden, identify disparities, and inform policy.

We are hiring a Research Scientist to provide analytic support across this portfolio. The role suits an early-career quantitative researcher who wants to build deep skills in claims and survey data analysis, contribute to peer-reviewed publications, and work across multiple projects in a well-funded program. This position works under the direction of senior scientists, with substantial mentorship and a clear growth path toward more independent research.

Qualified applicants must be eligible to work in the U.S. We regret that we are unable to offer visa sponsorship for this position. 

Location: This is a hybrid role based in either our Chicago Loop or downtown Washington, DC office, with a minimum of six days per month in the office. 

DEPARTMENT: PUBLIC HEALTH

The Public Health Research team conducts work on a variety of public health topics including disease surveillance, health communication science, health promotion, interpersonal conflict and violence, rural health, and social determinants of health. Our team includes prominent health policy experts, nationally recognized public health researchers with general and specialized expertise in areas such as rural health and tribal issues, health communications, skilled methodologists, and leaders in the field of survey design and implementation. Our staff also brings expertise in populations of special interest and the intersection of public health and health care delivery. We offer broad, multidisciplinary experiences spanning public health, epidemiology, statistics, policy, developmental psychology, economics, sociology, social work, and political science.

RESPONSIBILITIES:

• Conduct analyses of Medicare and Medicaid claims and national survey data under the direction of senior scientists, including data management, cohort construction, descriptive analysis, and statistical modeling.
• Build, clean, document, and quality-check analytic datasets from large administrative and survey data sources.
• Produce tables, figures, and estimates for reports, manuscripts, public use files, and data visualization tools.
• Run and maintain established analytic pipelines, verify outputs, and flag anomalies for investigation.
• Co-author peer-reviewed publications and contribute to reports and federal contract deliverables, with first-author opportunities as skills develop.
• Support grant applications, progress reports, and disclosure review processes.
• Produce analytic code that is reproducible, auditable, and built to survive verification.

REQUIRED SKILLS:

• Master's degree in economics, health services research, public policy, epidemiology, biostatistics, data science, or a closely related quantitative field. PhD preferred but not required.
• At least 7 years experience in positions of increasing responsibility in social science research or related field (or equivalent education) including at least 3 years of social science project management.
• Demonstrated proficiency in SAS, R, or Python for data management and statistical analysis. SAS is preferred; strong R or Python candidates will be considered. STATA and SPSS proficiency alone is not sufficient.
• Hands-on experience managing and analyzing large or complex datasets, such as administrative claims, electronic health records, or national surveys.
• Clear technical writing and the ability to document methods and contribute to manuscripts and reports.
• Meticulous attention to detail and a strong instinct for when something is not quite right in the data or the analysis.
• Qualified applicants must be eligible to work in the U.S. We regret that we are unable to offer visa sponsorship for this position.

Preferred qualifications

• PhD in a quantitative field listed above.
• Direct experience with Medicare, Medicaid, or commercial claims data.
• Experience with dementia measurement or aging-related health research.
• Familiarity with nationally representative longitudinal cohort studies relevant to aging, such as the Health and Retirement Study (HRS), the National Health and Aging Trends Study (NHATS), or the National Social Life, Health, and Aging Project (NSHAP).
• Experience working in the CMS Virtual Research Data Center or other secure data enclaves.
• Experience with epidemiological estimation, machine learning, Bayesian regression methods, econometrics, or cost-effectiveness analysis.
• Contributions to peer-reviewed publications.

What we offer

• Stable, sustained research funding through NIH grants, federal contracts, and foundation-supported research.
• Direct mentorship from senior scientists with long records of NIH funding and peer-reviewed publication.
• A defined growth path toward more independent research, including co-authorship from the start and first-author opportunities as skills develop.
• Affiliation with NORC at the University of Chicago, with access to NORC's data infrastructure, statisticians, and broader research community.
• The opportunity to do work that matters. The program produces some of the only national-scale surveillance estimates for dementia, vision impairment, and hearing loss, and the analyses you contribute will shape how disease burden in aging populations is measured at the national level.

Who will thrive here

The strongest candidates bring genuine curiosity about health data and what it does and does not tell us, paired with near-obsessive attention to analytic accuracy. This role works across several projects at once, so we value people who stay organized under shifting priorities, follow direction well, ask questions early, and speak up when a number looks wrong. We work iteratively and collaboratively, and we invest in people who want to grow.

SALARY AND BENEFITS:

The pay range for this position is $106,000 - $115,000.

This position is classified as regular. Regular staff are eligible for NORC’s comprehensive benefits program. Benefits include, but are not limited to:

• 
  

  Generously subsidized health insurance, effective on the first day of employment 

• 
  

  Dental and vision insurance

• 
  

  A defined contribution retirement program, along with a separate voluntary 403(b) retirement program

• 
  

  Group life insurance, long-term and short-term disability insurance 

• 
  

  Benefits that promote work/life balance, including generous paid time off, holidays; paid parental leave, bereavement leave, tuition assistance, and an Employee Assistance Program (EAP). 

NORC is committed to equity and transparency in its pay practices. We publish salary ranges and benefit information for every job. The listed hiring range reflects what we, in good faith, expect to pay at the time of posting, though actual compensation may vary and may be adjusted over time. A candidate’s placement within the range depends on factors such as competencies, education, qualifications, experience, skills, performance, and organizational needs.

WHAT WE DO:

NORC at the University of Chicago is an objective, non-partisan research institution that delivers reliable data and rigorous analysis to guide critical programmatic, business, and policy decisions. Since 1941, our teams have conducted groundbreaking studies, created and applied innovative methods and tools, and advanced principles of scientific integrity and collaboration. Today, government, corporate, and nonprofit clients around the world partner with us to transform increasingly complex information into useful knowledge.

WHO WE ARE:

For over 80 years, NORC has evolved in many ways, moving the needle with research methods, technical applications and groundbreaking research findings. But our tradition of excellence, passion for innovation, and commitment to collegiality have remained constant components of who we are as a brand, and who each of us is as a member of the NORC team. With world-class benefits, a business casual environment, and an emphasis on continuous learning, NORC is a place where people join for the stellar research and analysis work for which we’re known, and stay for the relationships they form with their colleagues who take pride in the impact their work is making on a global scale.

EEO STATEMENT:

NORC is an equal opportunity employer. NORC evaluates qualified applicants without regard to race, color, religion, sex, gender, national origin, disability, status as a protected veteran, sexual orientation, and other legally protected characteristics.

#LI-MS1