Senior Qualitative Analyst

Department
 

BSD MED - Infectious Diseases - Chicago Center HIV Elimination - Data Analysts

About the Department
 

The Chicago Center for HIV Elimination (CCHE) is situated within the Biological Sciences Division at the University of Chicago Medicine. CCHE aims to eliminate all new HIV transmission events by 2041.

The University of Chicago's position on the South Side makes it uniquely situated to test, treat, and prevent new HIV infections in a highly affected population. The South Side communities and majority Black suburbs connected to them to the South represents the largest contiguous Black population in the United States. By using our integrated HIV transmission elimination approaches, we are beginning to make new infections in these communities less frequent.

Job Summary
 

The Senior Qualitative Analyst will be responsible for working with Principal Investigators (PIs) to design, conduct and analyze qualitative research studies. Research activities include assisting with developing qualitative research protocols, conducting interviews and focus groups, analyzing qualitative datasets, and reporting and interpreting study results. The position will assist with the development of abstracts, posters, and presentations for local and national conferences, manuscripts, and other research outputs. The role will build out and maintain qualitative analytic protocols for the Center and assist with training relevant staff on qualitative data collection and analysis methods. This position will also provide qualitative consultation services to Center for AIDS Research (CFAR) and other internal PIs and staff on an ad-hoc basis for new grants and ongoing projects.

Responsibilities

• Oversee the quality assurance process for all CCHE projects engaged in qualitative research methods.

• Create and maintain standardized practices for various types of qualitative data collection methods (interviews, focus groups, etc.).

• Develop new and innovative procedures in the areas of data collection, quality control, analyses, and presentation of results.

• Under the direction of Principal Investigators, develop data collection protocols (interview guides, focus group protocols, etc.).

• Based on qualitative research plans, work with Principal Investigators or supervisors to identify staffing needs. including, but not limited to: assisting with job descriptions, participating in interview processes, and advising on staffing decisions.

• During the onboarding of new qualitative research staff, lead trainings on topics such as: preparing staff on sensitivities of different populations, supporting emotional intelligence development, preparing mock interviews and feedback, observing staff to ensure consistency and maturity, developing project-specific coding schemes, teaching  use of qualitative software, , and ensuring qualitative analysis is conducted with a high level of rigor, validity and transparency.

• Attend and meaningfully contribute to project meetings when qualitative work activities are being planned, reviewed, and iterated.

• Inform the design of research and program evaluation projects that use qualitative methods.

• Responsible for the creation of study materials, the management of fieldwork, and the collection and analysis of qualitative data, as well as report writing Provide guidance to PIs and program staff on project and portfolio-level evaluations that focus on qualitative methods.

• Work with CCHE investigators to identify appropriate analytical methods to address qualitative research hypotheses and conduct qualitative analyses, accordingly.

• Lead the writing of qualitative manuscripts and other publications.

• Present results of qualitative analyses to researchers, colleagues, and funders, including formal presentations at conferences.

• Participate in regular meetings with CCHE research staff and data analysts to discuss proposed analyses, share analytic approaches, and discuss data and/or methodological challenges as they arise.

• Provide critical methodological evaluation of newly proposed research designs and suggest design improvements and qualitative analysis plans.

• Maintains technical and administrative support for a research project.

• Analyzes and maintains data. Conducts literature reviews. Assists with preparation of reports, manuscripts and other documents.

• Manage students and/or junior staff with qualitative-related tasks.

• Has a deep understanding of methods to analyze complex data sets for the purpose of extracting and purposefully using applicable information. May develop and maintain infrastructure that connects data sets.

• Guides staff or faculty members in de