Research Associate II, III, or Senior

Position Function:

This project focuses on the utilization of high performance computing for addressing geospatially-based issues in agriculture (including wildlife utilization thereof). The research associate will support team of scientists working on individual and team research that falls under this broad umbrella. The role of the research associate will be to assist with experimental design and data analysis related to these research efforts. As such, the research associate is expected to have a strong background in spatial statistics.

Salary Grade: 13

Please see Staff Compensation Structure or Skilled Crafts and Service Maintenance Compensation Schedule for salary ranges. For salary grade UC, these positions are "Unclassified" and salary ranges are determined by the hiring department.

Department Profile:

Geosystems Research Institute. At GRI we focus on remote sensing computational technologies, visualization techniques, agriculture and natural resource management and the transition of these into operational agency research, planning and decision-support programs.

Essential Duties and Responsibilities:

* Support interdisciplinary teams to develop study questions that examine the geographic and temporal variations in plants and animals
* Identify statistical approaches to best examine research questions in collaboration with USDA Agricultural Research Services (ARS) scientists
* Participate in oral and written communications, as needed, to interface with the participating scientists and stakeholders to obtain clarity in requirements
* Other duties as assigned

Minimum Qualifications:

Degree disciplines in Statistics, Applied Mathematics, or other relevant disciplines

1. Beginning with a bachelor's degree:
a. A professional employee with a bachelor's degree and demonstrated competence can begin
work at the Research/Extension Associate I level.
b. To begin at the Research/Extension Associate II level, one must have a bachelor's degree
and a minimum of 3 years of relevant experience and the equivalent of a master's degree.
c. To begin at the Research/Extension Associate III level, one must have a bachelor's degree
and a minimum of 6 years of relevant experience and the equivalent of a master's degree.

2. Beginning with a master's degree:
a. A professional employee with a master's degree and a minimum of 1 year of relevant
experience and demonstrated competency can begin work at the Research/Extension
Associate II level.
b. To begin at the Research/Extension Associate III level, one must have a master's degree and
a minimum of 3 years of experience.
c. To begin at the Senior Research/Extension Associate level, one must have a master's degree and a minimum of 6 years of experience.

3. Beginning with a doctoral degree:
a. A professional employee with a doctoral degree with 2 years of relevant experience and
demonstrated competence can begin work at the Research/Extension Associate III level.
b. To begin at the Senior Research/Extension Associate level, one must have a doctoral degree
and a minimum of 3 years of relevant experience.

Preferred Qualifications:

* MS in Statistics, Applied Mathematics, or other relevant discipline
* Excellent written and oral communication skills
* Ability to work collaboratively in a team environment
* Ability to appropriately apply advanced geospatial analysis techniques such as cluster analysis, local and global measures of spatial association, geographically weighted regression, and interpolation approaches, such as kriging and inverse distance weighting (IDW)
* Implement proper experimental design and analysis protocols for individual and team research under the project

Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities:

The ideal candidate for this job will (listed in order of importance):
* Have a strong background in spatial statistics
* Work well in a collaborative team environment
* Desire to work with a range of datasets and diverse applications
* Have experience with geographic information systems (GIS)

Instructions for Applying:

Interested candidates should submit a cover letter, resume, and a copy of your transcript(s) via the following link. Any social security numbers included on the requested transcripts should be redacted prior to submitting online

If you have questions regarding this position, you can contact Dr. Joby Czarnecki with the Geosystems Research Institute at Joby.Czarnecki@msstate.edu. Please do NOT send your application materials to this email address as no applications can be accepted without using the MSU jobs system.

Restricted Clause:

Position is contingent upon funding availability.

Equal Employment Opportunity Statement:

MSU is an equal opportunity employer, and all qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, ethnicity, sex, religion, national origin, disability, age, sexual orientation, genetic information, pregnancy, gender identity, status as a U.S. veteran, and/or any other status protected by applicable law. We always welcome nominations and applications from women, members of any minority group, and others who share our passion for building a diverse community that reflects the diversity in our student population.