Applied statistician

The Department of Medical Epidemiology and Biostatistics (MEB) is among the largest departments of epidemiology in Europe with special focus on increasing our knowledge of the aetiology of different diseases. Our department consists of researchers, doctoral students, biostatisticians, data collectors and database administrators as well as administrative personnel, in total some 250 staff. The department is situated at campus Solna. Further information can be found at ki.se/meb



Division
The gastrointestinal epidemiology group at the Department of Medical Epidemiology and Biostatistics (MEB) is now looking for an applied statistician who matches our level of ambition to better understand, and prevent gastrointestinal disease.

Our research group consists of biostatisticians, epidemiologists, clinicians, and a database administrator. We are seeking an applied statistician to join our research group to collaborate on a large-scale analysis project using biopsy register data. MEB and Karolinska Institutet is a highly active and respected research environment, with ample opportunities for career development and personal growth.  MEB has a large biostatistics group, which consists of around 40 statisticians with varying backgrounds, working both with applied problems and method development.

Sweden is renowned for its world-class nationwide health registers. Based on these registers, Swedish researchers have produced outstanding papers and advanced our understanding in medicine.  The applied statistician will work with a database called ESPRESSO (Epidemiology Strengthened by histoPathology Reports in Sweden) under the supervision of Professor Jonas Ludvigsson (ki.se/en/people/joludv). Additional information can be found on the ESPRESSO web site: ki.se/en/meb/espresso

Description of the work
The position requires a high level of statistical/mathematical competence, the ability to absorb necessary knowledge on medical science, and strong communication skills in a variety of media including oral, visual, and written. The main tasks include merging data from a variety of health administration datasets, developing and implementing statistical analysis plans, and reporting results at internal meetings, international conferences, and in scientific journals.

 Key duties:

- Consultation and discussion with clinical collaborators on research questions.
- Identifying relevant data sources and creating valid and reproducible research variables from medical transaction databases.
- Exploratory and descriptive data analysis, data visualization to clearly communicate results
- Implementation, interpretation, and reporting of results from both standard statistical methods and more advanced statistical issues, such as handling of missing data, causal inference, competing risks, and longitudinal data analysis.
- Description of statistical methods used in an analysis and in general collaborating on the writing and editing of scientific articles and presentations.

The appointment will be for 1 year, with a possible extension after evaluation.

Entry requirements
The applicant should be highly collegial, and be able to communicate well in a team and have the ability to work independently. Further, the applicant should possess exceptional organizational skills, know how to successfully work with several projects in parallel, and should be able to describe past examples of having developed structured approaches to solving unanticipated and complex problems. 

Minimum Qualifications

- Master’s degree in biostatistics, statistics, or equivalent
- Excellent oral and written communication skills in English
- Expertise with at least one statistical program.

Desirable Qualifications

- Experience with writing and publishing research articles in English
- Expertise with literate programming, like Sweave or Rmarkdown, or equivalent
- Excellent data visualisation skills, including the ability to make informative publication quality figures.
- Excellent organizational skills, including project structuring, version control and reproducibility
- Experience of consulting in statistics

Application process
An employment application must contain the following documents in English or Swedish:

- A complete curriculum vitae, including date of the masters/thesis defence, title of the thesis, previous academic positions, academic title, current position and work experience.
- A list of publications
- A sample of your prior work, either a thesis project, statistical software project, or published manuscript.
- Verifications for crediting of illness, military service, work for labour unions or student organisations, parental leave or similar circumstances
- Verification from the thesis defence committee or the equivalent (only if the thesis defence is scheduled within three months after the application deadline)
The application is to be submitted on the MyNetwork recruitment system.

Karolinska Institutet is one of the world’s leading medical universities. Its vision is to significantly contribute to the improvement of human health. Karolinska Institutet accounts for the single largest share of all academic medical research conducted in Sweden and offers the country’s broadest range of education in medicine and health sciences. The Nobel Assembly at Karolinska Institutet selects the Nobel laureates in Physiology or Medicine.
Pursuant to the regulations of the Swedish National Archives, applications are kept on file for two years after the appointment has gained legal force. The regulations do not apply to attachments that have been printed or otherwise published.
Karolinska Institutet strives to provide a workplace that has approximately the same number of women and men, is free of discrimination and offers equal opportunity to everyone.

For temp agencies and recruiters, and to salespersons: We politely, yet firmly, decline direct contact with temp agencies and recruiters, as well as those selling additional job announcements.