Research Associate (Data Donation and Data Engineering)

Help make the digital world safer and healthier: the Smart Data Donation Service seeks a Research Associate in Data Donation and Data Engineering.

Many of us are concerned about how digital ecosystems might affect our lives: When does short-form content affect attention spans amongst young people? When does gaming boost wellbeing? How is GenAI reshaping the way we think and feel?

These questions are hard to answer because the most useful data are held inside corporations and not shared within independent researchers. The Smart Data Donation Service (SDDS) is a new piece of national research infrastructure designed to address this problem. It enables members of the public to obtain copies of digital data that companies hold about them and donate those data for research.

We are looking for a Research Associate to join the SDDS. You will help transform donated digital trace data into usable research resources, and support researchers who wish to access and use these data. By doing so, you will be at the heart of driving forward the next generation of research into digital ecosystems.

Further information about the SDDS is available at https://sdds.ac.uk

Department

The SDDS is hosted in the Department of Psychology at the University of York and funded through the ESRC’s Smart Data Research UK programme.

Role

You will join the SDDS data team and help move donated digital trace data from pilot collection to delivery as research-ready resources.

You will:

• acquire, process, and document donated data;
• parse, validate, clean, standardise, reshape, enrich, link, and aggregate data;
• implement data quality checks; and
• support researchers with dataset guidance, access routes, governance requirements, and appropriate use.

Skills, Experience & Qualification needed

You will have:

• strong programming skills in R, Python, or similar;
• the ability to build reproducible, maintainable workflows using version control, testing, documentation, and collaborative coding practices;
• experience working with complex or semi-structured data;
• an understanding of the ethical, legal, and governance issues involved in handling sensitive person-level data.

Interview date: to be confirmed

For informal enquiries: please contact David Zendle on david.zendle@york.ac.uk

The University strives to be diverse and inclusive – a place where we can ALL be ourselves.

We particularly encourage applications from people who identify as Black, Asian or from a Minority Ethnic background, who are underrepresented at the University.

We offer family friendly, flexible working arrangements, with forums and inclusive facilities to support our staff. #EqualityatYork

As a Disability Confident employer, we will ensure that a fair and proportionate number of disabled applicants that meet the minimum (essential) criteria for each position will be offered an interview. Read more about the University of York’s commitments under the Disability Confident scheme.