Computer programmer(s) position for data processing and software development in Spain

The Barcelona Institute for Global Health (ISGlobal) is a cutting-edge institute addressing global public health challenges through research, translation into policy and education. ISGlobal has a broad portfolio in communicable and non-communicable diseases including environmental and climate determinants, and applies a multidisciplinary scientific approach ranging from the molecular to the population level. Research is organized in the following main areas, Malaria and other Infectious Diseases,  Maternal, Child and reproductive Health, Urban Health and Child and environmental health, Climate & Non-Communicable Diseases.  ISGlobal is accredited with the Severo Ochoa distinction, a seal of excellence of the Spanish Science Ministry.

What we are looking for

We are seeking one or two talented and highly motivated computer programmers to join the research team of Dr. Joan Ballester  at ISGlobal  within the framework of various research projects, mainly the ERC Consolidator grant EARLY-ADAPT  and the ERC Proof-of-Concept project HHS-EWS (see “Project information” below). The team is at the forefront of environmental epidemiology by analysing a novel database of human health in Europe, which incorporates a range of environmental, socioeconomic and demographic variables and novel digital data streams at different spatiotemporal scales.

The main duty of the chosen candidate(s) is to contribute to the design, creation, harmonisation and management of the team research database. Towards this aim, the chosen candidate(s) will have to

• design and implement harmonization protocols for a successful integration of data,
• write and run scripts to transform the data into a common data format, and
• interact with the scientists of the group to adapt the data to their scientific needs.

Additionally, the chosen candidate(s) will contribute to other research lines of the group, such as the develop of operational health early warning systems driven by real-time weather forecasts. This includes the data collection process, the creation of subroutines that automatically download new, real-time or updated datasets, such as climate and air quality forecasts and projections, and the post-processing of large data files to support the research of other team members.

The candidate is expected to closely interact with all the other members of the team, in order to better design and update the database, and address any need in terms of data, programming and specialized software. The candidate is not requested to contribute to scientific research, but any interest in that regard will be taken into consideration.

Competences and duties

The chosen candidate(s) is requested to have good programming skills in R.

• In addition, it is desired that the chosen candidate(s) meets as many of the following criteria as possible:
• have experience with Linux environment and scripting;
• have experience with Shiny, Python and/or NetCDF;
• have experience with Shapefiles and geospatial data;
• have experience with the management and analysis of climate and/or health data;
• have a good level of English;
• be willing to work in an inter-disciplinary project team within a highly collaborative research institute.