Research Data Manager
Job Summary:
The Research Data Manager builds, maintains, and improves the data infrastructure supporting the Academy's research operations. Reporting to the Director of Research, this role ensures internal and external data assets are accurate, well-documented, secure, and accessible for analysis and reporting. Core duties include technical survey programming, managing data reporting pipelines, sourcing external data (e.g., NPDB, CMS, HRSA, BLS), and developing SOPs for data management. The ideal candidate serves as a key technical partner to analysts, the Research Director, and AAPA staff.
Key Responsibilities:
Data Management and Governance
- Build and maintain data cleaning, validation, and transformation workflows; run routine quality checks and resolve discrepancies.
- Manage organization, storage, and archiving of research data across Academy systems (shared network drives, M365 SharePoint, cloud platforms), structured for efficient retrieval and long-term preservation.
- Support data governance: security policies, privacy regulations (e.g., GDPR where applicable), data-sharing agreements, access permissions, and data-use tracking.
Survey Programming
- Lead technical programming and testing of survey instruments - logic, branching, embedded data, display logic, quotas, distribution - ensuring cross-device functionality and accessibility compliance.
- Program complex surveys in Qualtrics or comparable platforms using branching/display logic, embedded data, quotas, custom validation, and custom code (HTML, JavaScript) to optimize the participant experience.
External Data Acquisition
- Identify, acquire, and integrate public and purchased datasets (e.g., NPDB, CMS, BLS, HRSA, AHA); document sources, licensing terms, and update schedules.
Data Engineering and Pipelines
- Build automated/semi-automated data pipelines (R, Python, SQL, or similar) to reduce manual processing and speed data delivery to analysts.
- Design and maintain end-to-end pipelines that extract, clean, validate, and load survey/research data into enterprise reporting environments supporting automated dashboards in Power BI, Tableau, and similar BI tools.
Systems Liaison and Collaboration
- Serve as primary liaison between Research and internal systems teams (e.g., Aptify/CRM admins, IT) for data extracts, imports, field mapping, and troubleshooting.
Required Abilities:
- Strong data management skills: relational databases, flat-file management, data cleaning/validation.
- Advanced survey programming (Qualtrics, REDCap, or a comparable platform), including complex logic, branching, display logic, embedded data, quotas, custom validation, and HTML/JavaScript customization.
- Proven ability to design and maintain end-to-end data pipelines (SQL, Python, R) for research/survey data; experience supporting Power BI, Tableau, or similar BI dashboards strongly preferred.
- Familiarity with public health/federal datasets (NPDB, CMS, BLS, HRSA) and integrating external sources into research workflows.
- Experience with CRM/AMS platforms (e.g., Aptify, Salesforce) desired but not required.
- Strong documentation skills (SOPs, data dictionaries, codebooks).
- Ability to translate technical concepts for non-technical colleagues; collaborate effectively in a small research team.
- Proven ability to manage multiple time-sensitive projects.
Education and Experience:
- Bachelor's degree in information science, data management, computer science, public health, social science, or a related field required. Master's degree preferred.
- 3+ years of experience in research data management, data engineering, database administration, or a closely related technical role; healthcare or association experience preferred.
- Experience working with CRM/AMS platforms (e.g., Aptify, Salesforce) desired but not required.
