Data Curator for Programmatic Access

Description

Stanford Libraries seeks a Data Curator for Programmatic Access to join a team of existing and new data curation professionals at Stanford Libraries. Based in Stanford's historic Green Library, this cross—disciplinary position will be located in a space associated with both Social Science data and Data Science software and services. Addressing all disciplines and departments at Stanford, this role builds on these traditions of service to build best practices in API usage for all researchers on campus. As a member of Research Data Services, this person plays a key part in advancing researchers' abilities to discover, obtain, transform, compute and communicate research data.

About the Position:

We conceive of "Programmatic Access" as a crucial first step in the research data lifecycle. This position supports the use of Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) from commercial, governmental, non-profit, and library systems by researchers to discover, obtain, and transform research data at scale.

This Data Curator will work with users to identify and leverage tools and technologies in order to acquire, analyze, wrangle, and manage data. Core to this position will be familiarity with web-based Application Programming Interfaces (APIs). This includes working with programming & scripting languages (Python, R), data cleaning (OpenRefine), metadata and normalization services, and the responsible use of web scraping and web scraping technologies.

This position will play a key role on a team of data curators who identify, license, curate, and provide access to data acquired from commercial vendors, public organizations, and scholarly researchers. Just as importantly, this role will help researchers themselves in creating, managing, transforming, analyzing and preserving their own data. This dual role places the Data Curator for Programmatic Access at the intersection of existing library practices and new opportunities for directly engaging with faculty and students in research data management.

The Data Curator will have the opportunity to contribute to the Libraries' data archiving and provisioning infrastructure, including the Data Catalog, a major project planned for the Research Data Services group. We are looking for expertise in prioritizing vendor and researcher content for inclusion in the Data Catalog and in the development of a metadata strategy and workflows that will enable the desired features and functionality of this service. The Data Curator may also contribute to outlining the user needs that will drive the functionality included in the Data Catalog.

Core Duties:

• Assist with providing leadership for using APIs in teaching, learning, and research. Oversee or provide assistance in the direct integration of data APIs into course curricula and research projects.
• Lead the development of resources, seminars, courses, or workshops to disseminate information about uses of APIs and programmatic access to data.  
• Actively encourage and support the use of APIs by developing and implementing new tools and resources for instructors or students, assisting them with APIs, disseminating knowledge of APIs throughout the program or university, and creating and supporting an infrastructure that allows better use of APIs in research.
• Consult on usage of data APIs; work with on- or off-campus resources to develop or adapt software solutions associated with programmatic access to data.
• Consult with and help instructors and/or departments to incorporate data API usage into faculty research projects and course design.
• Stay abreast of current issues in APIs and programmatic access to data; participate in relevant conferences.
• Provide outreach and advocacy within and across departments for effective use of APIs in research.
• Other duties may also be assigned

The job duties listed are typical examples of work performed by positions in this job classification and are not designed to contain or be interpreted as a comprehensive inventory of all duties, tasks, and responsibilities. Specific duties and responsibilities may vary depending on department or program needs without changing the general nature and scope of the job or level of responsibility. Employees may also perform other duties as assigned.

MINIMUM REQUIREMENTS

Education and Experience:

Bachelor's degree plus four years of relevant experience, or combination of education and relevant experience.

Preferred: Masters Degree in information science, data science, digital humanities, or a related field.

• Experience with accessing, cleaning, normalizing, and curating digital data, including born-digital datasets.

Knowledge, Skills and Abilities:

• Facility in a scripting or programming language commonly used with APIs, such as Python, for the purpose of data acquisition and curation.
• Ability and experience in the areas of Instruction, training, workshops, best practices.
• General background and experience with information technology and digital data formats, including various digital file formats and data storage technologies (text, audio, visual, geospatial, etc)
• Background in methods relevant for acquisition via APIs, such as an  understanding of RESTful services, web systems architecture, text encoding standards, and data types.
• Expertise in utilizing technology to enhance research.
• Ability to define and solve logical problems for technical applications.
• Ability to plan, design, develop and evaluate engaging learning experiences for scholars at all levels.
• Excellent teaching, communication and interpersonal skills.
• Ability to interact effectively and tactfully with members of the academic community; demonstrated experience working in an environment with colleagues of diverse backgrounds and customs.
• Demonstrated expertise with instructional design methodologies, pedagogical issues and best practices for classroom, online and hybrid learning.
• Excellent time management and project management skills. Demonstrated ability to manage a complex workload, prioritize tasks and use good judgment in providing services based on goal.
• Expert knowledge of common computer environments, and facility with the command line.
• Demonstrated experience developing and delivering technical training to a nontechnical audience.
• Excellent customer service skills, strong interpersonal skills and the ability to build strong working relationships with a diverse audience of faculty, staff and students.

Physical Requirements:

• Constantly perform desk-based computer tasks.
• Frequently sitting, grasp lightly/fine manipulation.
• Occasionally stand/walk, lift/carry/push/pull objects that weigh 1 1-20 pounds.
• Rarely writing by hand, use a telephone.

Consistent with its obligations under the law, the University will provide reasonable accommodation to any employee with a disability who requires accommodation to perform the essential functions of his or her job.

Work Standards:

• Interpersonal Skills: Demonstrates the ability to work well with Stanford colleagues and clients and with external organizations.
• Promote Culture of Safety: Demonstrates commitment to personal responsibility and value for safety; communicates safety concerns; uses and promotes safe behaviors based on training and lessons learned.
• Subject to and expected to comply with all applicable University policies and procedures, including but not limited to the personnel policies and other policies found in the University's Administrative Guide, http://adminguide.stanford.edu.

The expected pay range for this position is $92,000 to $109,000 per annum.

Stanford University provides pay ranges representing its good faith estimate of what the university reasonably expects to pay for a position. The pay offered to a selected candidate will be determined based on factors such as (but not limited to) the scope and responsibilities of the position, the qualifications of the selected candidate, departmental budget availability, internal equity, geographic location, and external market pay for comparable jobs.

This is an on-campus position, with the expectation of providing services both in person and to remote patrons.

Stanford is an equal employment opportunity and affirmative action employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability, protected veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by law. Stanford welcomes applications from all who would bring additional dimensions to the University's research, teaching and clinical missions. We believe Stanford's future success will be shaped by the diverse perspectives, unique experiences, and inclusive culture of its community.

https://careersearch.stanford.edu/jobs/data-curator-for-programmatic-access-24056