Project Manager

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Job Profile

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Compensation Range

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Posting End Date

Note: Applications will be accepted until 11:59 PM on the Posting End Date.

Job End Date

This position is expected to be filled by promotion/reassignment and is included here to inform you of its vacancy at the University.

At UBC, we believe that attracting and sustaining a diverse workforce is key to the successful pursuit of excellence in research, innovation, and learning for all faculty, staff and students. Our commitment to employment equity helps achieve inclusion and fairness, brings rich diversity to UBC as a workplace, and creates the necessary conditions for a rewarding career.

Job Summary

The Edwin S.H. Leong Centre for Healthy Aging (ELCHA) and the Kobor Lab is seeking a highly motivated and ambitious individual to work as a Project Manager on various projects related to understanding the causes and consequences of variation in epigenetic marks across human populations, including an interdisciplinary, multi-institutional research project focused on understanding the potential effects of early-life exposure to climate-related disasters across the human life course. The successful applicant will oversee all aspects of project development, implementation and evaluation and will work with an interdisciplinary team of investigators and trainees at the University of British Columbia, BC Children's Hospital Research Institute (BCCHRI), BC Centre for Disease Control (BCCDC) and international institutions. This work involves the generation and acquisition of high-dimension datasets for genotyping, DNA methylation, chromatin conformation and mRNA expression and their integrative analysis with phenotype and environmental exposures.

Major responsibilities include but are not limited to: writing and submitting human ethics applications, protocol development, identifying and writing research funding applications, overseeing all participant consenting and recruitment, liaising with study investigators and funders, and developing and implementing knowledge translation plans to communicate to stakeholders.

Organizational Status

The University of British Columbia is a global centre for research and teaching, consistently ranked among the top 20 public universities in the world. Since 1915, UBC's entrepreneurial spirit has embraced innovation and challenged the status quo. UBC encourages its students, staff and faculty to challenge convention, lead discovery and explore new ways of learning. At UBC, bold thinking is given a place to develop into ideas that can change the world.

Our Vision: To Transform Health for Everyone

Ranked among the world's top medical schools with the fifth-largest MD enrollment in North America, the UBC Faculty of Medicine is a leader in both the science and the practice of medicine. Across British Columbia, more than 12,000 faculty and staff are training the next generation of doctors and health care professionals, making remarkable discoveries, and helping to create the pathways to better health for our communities at home and around the world.

The Faculty—comprised of approximately 2,200 administrative support, technical/research and management and professional staff, as well approximately 650 full-time academic and over 10,000 clinical faculty members—is composed of 19 academic basic science and/or clinical departments, 3 schools, and 25 research centres and institutes. Together with its University and Health Authority partners, the Faculty delivers innovative programs and conducts research in the areas of health and life sciences. Faculty, staff and trainees are located at university campuses, clinical academic campuses in hospital settings and other regionally based centres across the province.

The UBC Vancouver Campus is located on the traditional, ancestral, and unceded territory of the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam) people. The City of Vancouver is located on Musqueam, Squamish, and Tsleil-Waututh First Nations territory.

This position reports to the Director of the ELCHA / lead Principal Investigator Dr. Michael Kobor and works closely with the staff of the ELCHA, the research staff and trainees of the Dr. Kobor's laboratory, as well as the other Investigators directly involved in the research project and their staff and trainees. Dr. Kobor's laboratory is located at the BCCHRI with the possibility to work in a hybrid arrangement.

Work Performed

• Leads, manages, and organizes research projects, including establishing project work plans, timelines and staffing resources
• Identifies funding opportunities and writes and submits funding applications to provincial, federal and international funding organizations, philanthropic foundations and donors
• Writes, prepares and submits applications and documents for approval by the UBC Research ethics board, including study protocols and consent forms
• Develops and prepares project budgets and forecasts and monitors expenses to ensure they are aligned with the study budget; completes financial processes using the UBC Workday system
• Prepares data access requests, information and data sharing agreements and requests to Population Data BC for data access and linkage
• Oversees recruitment and consenting of research participants
• Consults with collaborators for best practices pertaining to sample collection, preparation, and shipping to ensure they are suitable for array-based technologies
• Generates and analyzes high-throughput epigenomics, genotyping, and sequencing data to facilitate the interpretation of associations between molecular data with environment, stress and disease in humans and cell-based studies
• Evaluates data quality and troubleshoots any low performing samples
• Collaborates actively with others across UBC, BCCRHI and BCCDC to problem solve and provide clarity on the application of bioinformatic and molecular approaches to understanding epigenetics, from biochemical approaches in model organisms to population-scale studies of human epigenetic variation
• Idnetifies new opportunities and techniques that may be relevant to or enhance study design
• Liaises with the VP Research Office, ORS, UILO, funding agencies, and finance and research offices at collaborating institutions to resolve issues with existing studies, explore opportunities, and develop reports and communications as requested.
• Develops and implements overarching knowledge translation and dissemination plans and monitors study-specific implementation of the plans
• Builds partnerships with multiple stakeholder groups to inform research program design and communicate results, including health authorities, public health agencies, the BC Ministry of Health, community organizations, and members of the public
• Oversees organization, documentation, and storage of study data in compliance with research and privacy protocols.
• Performs other administrative and related duties in the lab

Consequence of Error/Judgement
The incumbent is required to conduct all project coordination activities in an ethical manner following approved guidelines. Confidentiality must be respected when dealing with research data. Study files must be kept secured to ensure that participant confidentiality is not compromised. Errors made could influence the ability of research staff to meet critical deadlines, as well as compromise the results of research projects, and therefore impact the credibility and funding of the principal investigator, UBC, and other internal and external research partners.

Supervision Received
Direction is provided by the Centre Director, Dr. Kobor; however, the position requires a strong independent work ethic and a candidate capable of setting their own directions and priorities within a given framework and working within agreed-upon milestones and timelines.

Supervision Given

Manages and oversees junior staff and students as required.

Assists and provides guidelines to other research members as required.

Minimum Qualifications
Undergraduate degree in a relevant discipline. Minimum of three years of related experience, or the equivalent combination of education and experience.

- Willingness to respect diverse perspectives, including perspectives in conflict with one's own

- Demonstrates a commitment to enhancing one's own awareness, knowledge, and skills related to equity, diversity, and inclusion

Preferred Qualifications

• Masters degree preferred
• Experience in leading and managing a large research project
• Strong understanding of human biology and life science
• Experience in a scientific/medical research environment including a full understanding of research methodology
• Demonstrated experience in preparing human ethics applications and with the UBC RISe system
• Experience with the UBC Workday system, and UBC's financial processes, policies, and procedures is a strong asset
• Experience with data processing and management, including commonly used statistical software (e.g. R, SPSS, Prism, etc.)
• Demonstrated experience coordinating large human cohort studies, including recruiting participants and working with confidential information and data
• Knowledge with biospecimen collection (blood, saliva, buccal swabs) to effectively advise collaborators with sample preparation-related inquiries.
• Experience working with and generating DNA methylation, genotyping, expression, and/or multi-dimensional genomics or population data. Experience working with and generating sequencing data. Knowledge with the development of novel packages/analysis pipelines
• Computer literacy including Microsoft Office and writing/publishing software such as EndNote or Mendeley
• Excellent interpersonal skills and ability to communicate with a multidisciplinary team of researchers, members of the public and a broad range of stakeholders
• Ability to work independently and to exercise initiative to make decisions and troubleshoot as required
• High degree of resourcefulness, motivation, enthusiasm and initiative
• Excellent scientific writing abilities and understanding of research methods
• Excellent organization and communication skills (written and verbal)
• Ability to comprehend and incorporate broad scientific concepts and effectively communicate complex scientific issues
• Ability to prioritize workloads and meet deadlines
• Attentive to detail, with the ability to work quickly and accurately
• Ability to interpret results and make recommendations for implementation
• Ability to exercise tact and discretion in communication
• Strong analytical, problem solving, decision making and organizational skills
• Must conduct all activities in an ethical manner and treat funding information and research data confidentially