We seek a Research Data Engineer to support the preparation, validation, and management of large-scale educational research datasets. The engineer will have opportunities to contribute to the TRRC’s mission of improving literacy outcomes by ensuring high-quality data systems and rigorous data management practices. Current projects involve data integration from multiple sources, database design and maintenance, data cleaning and transformation, and the creation of automated data quality checks and visualizations to support research and reporting. The work also may include developing custom scripts to streamline workflows and support longitudinal data analysis.

The position is based in the College of Education, Health, and Human Sciences, a leading educational research institution located in Knoxville, Tennessee.

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We seek a Research Data Engineer to support the preparation, validation, and management of large-scale educational research datasets. The engineer will have opportunities to contribute to the TRRC’s mission of improving literacy outcomes by ensuring high-quality data systems and rigorous data management practices. Current projects involve data integration from multiple sources, database design and maintenance, data cleaning and transformation, and the creation of automated data quality checks and visualizations to support research and reporting. The work also may include developing custom scripts to streamline workflows and support longitudinal data analysis. The position is based in the College of Education, Health, and Human Sciences, a leading educational research institution located in Knoxville, Tennessee.

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Required Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in a relevant field; Mathematics, Computer Science, or a related discipline.
• Ability to use R and Python to query, clean, and concatenate data.
• Knowledge of SQL queries.
• Knowledge of database systems.
• Knowledge of local installation, testing and recovery tools and mechanisms.
• Ability to create tables, graphs, and other displays of data for different audiences.

Preferred Qualifications

• Knowledge of statistical analyses for multilevel data

Work Location

• Location: Knoxville, TN
• Onsite

Compensation and Benefits

• UT market range: MR12

• Anticipated hiring range: $70,000-$75,000
• Find more information on the UT Market Range structure here
• Find more information on UT Benefits here

Application Instructions

To express interest, please submit an application with the noted below attachments. To be assured of full consideration, completed applications with all requested materials should be submitted on or before November 30, 2025.

• Resume
• Cover Letter
• List of 3 Professional References

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• Write code using database languages to create queries and reports in order to clean and standardize highly-variable data received from a variety of sources by identifying duplicate, missing, and/or inconsistent data, eliminating unnecessary data, performing character encodings, and formatting data consistently according to researcher needs.
• Assist PIs/researchers by performing preliminary analysis of data such as descriptive statistics, regression and correlation analyses to inform dataset quality.
• Write SQL queries to extract and migrate data from online data collection systems
• Write Python script to migrate data between databases
• Review existing database structure and provide suggestions to normalize data tables
• Check databases for errors during data collection
• Create databases, forms, and reports
• Generate data reports and create advanced data graphics and tables
• Provide insight and advice regarding data collection efforts, database design, and products by identifying effective initiatives and their processes
• Review pre-defined database specification and anticipate user requirements
• Provide regular database configuration, security, and monitoring in collaboration with other research team members
• Perform routine database administration including reviewing backup/restore and security processes
• Provide operation support
• Resolve database performance issues
• Review, model, write, and maintain documentation; author and maintain code books that describe data sets