Job Description

How to Apply

A cover letter is required for consideration for this position and should be attached as the first page of your resume. The cover letter should address your specific interest in the position and outline skills and experience that directly relate to this position.

Summary

The University of Michigan’s College of Literature, Science, and the Arts is hiring an Intermediate Research Programmer to join a diverse team of professionals dedicated to successful research. You will report to the manager of Research Computing Services in the Technology Services department. Salary Range - $61,000-$68,000

“At LSA, we wonder. We wonder why we are here. We ask how the universe works, and how we organize societies. We all wonder—but the great professors and students use curiosity as a catalyst to find answers to the biggest questions. Wonder begins with a simple “why” and leads to discovery that advances science and society while shaping our world for the better.” - https://lsa.umich.edu/research

Why Work at Michigan?

Benefits Include

In addition to a career filled with purpose and opportunity, the University of Michigan offers comprehensive benefits and wellness programs to help you stay well and to support you as you plan for a secure future.

• Generous time off
• A retirement plan that provides two-for-one matching contributions
• Many choices for comprehensive health insurance
• Life insurance
• Long-term disability coverage
• Flexible spending accounts for healthcare and dependent care expenses
• Tuition reimbursement
• Parental leave benefits include up to six weeks of paid parental leave to all eligible parents and legal guardians to bond with a new child.
  

While you will primarily work from our central campus in Ann Arbor, LSA offers flexible work options. To support well-being, LSA has a communication standard that limits non-essential emails to weekday business hours.

Responsibilities*

About The Job

The team you will be joining conquers new challenges each day. You might use Python one day, MATLAB the next, and the day after learn a new programming language you hadn’t heard of before. Your skills will strengthen and diversify while you build an impressive and diverse portfolio of experiences, solutions, and professional skills. You will learn new academic and scientific subject areas and you will meet and form relationships with researchers from around the world who are Leaders and Best in their fields.

A typical day would see you meeting with a faculty member who has a novel approach to solving a problem but lacks the programming skills to accomplish the task. You will work closely together to understand the problem, the goals, and the desired outcomes. As you will be part of a team that has your back, you may team up with a senior programmer or another colleague, if need be, to devise a solution that accomplishes the goals and produces the desired outcomes within the time constraints of the research. You will then set to work creating the solution, working with your team for input, guidance, brainstorming, and sharing what you have learned along the way.

You will provide the appropriate type and amount of communication to satisfy your and the researcher’s needs while you produce incremental deliverables and validate your work. You will be able to present your solution to your peers for knowledge sharing and feedback. And you will spend time focusing on your own professional development.

Here Are Some Real Examples Of Work We’ve Done Lately That Might Help You Get a Better Idea Of What This Job Entails

• Created a custom iPhone app to let users donate their HealthKit (Apple Watch) data to a Math group studying circadian rhythms.
• Developed Arduino and MATLAB code to help a researcher interact with a set of custom, pressure-sensitive buttons fabricated in the Chemistry Electronics Shop.
• Created a MATLAB graphical user interface (GUI) to read data files from a fruit-fly movement-tracking system, analyze sleep and activity patterns, and create a variety of plots and Excel sheets to visualize the results.
• Created a Google Chrome extension to allow quick creation and live monitoring of Amazon Mechanical Turk tasks based on Qualtrics surveys by instructors during large lecture sessions.
• Other frequent work includes:
• Helping researchers develop data processing workflows
• Debugging existing code: “This worked when our programmer graduated and left the lab last year, but now we get this error”
  

Our past experiences represent the projects we have been able to participate in based on our team’s experiences, skills, and their ability to learn. Your skills, experiences, and ability to learn will enhance and grow our team beyond simple headcount. We are excited to bring on unique skills and experiences to enhance our team and all that we can do for our researchers. As you can tell, learning is a large and pervasive component of the role and of our team.

About You

We are looking for someone with a solid foundation of experiences and skills and an insatiable thirst to learn. You will need at least some experience with research activities in order to hit the ground running, or at least walking.

Some of the unique skills we need you to add to our team include developing and improving applications for mobile platforms, such as iOS, iPadOS, Android, and others.

To chip in with some of our more common requests, demonstrable experience with Python or MATLAB will be helpful as well.

We value clean coders who take the time to comment and document their work. Solid debugging skills, including the ability to debug someone else’s code, will make you successful here as well. In this role, you will work with people from many different cultures and backgrounds, some more technical than others, and each requiring you to use your strong verbal and written communication skills in order to build and maintain positive relationships.

You could provide even more value to our team by having experience with version control systems, working across Mac, Windows, and Linux operating systems, or having programming experience in any of the following languages and platforms: R, C, Arduino, Serial or IP communication, Database development and SQL, JavaScript, Augmented Reality/Virtual Reality development, machine learning, GUI development. However, if these are not already in your wheelhouse, you can consider each of them to be potential growth opportunities once you join our team.

We want strong, diverse teams built from different backgrounds, experiences, and identities. We’re ready for the ongoing work that goes into building an inclusive, supportive place for you to do the best work of your career. That starts with working no more than 40 hours a week on a regular basis. Our workplace and our benefits are designed to support a sustainable, healthy relationship with your work.

You might have a CS degree. You might not. That’s not what we’re looking for. We care about what you can do and how you do it, not about how you got here. A strong track record of conscientious, thoughtful work speaks volumes.

Required Qualifications*

• At least 3 years of experience developing and publishing mobile applications.
• At least 3 years of experience with systems analysis/programming activities in a business or academic environment.
• At least 1 year of experience working directly with faculty in a research lab setting.
• At least 1 year of experience developing solutions using either Python or MATLAB.
  

Desired Qualifications*

• At least 2 years of related experience with the U-M computing environment or another academic computing environment.
• Experience in programming components for research experiments.
• Experience with a help-desk ticket-tracking system.
• Experience with a version control system.
• Able to work on Mac, Windows and Linux environments
• Familiarity with electronics systems (e.g., digital acquisition boards) for the programming and interfacing of specialized scientific hardware and software.
• Experience troubleshooting electronic setups for data acquisition or machine control using a multimeter and oscilloscope, as well as experience designing and creating these setups - ability to read an electronic schematic
• Experience with some of the following:
• R, C, Arduino, Serial or IP communication, Database development and SQL, JavaScript, AR/VR development, machine learning, GUI development.
  

Please Keep Reading...

Research shows that while men apply to jobs when they meet an average of 60% of the criteria, women and other marginalized folks tend to only apply when they check every box. So if you think you have what it takes, but don’t necessarily meet every single point on the job description, please still get in touch and consider applying. We’d love to hear from you

Additional Information

WORK LOCATION

You will primarily work from our main Central Campus location, giving you ready access to all of our faculty, researchers, and abundant central campus resources. You will also be able to work with your manager to select two days a week to work from home.

WORK HOURS

We will not work you to tears, burn you out, or make you choose between work and important family events. Our goal is for you to maintain a healthy relationship between life and work. Most of our team works 8 hours per day, Monday through Friday. Our team does not typically work late, work weekends, or have to come in early. Our work is flexible enough to be predictable and adjustable. The University of Michigan also offers generous vacation, sick, and parental leave benefits including up to six weeks of paid parental leave to all eligible parents and legal guardians to bond with a new child. (https://hr.umich.edu/working-u-m)

The College of Literature, Science, and the Arts seeks to recruit and retain a diverse workforce as a reflection of our commitment to serve the diverse people of Michigan, fulfill the College’s Guiding Principles, and sustain the excellence of LSA.

• To learn more about diversity, equity, and inclusion visit http://lsa.umich.edu/lsa/about/diversity--equity-and-inclusion.html
• To learn more about LSA’s Guiding Principles visit http://lsa.umich.edu/lsa/faculty-staff/human-resources/lsa-staff-guiding-principles.html
  

Mission Statement

The mission of the University of Michigan is to serve the people of Michigan and the world through preeminence in creating, communicating, preserving and applying knowledge, art, and academic values, and in developing leaders and citizens who will challenge the present and enrich the future.

Background Screening

The University of Michigan conducts background checks on all job candidates upon acceptance of a contingent offer and may use a third party administrator to conduct background checks. Background checks are performed in compliance with the Fair Credit Reporting Act.

Application Deadline

Job openings are posted for a minimum of seven calendar days. The review and selection process may begin as early as the eighth day after posting. This opening may be removed from posting boards and filled anytime after the minimum posting period has ended.

U-M EEO/AA Statement

The University of Michigan is an equal opportunity/affirmative action employer.

U-M COVID-19 Vaccination Policy

COVID-19 vaccinations, including boosters when eligible, are required for all University of Michigan students, faculty and staff across all campuses, including Michigan Medicine. This includes those working remotely. More information on this new policy is available on the Campus Blueprint website or the UM-Dearborn and UM-Flint websites.