Research Coordinator, Center for Neuroengineering & Therapeutics

Research Coordinator

University Overview

The University of Pennsylvania, the largest private employer in Philadelphia, is a world-renowned leader in education, research, and innovation. This historic, Ivy League school consistently ranks among the top 10 universities in the annual U.S. News & World Report survey. Penn has 12 highly-regarded schools that provide opportunities for undergraduate, graduate and continuing education, all influenced by Penn's distinctive interdisciplinary approach to scholarship and learning. As an employer Penn has been ranked nationally on many occasions with the most recent award from Forbes who named Penn one of America's Best Large Employers in 2023.

Penn offers a unique working environment within the city of Philadelphia. The University is situated on a beautiful urban campus, with easy access to a range of educational, cultural, and recreational activities. With its historical significance and landmarks, lively cultural offerings, and wide variety of atmospheres, Philadelphia is the perfect place to call home for work and play.

The University offers a competitive benefits package that includes excellent healthcare and tuition benefits for employees and their families, generous retirement benefits, a wide variety of professional development opportunities, supportive work and family benefits, a wealth of health and wellness programs and resources, and much more.

Posted Job Title
Research Coordinator

Job Profile Title
Research Coordinator

Job Description Summary
We are seeking a Research Coordinator to support collaborative neuroinformatics research between the laboratories of Drs. Nishant Sinha and Erin Conrad. This position is embedded within a highly data-intensive, multi-investigator research environment at the Center for Neuroengineering & Therapeutics (CNT) and the Division of Informatics in the Department of Biostatistics, Epidemiology, and Informatics. The Research Coordinator will be jointly mentored by Dr. Sinha and Dr. Conrad and will contribute to building reproducible data infrastructure for multimodal neuroinformatics research.

This is a challenging position that requires exceptional organization, precision, and follow-through. The coordinator will provide day-to-day operational support for datasets spanning EEG/iEEG, MRI, DWI, fMRI, and associated clinical metadata collected across multiple institutions and neurological disease populations, with a primary focus on epilepsy. The role involves helping organize heterogeneous datasets across servers, cloud platforms, and institutional systems; tracking data derivatives; maintaining detailed documentation; and supporting regulatory compliance under multiple IRB protocols and data use agreements.

The position requires a high level of accountability, organization, communication, and teamwork. The coordinator will assist in maintaining a comprehensive master inventory of datasets, documenting where data reside, how they are backed up, which processing pipelines have been executed, and what derivatives have been generated. They will coordinate data transfers from external institutions, follow up persistently to obtain missing or incomplete data, and help verify that incoming datasets meet required structural and metadata standards before integration into research workflows.

In addition to data organization and compliance tracking, the coordinator will run and monitor standardized computational pipelines (e.g., iEEG-recon, FreeSurfer, diffusion reconstruction, fMRI preprocessing), and document outputs in a reproducible manner. Some comfort with Linux environments, command-line tools, and basic scripting in Python or MATLAB is desirable.

This role operates at the interface of clinicians, engineers, trainees, and external collaborators. It requires strong communication skills, the ability to work across teams, and comfort engaging external institutions to ensure timely data sharing and compliance documentation. The coordinator will also contribute to the development and maintenance of standard operating procedures (SOPs), support data preparation for manuscripts and grant submissions, and help maintain high standards of data integrity across projects. The ideal candidate is highly structured, proactive, detail-oriented, technically comfortable, and able to manage multiple parallel projects without loss of rigor or documentation quality.

This position is particularly well suited for highly motivated post-baccalaureate or master's-level candidates seeking immersive research experience prior to pursuing advanced training (e.g., Master's, PhD, MD, or MD-PhD programs). Research Coordinators are expected to engage actively in the scientific mission of the laboratories, including participation in weekly lab meetings; presentation of project updates and findings; assistance with manuscript and grant preparation; and direct contribution to scientific research efforts, where appropriate.

We anticipate a minimum commitment of two years, subject to satisfactory performance and annual renewal. This duration is important to ensure continuity, mastery of complex neurological data systems, and meaningful scientific contribution.

Job Description
Job Responsibilities

• Maintain a comprehensive inventory of multimodal neuroscience datasets (EEG/iEEG, MRI, DWI, fMRI) across institutional servers, cloud platforms, and collaborative data systems.
• Coordinate data acquisition and transfers from collaborating institutions; track data completeness, verify structure and metadata standards, and ensure proper documentation and organization.
• Track dataset versions, processing status, and derived outputs; maintain detailed documentation of data locations, processing pipelines, and backups to support reproducible research practices.
• Run and monitor standardized neuroinformatics pipelines (e.g., iEEG-recon, FreeSurfer, diffusion reconstruction, fMRI preprocessing) and document outputs in reproducible workflows.
• Support regulatory and compliance activities including tracking IRB protocols, data use agreements, and data-sharing documentation.
• Coordinate communication with investigators, trainees, clinicians, and external collaborators to facilitate timely data sharing and project progress.
• Contribute to development and maintenance of standard operating procedures (SOPs) for data management, processing, and documentation.
• Assist with preparation of datasets, figures, and documentation for manuscripts, grant submissions, and research presentations.
• Participate in laboratory meetings and contribute to ongoing scientific activities within the research groups.

Additional Duties at the Senior Research Coordinator Level (dual-posted):

• Operate autonomously with minimal supervision across multiple concurrent research protocols, exercising independent judgment on prioritization, workflow design, and problem escalation.
• Lead the development and institutionalization of Standard Operating Procedures for data management, processing, and compliance across collaborating laboratories.
• Mentor and provide day-to-day operational oversight of junior Research Coordinators, research assistants, and student workers; assign and review their work on data organization, pipeline execution, and documentation.
• Serve as a primary point of contact for external collaborators on complex, multi-site data agreements and regulatory workflows.
• Independently design and refine reproducible data workflows and quality-assurance procedures aligned with the laboratory's evolving research needs.

*Position is contingent upon continued funding.

Qualifications

Required (Essential):

• Bachelor's degree in neuroscience, biomedical engineering, computer science, data science, or a related field, and 1-2 years of experience or an equivalent combination of education and experience.
• Demonstrate strong organizational skills with the ability to manage complex, multi-project workflows and maintain structured documentation.
• Basic proficiency working in Linux environments (e.g., file systems, ssh, command line tools).
• Basic programming experience in Python and/or Matlab
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills.
• High attention to detail and ability to maintain data integrity and confidentiality.
• Ability to work independently, prioritize tasks effectively, and meet deadlines in a fast-paced research environment.

Required for Senior Research Coordinator (dual-posted Senior level):

• Bachelor's degree and 3-5 years of relevant research experience (Master's degree preferred), or an equivalent combination of education and experience.
• Demonstrated ability to work autonomously on complex, multi-project research workflows with minimal day-to-day supervision.
• Prior experience mentoring, training, or supervising junior research staff, research assistants, or student workers
• Demonstrated experience leading to the development of Standard Operating Procedures, data management plans, or equivalent research infrastructure documentation.

Preferred (Desired):

• Prior experience in signal processing, neuroimaging, electrophysiology (EEG/iEEG), or data science.
• Experience running or managing computational pipelines (e.g., FreeSurfer, diffusion reconstruction tools, EEG preprocessing workflows).
• Familiarity with research data management platforms (e.g., Pennsieve, Box, BIDS-formatted datasets).
• Experience coordinating multi-site research collaborations.
• Experience with IRB protocols, regulatory compliance, or Data Use Agreements.
• Interest in translational neuroinformatics and team-based biomedical research.

Job Location - City, State
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Department / School
Perelman School of Medicine

Pay Range
$45,278.00 - $58,506.00 Annual Rate
Salary offers are made based on the candidate's qualifications, experience, skills, and education as they directly relate to the requirements of the position, and in alignment with salary ranges based on external market data for the job's level. Internal organization and peer data at Penn are also considered.

Equal Opportunity Statement

The University of Pennsylvania is an equal opportunity employer. Candidates are considered for employment without regard to race, color, sex, sexual orientation, religion, creed, national origin (including shared ancestry or ethnic characteristics), citizenship status, age, disability, veteran status or any class protected under applicable federal, state or local law.

Special Requirements
Background checks may be required after a conditional job offer is made. Consideration of the background check will be tailored to the requirements of the job.

University Benefits

• Health, Life, and Flexible Spending Accounts: Penn offers comprehensive medical, prescription, behavioral health, dental, vision, and life insurance benefits to protect you and your family's health and welfare. You can also use flexible spending accounts to pay for eligible health care and dependent care expenses with pre-tax dollars.
• Tuition: Take advantage of Penn's exceptional tuition benefits. You, your spouse, and your dependent children can get tuition assistance here at Penn. Your dependent children are also eligible for tuition assistance at other institutions.
• Retirement: Penn offers generous retirement plans to help you save for your future. Penn's Basic, Matching, and Supplemental retirement plans allow you to save for retirement on a pre-tax or Roth basis. Choose from a wide variety of investment options through TIAA and Vanguard.
• Time Away from Work: Penn provides you with a substantial amount of time away from work during the course of the year. This allows you to relax, take vacations, attend to personal affairs, recover from illness or injury, spend time with family-whatever your personal needs may be.
• Long-Term Care Insurance: In partnership with Genworth Financial, Penn offers faculty and staff (and your eligible family members) long-term care insurance to help you cover some of the costs of long-term care services received at home, in the community or in a nursing facility. If you apply when you're newly hired, you won't have to provide proof of good health or be subject to underwriting requirements. Eligible family members must always provide proof of good health and are subject to underwriting.
• Wellness and Work-life Resources: Penn is committed to supporting our faculty and staff as they balance the competing demands of work and personal life. That's why we offer a wide variety of programs and resources to help you care for your health, your family, and your work-life balance.
• Professional and Personal Development: Penn provides an array of resources to help you advance yourself personally and professionally.
• University Resources: As a member of the Penn community, you have access to a wide range of University resources as well as cultural and recreational activities. Take advantage of the University's libraries and athletic facilities, or visit our arboretum and art galleries. There's always something going on at Penn, whether it's a new exhibit at the Penn Museum, the latest music or theater presentation at the Annenberg Center, or the Penn Relays at Franklin Field to name just a few examples. As a member of the Penn community, you're right in the middle of the excitement-and you and your family can enjoy many of these activities for free.
• Discounts and Special Services: From arts and entertainment to transportation and mortgages, you'll find great deals for University faculty and staff. Not only do Penn arts and cultural centers and museums offer free and discounted admission and memberships to faculty and staff. You can also enjoy substantial savings on other goods and services such as new cars from Ford and General Motors, cellular phone service plans, movie tickets, and admission to theme parks.
• Flexible Work Hours: Flexible work options offer creative approaches for completing work while promoting balance between work and personal commitments. These approaches involve use of non-traditional work hours, locations, and/or job structures.
• Penn Home Ownership Services: Penn offers a forgivable loan for eligible employees interested in buying a home or currently residing in West Philadelphia, which can be used for closing costs or home improvements.
• Adoption Assistance: Penn will reimburse eligible employees on qualified expenses in connection with the legal adoption of an eligible child, such as travel or court fees, for up to two adoptions in your household.

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To learn more, please visit: https://www.hr.upenn.edu/PennHR/benefits-pay


Equal Employment Opportunity Statement

The University of Pennsylvania is an equal opportunity employer. Candidates are considered for employment without regard to race, color, sex, sexual orientation, religion, creed, national origin (including shared ancestry or ethnic characteristics), citizenship status, age, disability, veteran status or any class protected under applicable federal, state, or local law.


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