Postdoctoral Fellow - Radiation Oncology - Research

Komen Graduate Training Program UT MDACC is focused on advancing research in oncology. The Postdoctoral Fellow will lead technical research and data engineering efforts for NIH-funded studies, developing data standards and predictive models related to oral and dental toxicities in cancer patients. Responsibilities Design, build, and maintain production-quality research data pipelines supporting prospective and retrospective oncology cohorts Implement ETL / ELT workflows to ingest, transform, validate, and harmonize structured and unstructured data from: Electronic health records (EHR), Imaging metadata and derived features, Patient-reported outcomes (ePROs), Dental and oral health assessments, Research databases and external registries Proactively identify opportunities to improve data quality, completeness, and reproducibility across research workflows Serve as a technical resource for data model design, schema evolution, and versioning Support the development and maintenance of research ontologies and common data elements (CDEs) aligned with national standards (e.g., clinical, imaging, and outcomes domains) Translate existing research data models into ontology-based representations to support analytics, interoperability, and AI workflows Document data schemas, ontologies, transformations, and analytical assumptions to support transparency and reuse Collaborate with investigators to refine data structures that improve extensibility, semantic clarity, and downstream analysis Prepare structured and unstructured datasets for predictive, descriptive, and exploratory modeling, including AI/ML and statistical analyses Support LLM-based workflows for extraction of clinical concepts from free-text (e.g., clinical notes, imaging reports, pathology reports) Assist with feature engineering, cohort construction, and data serialization for modeling and visualization platforms Build and manage data assets using modern analytics platforms; experience with Palantir Foundry is desired but not required For Foundry users: Create and maintain backing datasets, transformations, and ontology objects; Implement data validations, permissions, and pipeline monitoring; Design and deploy interactive, ontology-driven workflow-specific Workshop Apps For non-Foundry users: Apply equivalent best practices using relational databases, Python/SQL workflows, and cloud or on-prem research environments Work closely with clinicians, research coordinators, statisticians, and informatics teams to translate scientific questions into data solutions Produce clear technical documentation (data dictionaries, pipeline descriptions, SOPs) Support IRB-compliant data governance, including secure handling of PHI and research data Assist with onboarding and training of research staff in data systems and best practices Contribute to abstracts, figures, and analytic summaries for publications and grant reporting Skills The appointee recently (within three years) completed their education (doctorate) or completed previous postdoctoral experience or graduate medical education The appointment is temporary The appointment involves substantial full-time research or scholarship The appointment is viewed as preparatory for a full-time academic and/or research career The appointment is not part of a clinical training program The appointee works under the supervision of a senior scholar or a department in a university or similar research institution (e.g., national laboratory, National Institutes of Health (NIH), etc.) The appointee has the freedom to and is expected to publish the results of his or her research or scholarship during the period of the appointment Experience with Palantir Foundry is desired but not required Benefits Medical Dental Paid time off Retirement Tuition benefits Educational opportunities Individual and team recognition Company Overview Through generous funding from Susan G. It was founded in undefined, and is headquartered in Houston, Texas, US, with a workforce of 11-50 employees. Its website is Company H1B Sponsorship Komen Graduate Training Program UT MDACC has a track record of offering H1B sponsorships, with 1 in 2021. Please note that this does not guarantee sponsorship for this specific role.