Research Assistant

Location where work is to be performed:

Main Campus

Session:

2025 Fall Semester | Trimestre d'automne

Faculty:

Faculté des sciences sociales / Faculty of Social Sciences

Unit:

Department of Economics_Vincent Thivierge_JM

Job Classification:

Research Assistant (CUPE)

Posting Type:

Recherche / Research

Course Title:

N/A

Course Code:

N/A

Section:

Supervisor name (if known):

Date Posted:

August 11, 2025

Applications must be received BEFORE:

August 25, 2025

Description of tasks (hours):

Unless specified below, specific allocation of hours to various tasks should be articulated in a description of work negotiated and signed by you and the supervising professor prior to the commencement of work.

Recherche / Research:0

Préparation / Preparation:0

Contact avec étudiants / Contact with Students:0

Correction - Notation / Grading:0

Surveillance / Proctoring:0

Formation / Training:0

Autre / Other:0

Number of positions:

1

Expected Enrolment:

N/A

Work Start Date:

September 01, 2025

Work End Date:

December 31, 2025

Total Work Hours:

130

Language of Work:

Anglais | English, Français | French

Graduate Hourly Rate:

50.25

Undergraduate Hourly Rate:

31.89

Requirements and Nature of Work:

Responsabilities

The RA will gather and clean U.S. municipal public finance data and will support the professors’ efforts to analyze the impacts of oil refinery closures on local public finances. He/She will be responsible for a variety of tasks, including, but not limited to:

• Creating a longitudinal dataset of U.S. local municipal finances by gathering, cleaning, and documenting data from (1) the U.S. Census Annual Survey of Government Finances, and (2) the U.S. Census of Government.
• Creating a dataset of U.S. refinery closures by gathering, cleaning, and documenting data from the Energy Information Administration Refinery Capacity Report (Form 820).
• Developing reproducible scripts by using a combination of the statistical language R, the version control software Git, and the online repository service GitHub.
• Meeting with the professors to document the progress in the tasks, and proactively seek guidance if needed.

Qualifications

Near completion of an undergraduate degree or enrolled in a graduate degree in economics, data science, statistics, or a related field. The successful candidate should have a good basis in coding in R and RStudio and the ability to communicate the data cleaning tasks to the professors effectively.

Preferred qualifications

• Experience with data cleaning with R and RStudio.
• Experience with using version control softwares such as Git, and online repository tools such as GitHub.
• Good verbal and written communication skills.
• Ability to work independently.

Additional Information and/or Comments:

All University of Ottawa employees are required under provincial law to successfully complete all mandatory legislated training offered by the University. The list of training requirements may be modified by provincial law. If you are invited to continue the selection process, please notify us of any particular adaptive measures you might require. We may consult with the Health and Wellness sector of Human Resources, if needed. Any information you send us will be handled respectfully and in complete confidence.

The hiring process will be governed by the current CUPE 2626 collective agreement; you can click here to find out more.

The University of Ottawa embraces diversity and inclusion in the workplace. We are passionate about our people and committed to employment equity. We foster a culture of respect, teamwork and inclusion, where collaboration, innovation, and creativity fuel our quest for research and teaching excellence. While all qualified persons are invited to apply, we welcome applications from qualified Indigenous persons, racialized persons, persons with disabilities, women and LGBTQIA2S+ persons. The University is committed to creating and maintaining an accessible, barrier-free work environment. The University is also committed to working with applicants with disabilities requesting accommodation during the recruitment, assessment and selection processes. Applicants with disabilities may contact the academic unit to communicate the accommodation need.

Prior to May 1, 2022, the University required all students, faculty, staff, and visitors (including contractors) to be fully vaccinated against Covid-19 as defined in Policy 129 – Covid-19 Vaccination. This policy was suspended effective May 1, 2022 but may be reinstated at any point in the future depending on public health guidelines and the recommendations of experts.