Deadline: March 15, 2025

Late applications may be considered for the hourly positions.

Are you interested in helping other researchers write code, analyze data, and make impactful visualizations? Then become a Data Science Consultant with Research Computing and Data Services. Applications are being accepted now for 2025-2026.

Student Consultants help researchers by troubleshooting code, completing data science research projects, selecting and running statistical models, and creating static and interactive visualizations. Consultants learn new technical and consulting skills and build their data science portfolio. Learn more about the program details and benefits.

Eligibility

• Current, full time, Northwestern students
• Graduate or undergraduate
• Any department, school, or major
• Previous programming experience in R or Python, or significant statistical coursework
• Available for a full-year commitment (details below)

Skills Required

While all consultants will get to work on a wide variety of consultations and projects, including those that will require learning new skills, we are looking for students with skills and interests in these two areas: Data Science, Statistics.

• Data Science applicants should have programming skills in R or Python and familiarity with at least one additional programming language, statistical program, or specialty skill, such as (but not limited to): Stata, MATLAB, Javascript, C++, bash, machine learning frameworks, image processing, text analysis, webscraping and data collection, genomics pipelines, or geographical data. Data visualization skills and familiarity with visualization software is also welcomed, though not required.
• Statistics applicants should have completed significant coursework in statistics. For graduate students, a previous degree in Statistics (bachelors or masters) is helpful, but not required. Applicants should have programming skills in a common statistical language or program, like R, Stata, SPSS, etc.

All applicants should be comfortable researching solutions to technical problems and explaining technical concepts to people with a wide range of abilities. Students from a diversity of backgrounds, all fields of research, and both campuses are encouraged to apply.

Positions

There are two different types of positions. You may apply for one or both as appropriate. There are multiple openings for both position types.

1. Funded Interdisciplinary Graduate Assistantship (IGA). For PhD students who will be in their 3rd through 7th year during the 2025-2026 academic year. Students should be finished with coursework. This is a full year position (4 quarters: Fall 2025 – Summer 2026 with a possibility of starting sooner than Fall 2025) that covers the annual PhD stipend and tuition waiver at the standard Northwestern University rate. IGAs work an average of 10-15 hours a week, although the week-to-week schedule is flexible and variable.
2. Hourly-paid. Appropriate for PhD students in their 3rd year and above in 2025-2026, Master's students in research fields, and advanced undergraduates. This is a full year position beginning in Fall 2025 (though with a possibility of starting earlier), with an expected commitment through at least May 2026. Graduate students earn $25/hour and undergraduate students earn $20/hour. For PhD students in their 3rd year and above in 2025-2026 and who are unable to work hourly (e.g. due to a full-time RA position), we may be able to provide “Supplemental RA” funding. Students who would require a Supplemental RA can inquire during the interview process. Hourly consultants work an average of 2 to 6 hours a week and fulfill the Expectations listed below.

Expectations

We expect our students to remain engaged with our team throughout the year, demonstrate patience, respect, and professionalism in all aspects of their role, and value curiosity, collaborative problem-solving, and inclusion. Specifically, our students help Northwestern researchers through one-on-one consultations, longer-term research projects, and/or developing workshops and other teaching materials (as also described on our website). Students are expected to maintain records of their consultations and other activities and provide regular summaries to DSSV staff. Importantly, we also expect each of our Student Data Science Consultants (regardless of the type of position) to be available for regular bi-weekly virtual meetings with our DSSV staff to help us build community and provide mentorship. All of these activities count toward the hourly expectation, as defined above for each position type.