Position Summary

The Office of Applied Science within the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources (DNR) is hiring a Wildlife Research Analyst to join the Snapshot Wisconsin Decision Support Research Program. This program uses the 100+ million trail camera photos collected by the Snapshot Wisconsin program to conduct applied research and develop annual products that support wildlife decision making. The position will support applied research and development of population metrics from Snapshot Wisconsin trail camera data to inform management of deer, turkeys, and other Wisconsin wildlife species. This person will process and analyze Snapshot Wisconsin detection data working towards finalizing years of data. This person is expected to write custom SQL queries, write and annotate R code, fill data requests, and implement automated processing of research products whenever possible. This person will be responsible for conducting data-based research projects, running statistical analyses and models, and assessing model results. The position will be based out of Madison, WI.

40% Processing, documenting and finalizing trail camera detection data

• Pull and process Snapshot Wisconsin trail camera data from an Oracle database and using custom SQL queries and R functions
• Fill data requests that come in from volunteers, students, researchers, and DNR employees
• Contribute to user acceptance testing of Oracle database changes that fix bugs or add features
• Contribute to custom R packages for data analysis, especially adding documentation and new functions
• Assess data quality and identify inconsistencies in data that require further assessment
• Identify and implement solutions to finalize annual Snapshot Wisconsin datasets 

30% Statistical analysis and model development

• Assess patterns in data to separate noise (e.g., sampling issues, classification differences, detection differences) from abundance trends
• Analyze trail camera data using a range of statistics and models that include covariates 
• Analyze trail camera data using models that include covariates and assess model fit and predictions
• Visualize statistics and model predictions spatially and temporally

20% Automation development for annual wildlife research products

• Critique existing workflows to identify steps that could be improved with automation
• Develop and implement new procedures that increase automation and reduce manual processing
• Fully document processes to improve usability annually and for similar applications

10% Other duties as assigned