Research Analyst - Pre-Clinical Research

The Laboratory of Behavioural Neuroendocrinology at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH) is seeking a full-time, contract (6 months) Research Analyst to support the continued development of ConsensusConnectR, a consensus-based, no-code application for functional brain connectivity analysis. Funded by the Centre for Aging + Brain Health Innovation (CABHI) Ignite Program, this project will advance the application from a validated prototype toward a production-ready research tool. We aim to integrate use-cases with multiple imaging modalities (fMRI, EEG, and DTI), strengthening its graph-theoretic analysis pipeline, improving accessibility and computational performance, and delivering a peer-reviewed validation study. The Research Analyst will work closely with the Principal Investigator (PI) and the postdoctoral fellow who leads the project. The successful candidate will contribute to software development, scientific validation, and peer-reviewed publications, and will help ensure the project meets its scientific, administrative, and reporting obligations. This role requires strong initiative, critical thinking, and attention to detail, along with a proactive, collaborative working style. The successful candidate will contribute to a supportive and diverse research team and must adhere to all applicable ethical and regulatory guidelines.

Project Administration

Maintain version control (Git/GitHub) and organized, secure backups of project code, data, and documentation.

Ensure secure data storage and compliance with institutional and external requirements related to data sharing, ethics, intellectual property, and confidentiality with project obligations to CAMH, CABHI, and data providers.

Support the project's intellectual property and regulatory strategy, including freedom-to-operate analysis and data privacy and security requirements, in coordination with CAMH.

Track progress against quarterly CABHI milestones and contribute to internal and external reporting, including formal business-style reports to the funding agency.

Coordinate end-user engagement and beta testing and help recruit and onboard testers across imaging disciplines, schedule structured feedback sessions, and compile bug reports, feature requests, and testimonials.

Coordinate meetings with the project lead, stakeholders, potential end users, and advisory board meetings. This will require scheduling, agenda setting, and minute-taking

Software Development & Research

Extend ConsensusConnectR beyond single-timepoint analysis to support multiple timepoints, larger participant cohorts, and additional imaging modalities (fMRI, EEG, and DTI), including modality-specific data ingestion pipelines.

Implement and validate a comprehensive suite of graph-theoretic network measures (e.g., modularity, small-worldness, hub identification, and community detection) within the consensus framework.

Optimize computational performance and explore offline deployment options.

Implement accessibility features such as colour-blind-friendly palettes, screen-reader compatibility, tutorials, and flexible download and output options informed by structured usability testing with candidate end users.

Contribute to a validation study applying ConsensusConnectR to published datasets of varying scales, documenting reproducibility and the robustness of the consensus methodology.

Compile documentation of features, tests, and performance benchmarks, and contribute to manuscripts, preprints, and conference presentations.

Support deployment readiness, including hosting and authentication (ORCiD, institutional single sign-on), security and compliance, and reproducible release packaging (e.g., Docker).