In 2022, UNC Chapel Hill launched the School of Data Science and Society (SDSS), a new school devoted to data science teaching, research, scholarship, service, and creativity. The SDSS vision is to be a leader in shaping the field of data science through an interdisciplinary and rigorous grounding in theory and methods with a human centric approach to the entire data life cycle.

The mission of SDSS is to empower a diverse community of faculty conducting research in the fundamentals and/or the applications of data science. The school is training undergraduate, graduate, and professional students to be the next generation of data science leaders with the knowledge and skills to thrive in this data-driven world. The SDSS will serve the state, the nation, and the world through premier data science educational programs and innovative research directed to advancing the public good with human-centric and ethical applications.

The core elements of the SDSS include porous borders – leveraging our low-walled collaborative Carolina culture to solve major societal problems. Interdisciplinary research clusters that cross disciplines and school boundaries are a vital element of the school. The SDSS is focused on students and education – the emphasis is not just on data science majors but on all students becoming data literate. The school’s culture has an open and transparent structure, governance, and business model.

The Data Science and AI Research Service is a team within the School of Data Science and Society that supports data intensive and AI enabled research across a broad range of data science and AI domains. The service advances research productivity and innovation by helping research teams design, adopt, and scale software engineering, data engineering, and AI enabled research technologies that align with scholarly goals and best research practices.

Position Summary
The Research Data & AI Solutions Specialist works directly with faculty, research staff, and graduate students to translate research questions and workflows into usable, scalable data and AI research technologies. The role combines solutions development, applied technical expertise, and research partnership to design, prototype, and scale data and AI enabled technologies in support of SDSS faculty research programs. These technologies may include research software tools, analytical and modeling pipelines, automation scripts, dashboards, visualization systems, and AI enabled research assistants.

The role is strongly end user focused, emphasizing co design with researchers, iterative prototyping, usability in real research contexts, and sustained adoption across projects and labs. The position technically enables SDSS faculty research by supporting tool development and data collection to enhance impact of grant applications and implementation of research projects, enabling reuse of shared tools, and connecting research teams to appropriate technical and institutional resources.