Faculty position in Education Leadership in the Department of Statistics (UBC)

The University of British Columbia, Vancouver invites applications for a tenure-track Assistant Professor of Teaching position in the Department of Statistics, with an anticipated start date of July 1, 2025. The salary range for this position is $120K - $135K, commensurate with qualifications and experience. 

This position provides the opportunity, with strong institutional support, to pursue a career based on excellence in teaching and educational leadership, while participating in the intellectually exciting atmosphere of our top-tier department. This career path can make an impact on education both within and beyond the classroom, as well as both within and beyond UBC. Assistant Professor of Teaching is the first rank in UBC’s Educational Leadership Stream, followed by Associate Professor of Teaching (with tenure), and then Professor of Teaching.

It is anticipated that successful candidates will hold a Ph.D. (in Statistics, Biostatistics, or a related field), though applicants with other advanced degrees and/or relevant experience will be considered. The successful candidates must provide evidence of: (a) excellence in, and commitment to, undergraduate and graduate teaching; (b) ability to work collaboratively as well as independently, and to supervise the work of others; (c) promise of educational leadership at UBC, and nationally or internationally; and (d) potential for creating innovative instructional environments. Experience with evidence-based teaching methods, curriculum development, course design, and other initiatives that advance the university’s ability to excel in its teaching and learning mandate is also an asset. Candidates motivated to innovate around the teaching of both core statistical topics and more nascent data science topics are particularly attractive. Successful candidates will have a strong commitment to equity, diversity and inclusion, to create a welcoming community for all, particularly those who are historically, persistently or systemically marginalized.

The Department of Statistics is a leading international centre for statistical science. UBC’s campuses are located on the traditional, ancestral, and unceded territories of the Syilx (Okanagan) Peoples and of the Coast Salish Peoples, including the territories of the xwməθkwəy̓əm (Musqueam), Skwxwú7mesh (Squamish), and Stó:lō and Səl̓ílwətaʔ/Selilwitulh (Tsleil Waututh) Nations. The department hosts undergraduate programs and courses which continue to grow and evolve rapidly, as well as vibrant graduate programs. Recent initiatives undertaken by the department’s current Educational Leadership faculty, along with their research faculty counterparts, include authoring textbooks, pioneering the use of classroom learning technologies such as Jupyter Notebooks and nbgrader, developing and sharing the use of introductory statistics learning resources via StatSpace, and, in the past, integrating R into WeBWorK via the WeBWorKiR project. Such initiatives position the department as a hub for innovation in statistical and data science education, and evidence-based pedagogy. The department is also home to the Applied Statistics and Data Science Group, which supports research and graduate-level training inside and outside the department. Research faculty in the department excel in theory and methods research, while also being known for collaborative and impactful research with domain-area experts.

A natural outgrowth of our teaching philosophy and our collaborative research is our engagement in UBC’s leading-edge data science initiatives. In 2019, the department launched a new first-year data science course, DSCI 100 and in 2021 collaborated with the Department of Computer Science to launch a Minor in Data Science. This minor built on the earlier success of these two departments collaborating to design and launch a 10-month professional masters program, the Master of Data Science. In addition, cross-unit discussions of an upcoming Data Science Major program are well underway. Department faculty are also active members of the UBC Data Science Institute, which brings together a critical mass of data science researchers at UBC.

All applications must be submitted online to the Academic Jobs Online website. Interested applicants should submit: 

1. a cover letter; 
2. a detailed Curriculum Vitae; 
3. a statement of teaching and training philosophy; 
4. a statement of vision for data science education; 
5. a diversity statement (one page describing your lived background experience (if comfortable), and your past experience and future plans regarding working with a diverse student body, and contributing to a culture of equity and inclusion on campus or within your discipline); and
6. the names of three references who have been asked to send reference letters (via upload to Academic Jobs Online). 

The application deadline is December 31^st, 2024, including the receipt of the three reference letters.

Questions about the recruitment can be directed to the search committee co-chairs, Dr. Trevor Campbell and Dr. Gabriela Cohen-Freue at search.el@stat.ubc.ca.

UBC hires on the basis of merit and is committed to employment equity. Equity and diversity are essential to academic excellence.  An open and diverse community fosters the inclusion of voices that have been underrepresented or discouraged.  Inclusion is built by individual and institutional responsibility through continuous engagement with diversity to inspire people, ideas, and actions for a better world. We encourage applications from members of groups that have been marginalized on any grounds enumerated under the B.C. Human Rights Code, including sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, racialization, disability, political belief, religion, marital or family status, age, and/or status as a First Nation, Métis, Inuk, or Indigenous person. UBC acknowledges that certain circumstances may cause career interruptions that legitimately affect an applicant’s record of research or educational leadership achievement. We encourage applicants to note in their applications whether they would like consideration given to the impact of any circumstances, such as those due to health or family reasons, in order to allow for a fair assessment of their research productivity.

All qualified candidates are encouraged to apply; however Canadian citizens and permanent residents will be given priority, and members of historically marginalized groups will be given special consideration.

If you have any needs or questions regarding accommodations or accessibility during the job application, recruitment and hiring process or for more information and support, please visit UBC’s Center For Workplace Accessibility website or contact the Centre at workplace.accessibility@ubc.ca.

The University is committed to creating and maintaining an accessible work environment for all members of its workforce. Within this hiring process we will make efforts to create an accessible process for all candidates (including but not limited to disabled people). Confidential accommodations are available on request by contacting Dr. Matias Salibian-Barrera.