Research Scientist & Tobacco Treatment Program Manager

Benefits: All full-time university staff are eligible for
VCU’s robust benefits
package that includes comprehensive health benefits, paid annual
and holiday leave granted up front, generous tuition benefits,
retirement planning and savings options, tax-deferred annuity and
cash match programs, employee discounts, well-being resources,
abundant opportunities for career development and advancement, and
more.

• Continuing education for undergraduate and graduate tuition for

a maximum of 6 credits per semester;

• Professional development opportunities encouraged and offered

for employees as part of annual career development, e.g.
certifications, seminars, courses, annual conferences,
mentorship;

• 28 Vacation Days, 12+ State Holidays, and 4 Days to

volunteer;

• Medical, Dental and Vision Health Benefits to meet the needs of

employees and their eligible family members from the Commonwealth
of Virginia as well as optional FSA;

• Participation in the Virginia Retirement System (VRS) and other

retirement saving options;

• Parental and Caregiver Leave, Short Term Disability (STD),

Disability Insurance, Voluntary Long Term Care Insurance, and
Employee Assistance Program.

Unit: Massey Comprehensive Cancer Ctr MBU

Department: Massey Central Admin

Department Summary: Massey Comprehensive Cancer
Center

Mission: To reduce the state cancer burden for all Virginians by
addressing the confluence between biological, social, and policy
drivers through high-impact, cutting-edge research; person-centered
care across the continuum, from prevention through survivorship;
community integration; and training the next generation of
community-centric researchers and healthcare professionals

Vision: To be a premier community-focused cancer center leading the
nation in cancer health equity research and ensuring optimal health
outcomes for all

Why Richmond?

Duties & Responsibilities:

The Research Scientist and Tobacco Treatment Program Manager is a
hybrid scientific and operational role that advances the Cancer
Service Line’s cancer survivorship research portfolio while leading
the day-to-day delivery and development of the Tobacco Treatment
Service (TTS). The position develops and implements rigorous
survivorship research protocols, conducts epidemiologic and
outcomes analyses, contributes to grants and publications, and
translates findings into practical improvements in supportive
oncology care.

As manager of TTS, the position ensures accessible,
evidence-informed tobacco treatment for patients and survivors;
facilitates at least one group smoking-cessation session each week;
coordinates referrals, documentation, follow-up, and program
evaluation; collaborates with institutional tobacco researchers and
clinical partners; represents the program in community cessation
activities; and develops a research agenda aligned with the vision
and strategic priorities of Massey Comprehensive Cancer Center. The
role exercises independent judgment for routine-to-moderately
complex research and program matters and refers high-risk clinical,
regulatory, personnel, or financial issues to senior
leadership.

Duties include but are not limited to:

Cancer Survivorship Research —

• Protocol development and implementation: Develop

research questions, aims, conceptual frameworks, study designs,
measures, analytic plans, power calculations, recruitment
approaches, data-management plans, and operational workflows for
cancer survivorship studies. Coordinate projects from concept and
protocol development through IRB review, implementation, analysis,
dissemination, and closeout.

• Epidemiologic and outcomes research: Lead or support

analyses using electronic health records, cancer registries,
administrative data, surveys, national surveillance datasets, and
other complex sources. Apply appropriate methods, which may include
survival analysis, multilevel modeling, causal inference,
systematic review, meta-analysis, predictive modeling, and mixed or
quantitative program-evaluation approaches.

• Research operations and compliance: Maintain accurate

protocols, regulatory files, data dictionaries, standard operating
procedures, timelines, decision logs, and quality controls. Monitor
milestones, research volume, workload, and deliverables; identify
barriers early; and coordinate corrective action with investigators
and institutional partners.

• Grant and scholarly development: Contribute scientific

methods, preliminary analyses, literature synthesis, budgets or
resource assumptions, and project plans to grant proposals. Prepare
and co-author abstracts, manuscripts, presentations, technical
reports, and sponsor deliverables; support compliant post-award
implementation and project closeout.

• Team science: Collaborate with faculty investigators,

clinicians, biostatisticians, trainees, community-engagement teams,
research administrators, and external partners. Provide
methodological consultation and mentor students or junior team
members in study design, data analysis, reproducible workflows, and
interpretation.

Tobacco Treatment Program —

• Program leadership and daily operations: Manage the

operational delivery and continuous improvement of TTS across the
Cancer Service Line. Establish annual goals, workflows, referral
pathways, service standards, outreach plans, performance measures,
and reporting processes consistent with Cancer Service Line and
Massey priorities.

• Direct tobacco-treatment services: Plan and facilitate

at least one structured group smoking-cessation session each week
for patients, survivors, caregivers, or other approved
participants. Provide evidence-informed education, behavioral
counseling, relapse-prevention support, and connections to
appropriate clinical and community resources within professional
scope and institutional policy.

• Care coordination and access: Partner with oncology,

primary care, supportive services, pharmacy, nursing, social work,
navigation, and digital-health teams to strengthen identification,
referral, enrollment, follow-up, and continuity. Ensure timely
documentation and escalation of medication, mental-health, safety,
or other clinical issues to licensed treating professionals.

• Institutional research collaboration: Build active

collaborations with Massey and VCU tobacco researchers to integrate
clinical service delivery with implementation science, population
health, health-equity, and survivorship research. Support pilot
studies, pragmatic evaluations, clinical research recruitment, and
translation of evidence into practice.

• Community engagement: Participate in community

education, screening, outreach, and smoking-cessation activities,
including partnerships serving populations with high tobacco burden
or barriers to care. Adapt engagement strategies to community
priorities and support bidirectional communication with community
partners.

• Research agenda and evaluation: Develop and maintain a

multi-year TTS research and evaluation agenda aligned with Massey’s
vision. Define priority questions, populations, outcomes, data
sources, funding opportunities, dissemination plans, and
partnership needs. Track reach, engagement, service delivery,
treatment completion, patient-reported outcomes, quit-related
outcomes, disparities, and implementation measures using approved
definitions and methods.

• Quality and sustainability: Use performance data,

participant feedback, current evidence, and stakeholder input to
improve service quality and access. Develop standard procedures,
training materials, work aids, dashboards, and business cases that
support responsible growth, funding, and sustainability.

Administration and Leadership —

• Planning and reporting: Develop annual work plans,

schedules, communication plans, metrics, and resource projections.
Prepare concise reports and presentations for Cancer Service Line
and Massey leadership, investigators, funders, and community
partners.

• Operational coordination: Facilitate meetings, clarify

roles, coordinate assignments, and maintain productive
relationships across participating units. Recommend process
improvements and implement approved policy, workflow, or technology
changes.

• Training and functional leadership: Train staff,

trainees, and collaborators in study procedures and
tobacco-treatment workflows. Provide functional direction to
assigned personnel; formal supervisory duties, if any, will follow
the approved HR classification and organizational structure.

Qualifications:

Minimum Qualifications

• Doctoral degree in epidemiology, public health, population

health, behavioral science, health services research, nursing
science, a closely related discipline or an equivalent combination
of training & experience.

• At least three years of relevant research experience in cancer

epidemiology, cancer survivorship, tobacco control, supportive
oncology, population health, or a closely related area

• Current Tobacco Treatment Specialist certification or

documented ability to complete an approved certification within six
months of appointment.

• Demonstrated ability to design and implement research

protocols, prepare IRB materials, manage study timelines and data,
analyze results, and contribute to peer-reviewed
dissemination.

• Experience with quantitative epidemiologic methods and

statistical programming using one or more platforms such as SAS, R,
Stata, Python, SQL, SPSS, or an equivalent tool.

• Experience working with one or more complex health-data

sources, such as electronic health records, cancer registries,
surveillance systems, administrative claims, clinical research
data, surveys, or census-based datasets.

• Demonstrated expertise or applied experience in tobacco

cessation, tobacco-control research, behavioral intervention
delivery, or implementation of evidence-informed health
programs.

• Ability and willingness to facilitate a minimum of one

smoking-cessation group session each week, including occasional
schedule flexibility needed to meet participant and community
needs.

• Strong scientific writing, presentation, group-facilitation,

interpersonal, project-management, and time-management skills.

• Demonstrated ability to work collaboratively with

investigators, clinicians, administrators, trainees, patients, and
community partners and to foster an environment of respect,
professionalism, and civility among people with varied backgrounds
and experiences.

• Research or program experience in an NCI-designated

comprehensive cancer center, academic medical center, oncology
practice, or cancer survivorship program.

• Demonstrated record of peer-reviewed publications in cancer

survivorship, tobacco cessation, cancer epidemiology, health
disparities, supportive oncology, or related fields.

• Experience conducting systematic reviews or meta-analyses and

applying advanced methods such as causal inference, multilevel
modeling, survival analysis, data mining, or predictive
modeling.

• Experience contributing methods, analysis plans, power

calculations, or evaluation components to externally funded grants
and community-engaged research initiatives.

• Experience teaching, mentoring, or translating complex

epidemiologic evidence for clinical, community, student, or
executive audiences.

• Demonstrated ability to work in and foster an environment of

respect, professionalism and civility with a population of faculty,
staff, and students from all backgrounds and experiences, or a
commitment to do so as a staff member at VCU.

Preferred Qualifications

• Clinical or health-professions training that supports effective

collaboration with oncology care teams, while recognizing that this
role does not independently practice outside the individual’s
license or institutional privileges.

• Experience developing dashboards or visualizations and

implementing reproducible data-management and analytic
workflows

VCU is committed to hiring veterans! VCU will include a veteran’s
period(s) of military service in the calculation of their annual
leave accrual rate. This may provide veterans with an increased
leave accrual!

Please let us know if you were referred by a current Massey
employee to ensure we honor our commitment to the Employee Referral
Program.

Position will remain open until filled. Applications received
by October 28th, 2026 will be given priority
consideration.

Salary Range: Starting at $100,000.00 Commensurate with
experience.

FLSA Exemption Status: Exempt

Hours per Week: 40

Restricted Position: No

ORP Eligible: Yes

Flexible Work Arrangement: Fully onsite

University Job Title: 93233 - Open

Contact Information: MasseyHR@vcu.edu
Contact
Name: Callie Darling