Data Curator

Job Description:

Data Curator

Office of Information Technology

Are you passionate about empowering campus partners and driving discovery through efficient data infrastructure? The Data Curator serves as a vital bridge between university researchers, administrative units, and central IT infrastructure. In this role, you will work directly with faculty, postdocs, staff, and leadership to support the research, academic, and administrative community in managing, protecting, and optimizing their data assets throughout the entire data lifecycle.

Key Responsibilities

• Community Collaboration: Partner directly with the research, academic, and administrative community to understand their unique storage challenges, providing consultative guidance on optimal storage placement and data management best practices.
• Data Lifecycle Management & Efficiency: Proactively assist users with identifying obsolete or unused data for archiving, compression, or deletion—optimizing institutional storage space and keeping central infrastructure sustainable.
• Platform & Service Curation: Lead organization and cleanup efforts across central cloud platforms (such as Google Workspace) and enterprise storage solutions.
• Institutional Advocacy: Promote data hygiene, file organization conventions, and lifecycle workflows across all campus departments and research labs.

Education & Experience

• Bachelor’s degree preferred.
• 5–7 years of hands-on experience in research IT support, data curation, academic technology, or enterprise storage lifecycle management.

Required Knowledge, Skills, & Competencies

• Customer Collaboration: Exceptional interpersonal and consultation skills, with a proven track record of building trust and partnering effectively with faculty, research labs, and administrative staff.
• Data Efficiency & Hygiene: Strong knowledge of data management best practices, including compression tools, file packaging (tar, zip), file system conventions, and storage tiering.
• Platform Familiarity: Direct experience with central cloud storage services (Google Workspace) and enterprise storage environments (NAS, Object Storage, Archival systems).
• System Administration Knowledge: Previous experience managing Unix and Windows environments.
• Problem Solving: Ability to translate complex user storage challenges into streamlined lifecycle and curation workflows.
• Regulatory Awareness: Basic understanding of federal grant data mandates and data privacy/compliance frameworks (e.g., HIPAA, PII, PCI).

Work Schedule & After-Hours Expectations

• Planned After-Hours Effort: This role supports planned maintenance for services and routine scheduled events outside standard business hours.
• Mission-Critical Projects & Incidents: Participation is required for large-scale planned or unplanned major incidents, which may occasionally require extended working hours outside business hours, including weekends or holidays.

All offers of employment are contingent upon a criminal background check and education verification satisfactory to Brown University. In addition CJIS background check is required.

Benefits of Working at Brown:

Please review additional information on the Benefits of Working at Brown.

Recruiting Start Date:

2026-08-28

Job Posting Title:

Data Curator

Department:

Office of Information Technology

Grade:

Grade 11

Worker Type:

Employee

Worker Sub-Type:

Regular

Time Type:

Full time

Scheduled Weekly Hours:

37.5

Position Work Location:

Hybrid

Submission Guidelines:

The designated Position Work Location for each position determines the approved modality of work. Positions are classified based on the operational and business needs of the department and may be designated as on-site, hybrid, or remote.

Employees with a designated position work location as remote must reside and perform their work in a state where Brown University is registered to do business. Brown University is a registered employer in the following states: Rhode Island, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Florida, Maryland, Massachusetts, New York, New Hampshire, New Jersey, North Carolina, Washington, D.C.

Please note that to be considered for a staff position at Brown University, you must submit a separate application for each position you wish to be considered for. Applications are reviewed only for the specific position to which they are submitted and are not automatically considered for future openings.

This position is not eligible for visa sponsorship.

Still Have Questions?

If you have any questions you may contact [email protected].

Brown is an E-Verify Employer.

EEO Statement:

Brown University provides equal opportunity and prohibits discrimination, harassment and retaliation based upon a person’s race, color, religion, sex, age, national or ethnic origin, disability, veteran status, sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, or any other characteristic protected under applicable law, in the administration of its policies, programs, and activities. The University recognizes and rewards individuals on the basis of qualifications and performance. The University maintains certain affirmative action programs in compliance with applicable law.