Python Research Software Consultant

Location: Remote
Compensation: $80–$150 per hour; $7,000–$10,000 total compensation range
Duration: Flexible, to be completed by June 30, 2026

Overview

Seeking a highly qualified Python Research Software Consultant to refactor, organize, and document two social science research codebases for publication-grade reproducibility and open-source public release. This is a short-term, remote consulting opportunity with competitive compensation.

Projects

This work comprises two related components:

PNAS Research Article Codebase

Prepare for publication the Python hierarchical Bayesian modeling (HBM) codebase underlying a manuscript soon to be submitted to PNAS on global scientific production. This codebase requires refactoring, reorganization, and documentation to meet publication-grade standards of clarity, structure, and computational reproducibility.

Advanced Data Analytics Platform Codebase

Prepare for public release version 2.0 of an advanced data analytics platform built with Python, SQLAlchemy, and PostgreSQL as an open-source demonstration platform for research on the contemporary history of quantum information science (QIS).

This role focuses on research software engineering, code organization, documentation, and reproducibility rather than on statistical model development.

Responsibilities

• Improve the clarity, structure, reproducibility, and maintainability of both codebases.
• Develop clear documentation, including README files, docstrings, in-code comments, and usage examples.
• Ensure reliable, reproducible execution from raw data to final analytical outputs.

Scope

The two codebases together include approximately 20 Jupyter notebooks, some as long as 3,000 lines. The consultant will focus on the highest-priority components necessary to produce a clean, reproducible, publication-ready codebase rather than refactoring every notebook in full.

Qualifications

• Ph.D., advanced graduate student, or experienced research software engineer in computer science, software engineering, data science, or a related field.
• Strong expertise in Python.
• Experience refactoring, organizing, and documenting research codebases.
• Experience preparing computational research code for peer-reviewed publication and computational reproducibility, especially code supporting a major article submission in computational social science or related fields, preferred.
• Experience with hierarchical Bayesian modeling preferred.
• Experience preparing codebases for open-source public release preferred.
• Experience with reproducible research practices, including environment management, workflows, and version control, preferred.
• Experience with SQLAlchemy preferred.

Additional Information

• Compensation: Competitive hourly compensation of $80–$150, with total compensation in the range of $7,000–$10,000, depending on qualifications, experience, and scope of work.
• Duration: Flexible, with total hours depending on consultant availability, qualifications, and final scope. All work must be completed by June 30, 2026.
• Location: Remote.

How to Apply

Please send a brief statement of interest outlining your background and relevant experience, together with your CV and links to any code samples or repositories, to: Professor Roger Hart, Department of History & Geography, Texas Southern University. Email: Roger.Hart@TSU.edu. Website: http://rhart.org/