[jltsiren]

Such staff scientist roles for people with particular methodological skills do exist. They are not particularly common, because there are a few issues:

1. Who will pay for them?

2. How do we make staff scientist roles attractive to people who could also get tenure-track faculty positions or do ML/data science in the industry?

3. How do we ensure that a staff scientist position is not a career dead end if the funding dries up after a decade or two?

The standard academic incentives (long-term stability provided by tenure, freedom to work on whatever you find interesting, recognition among other experts in the field) don't really apply to support roles.