Principal Bioinformatician

Do you want to help us improve human health and understand life on Earth? Make your mark by shaping the future to enable or deliver life-changing science to solve some of humanity's greatest challenges.

We are recruiting a Principal Bioinformatician for PaM Informatics, a software development and informatics support team in the Parasites and Microbes (PaM) Programme at the Wellcome Sanger Institute.

About the Role:

The successful candidate will proactively liaise with scientists in the PaM research faculty teams to identify needs for new software tools or analysis services.

You will devise concrete bioinformatics requirements from the description of complex microbiology research projects and identify opportunities for making generic solutions serving scientists from multiple teams and projects. You will propose approaches for solving problems, and plan work for an Agile team of bioinformaticians to implement solutions based on their guidelines.

You will leverage your advanced, state-of the-art knowledge of bioinformatics methodology to design software tools and pipelines and/or deliver specialist analyses that address the needs of PaM Programme scientists. You will lead and inspire a team of highly motivated bioinformaticians to deliver high-quality, robust software products and analysis reports. For this, you will draw on your strong experience in some of the following key fields of microbial genomics science: high-performance sequence similarity search, read mapping and variant calling, pangenome analysis, evolutionary modelling, metagenomic analysis, multi-omics experiments, big-data analysis, image analysis, etc.; experience using AI/ML or cloud-based computing is a plus.

You will also help coordinate the help-desk service work in the team, leading by example in being proactive and creative to address the varied range of issues that may arise in a busy, cutting-edge microbial science research department.

About you:

You will be a talented bioinformatician with recent and solid experience in the microbial bioinformatics field who can design and lead the implementation of informatics solutions to practical problems of biological data analysis.

Essential Technical Skills and Experience:

• PhD in Bioinformatics/Evolutionary Genomics or equivalent working experience
  
• Confident use of the UNIX command line
  
• Using Python to build bioinformatics tools
  
• Using Python or R for Data Analysis
  
• Experience of working with genome sequencing data
  
• Demonstratable experience in design and implementation of novel bioinformatics workflows
  
• Proven experience of working in the biological science field delivering end to end analysis of genomic and other biological data (e.g. metabolomics, serology, patient records...) as well as publishing findings.
  
• Proven and recent experience of working in three or more of the following key fields of microbial genomics research: high-performance sequence similarity search, read mapping and variant calling, pangenome analysis, evolutionary modelling, genome annotation, metagenomic analysis, multi-omics experiments, big-data analysis, image analysis.
  
• The ability to understand the biological questions that are being investigated, the technical aspects of the experiment having generated the data, and a wider biological background knowledge to enable critical interpretation of data.
  
• Proven experience of co-designing high-level bioinformatics workflows with scientists based on their research project requirements
  
• Proven experience of implementing novel bioinformatics workflows that combine state-of-art tools with ad-hoc software to plug the gaps where no current solution exists.
  
• Proven experience of evaluating, validating and benchmarking bioinformatics tools and new sequencing technologies.
  

Essential Competencies and Behaviours:

• Ability to prioritise activities and manage own workload independently
  
• Ability to explain technical issues effectively and understandably to non-technical users
  
• Ability to work collaboratively with a range of stakeholders at all levels
  
• Ability to find solutions to complicated or multifaceted problems
  
• Ability to quickly understand scientific and technical challenges
  
• Ability to communicate regularly and proactively with the scientists we support to maintain up-to-date knowledge of their practices and needs
  
• Ability to innovate solutions in a holistic way, driven by satisfaction of user needs
  
• Ability to proactively identify gaps in the team's service offer and to get ahead of help requests by offering support to those deemed in need
  

About Us:

The PaM Informatics team embraces agile methods and promotes open-source software development. In close collaboration with the scientists on site, we develop informatics workflows and platforms to productionize large-scale surveillance activities for infectious diseases, such as cholera, Covid-19 and pneumonia as well as metagenomic studies of large cohorts of microbiome in health and disease.

We also support the scientists by developing and deploying software and services that advance their research and providing direct informatics advice.

As a dynamic team we share all elements of our work, so you would be involved in a variety of different projects, with a focus on processing genomic data through bioinformatics pipelines and interacting with scientific users via a helpdesk or direct customer engagement.

Other Information

We have a flexible work ethic and after an initial training period on campus, we offer hybrid-working with minimum of two days per week onsite.

Application Process:

Please apply with your CV and a Cover letter outlining how you meet the essential skills and experience set out above, why you want to apply to this role and what value/experience you can bring.

Salary per annum: £53,717 to £63,500

Informatician/ Data Scientist job family: Grade 1 Role profile

Contract Type: Permanent

Closing Date: 26th January 2025 (Shortlisting w/c 27th Januaryt, Zoom Screening Interviews w/c 3rd Feb, Face to Face Interviews w/c 10th Feb)

Hybrid Working at Wellcome Sanger:

We recognise that there are many benefits to Hybrid Working; including an improved work-life balance, with more focused time, as well as the ability to organise working time so that collaborative opportunities and team discussions are facilitated on campus. The hybrid working arrangement will vary for different roles and teams. The nature of your role and the type of work you do will determine if a hybrid working arrangement is possible.

Equality, Diversity and Inclusion:

We aim to attract, recruit, retain and develop talent from the widest possible talent pool, thereby gaining insight and access to different markets to generate a greater impact on the world. We have a supportive culture with the following staff networks, LGBTQ+, Parents and Carers, Disability and Race Equity to bring people together to share experiences, offer specific support and development opportunities and raise awareness. The networks are also a place for allies to provide support to others.

We want our people to be whoever they want to be because we believe people who bring their best selves to work, do their best work. That's why we're committed to creating a truly inclusive culture at Sanger Institute. We will consider all individuals without discrimination and are committed to creating an inclusive environment for all employees, where everyone can thrive.

Our Benefits:

We are proud to deliver an awarding campus-wide employee wellbeing strategy and programme. The importance of good health and adopting a healthier lifestyle and the commitment to reduce work-related stress is strongly acknowledged and recognised at Sanger Institute.

Sanger Institute became a signatory of the International Technician Commitment initiative In March 2018. The Technician Commitment aims to empower and ensure visibility, recognition, career development and sustainability for technicians working in higher education and research, across all disciplines.