Bioinformatician / Senior Bioinformatician

University of Cambridge
Cancer Research UK Cambridge Institute
United Kingdom Cambridge
www.jobs.cam.ac.uk/job/35837/

Description

There is an opportunity for a talented bioinformatician to join the interdisciplinary laboratory of Professor Greg Hannon located at the CRUK Cambridge Institute, University of Cambridge. This role is embedded within a team of around ten people focused on RNA and chromatin biology, including a mixture of wet- and dry-lab researchers. The Hannon laboratory as a whole has a long-standing interest in RNA biology and cancer research, and a strong history of developing new tools to address cutting-edge questions in these fields.

As part of our team, you will contribute to our aim to understand the molecular mechanisms of the piRNA pathway. These studies cover a wide range of areas, including transcription, export, and processing of non-coding RNAs, establishment and dynamics of chromatin marks, and ultimately repression of transposable element. Background knowledge in any of these areas would be welcome, but strong bioinformatic skills and an eagerness to work with large-scale genomics data to discover fundamental biology is more important.

We are seeking a candidate with strong programming skills and experience working with high-throughput sequencing data and/or machine learning. You will contribute to analysing and interpreting data produced by the group and generate hypotheses that will be tested experimentally. The position provides exciting opportunities to work with large-scale in-house data generated from established methods including RNA-seq, small RNA-seq, CUT&RUN, CUT&Tag, and ChIP-seq, as well as cutting-edge methods enabling single-cell and spatial multi-omics. Previous experience working with similar data would be beneficial, but we are happy to provide training as needed. Depending on your skills and research interests, you may also apply machine learning methods for data exploration and interpretation or develop data analysis pipelines and bioinformatic tools. We are currently establishing the use of deep learning for genomics data and would welcome candidates with such experience.

You will be integrated into the research activities of the group as a whole and will be expected to also contribute your own ideas. You will have the freedom to undertake independent research in the context of the general research area of the group and will work closely with both wet-lab scientists and bioinformaticians within the group, with core facility scientists, and with the larger community of bioinformaticians at the institute.

Salary range: £31,406 - £40,927 (Bioinformatician) or £37,467-£50,296 (Senior Bioinformatician).

Fixed-term: The funds for this post are available until 31 July 2023 in the first instance.

Closing Date: 31 July 2022.

Interviews will be held in the beginning of August. We aim to fill this role as soon as possible and would prefer the selected candidate to be available within two months of the offer.


Qualifications

The qualifications required depend on the role (Bioinformatician or Senior Bioinformatician).

Both roles require the following qualifications:
* Educated to Degree / Masters or equivalent level of experience in a scientific / computer science / mathematics discipline
* Experience of working with next-generation sequencing data and/or applying machine learning techniques
* Experience using programming or scripting languages (e.g., R, Python, Perl)
* Prior background in or an eagerness to learn RNA and chromatin biology
* Excellent communication and interpersonal skills and attention to detail

Additionally, these would be desired for a Bioinformatician and are essential for a Senior Bioinformatician:
* PhD in bioinformatics, computational biology, computer science, systems biology or related fields (or be about to receive one)
* Experience working with large-scale datasets or databases
* Experience performing statistical data analysis and/or using bioinformatic tools and resources
* Experience of using high performance computing systems and/or software version control systems
* Experience of shell scripting and command line tools
* Track record of contributions to a scientific area as appropriate for career stage, demonstrated by peer-reviewed publications and/or through conference presentations
* Track record of collaborative research and proven ability to work in a highly collaborative environment across disciplines


Start date

As soon as possible

How to Apply

Please apply following the instructions on the website: www.jobs.cam.ac.uk/job/35837/