Description

Office of Research and Economic Development/Informatics Research Core Facility

The University of Missouri is recruiting a Computational Biologist for the Informatics Research Core Facility in the Office of Research and Economic Development. The individual is expected to use computational tools and theoretical principles to understand biological systems. Candidates should have expertise in or be familiar with and willing to learn more about, computational management, data structures, algorithms, high-performance computing, statistical methods, and biological processes.

This individual will apply and develop algorithms and workflows with embedded statistical methods in standardized and innovative ways that will analyze, integrate, visualize, and interpret a broad variety of data types. They will often direct and execute computational workflows to analyze large scale data sets and work closely with domain researchers to help them interpret complex results. In addition, this individual will help test and troubleshoot new cutting-edge methods. The implementation of novel data visualization techniques for various data types is just one example of the many exciting opportunities in this position.

The successful candidate should be highly motivated, demonstrate initiative and be invested in the success of biological and computational research. They will have enthusiasm for taking a hands-on, problem solving approach, learning on the job, and collaborating with research scientists and associates in an informal collegial work environment imbued with intellectual rigor and curiosity. They should possess a strong academic record, strong communication and organizational skills, demonstrate innovative and analytical thinking, and enjoy working in an interdisciplinary team. The successful candidate should also be comfortable with multitasking and be comfortable working independently. Most importantly, we are looking for a team member who is excited about learning and problem solving and can add to diverse viewpoints to our team.

Responsibilities:

• Perform bioinformatics analysis in support of scientific research using technical knowledge of software and its implementation in a high-performance computing infrastructure.
• Perform next generation sequence (NGS) data analysis (bulk RNA-seq, ChiP-seq, scRNAseq, ATAC-seq, HiC-seq etc.) and integrate with data present in publicly available databases.
• Manage assigned research projects with minimal input.
• Develop and/or modify software to support new and ongoing research projects.
• Prepare research reports for presentation and assist with preparation of manuscripts for publication and grants for submission.

If you would like to submit your application for consideration, please apply with a cover letter and updated CV here.

Requirements

Minimum Qualifications:

Bachelor's degree in a biological or quantitative field by time of appointment (molecular biology, bioinformatics, computer science, statistics, physics, mathematics, or related field preferred).
Programming experience.

Candidates will be evaluated on:

• Years of experience and education
• Strong computational and quantitative skills
• Programming skills in one or more languages (Python, R, BASH, C/C++, being most critical)
• Oral and written English communication skills
• Experience working in a cluster computing environment
• Experience with version control and project management
• Background in statistics
• Experience with next generation sequence (NGS) data analysis
• Ability to solve complex problems
• Experience in scientific manuscript and grant development