Senior Bioinformatician - Genomic Surveillance

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 looking for a bioinformatician to help deliver high-quality data analysis and resources for the genomic surveillance of pathogens and associated vectors at the Wellcome Sanger Institute. 

Background and context

One of the biggest challenges in the battle against infectious disease is that pathogens are continually evolving. Genomic surveillance involves sequencing the genetic material of pathogenic microbes and their vectors so that evolutionary changes that affect transmission, disease severity and susceptibility to treatment can be observed. The goal of the Welcome Sanger Institute’s Genomic Surveillance Unit (GSU) is to enable and support partners around the world using genomic surveillance as a practical tool for local infectious disease control and pandemic preparedness.

About the role

As a Senior bioinformatician in the GSU, you will join a team engaged in generating, processing, analysing and interpreting genomic surveillance data at scale, to enable and support public-health decision-making. We work across a growing number of disease areas (including COVID-19 and Malaria) and are part of the Sanger Institute’s new Respiratory Virus and Microbiome Initiative (RVI), which aims to establish capabilities for large-scale genomic surveillance of respiratory viruses such as influenza virus and respiratory syncytial virus (RSV). As part of the team, your work will encompass data science, biocuration, software development and pipeline engineering. Specific aspects of the role include:

• Analysis of genomic datasets to address questions posed by public health programmes and to drive methodological improvements of our analytical workflows

• Developing and maintaining robust, high-quality bioinformatics data-processing pipelines and applying them to large genomic datasets to deliver analysis-ready data to partners

• Producing and curating high-quality data resources that are impactful for public health

• Actively contributing to the continuous improvement of our software, infrastructure, processes and ways of working.

As a Senior bioinformatician, you will take a leading role in certain projects and provide guidance and mentorship for more junior team members. 

About you

You are a bioinformatician / data scientist with experience working with large-scale genomic data. You are seeking a multi-faceted role that includes elements of data science, biocuration, software development and pipeline engineering, and ideally you will have experience across a number of these areas. We welcome applicants with skills and experience in more than one of the following:

• The application of visualisation techniques and statistical analysis to genomic datasets using best-practice tools and techniques, including proficiency in Python and/or R

• Building large-scale data processing and analysis pipelines using workflow management systems, ideally Nextflow

• Software engineering best practices, including version control, containers, testing frameworks, and continuous integration;

• Genomics and bioinformatics tools, methods and data formats

• Large-scale computing using on-premises compute clusters and/or commercial cloud platforms (e.g. AWS).

You are a detail-oriented problem solver motivated by our mission of delivering high-quality data and analysis results to partners. Teamwork and collaboration are essential, and you will be passionate about creating effective and productive working relationships with collaborators both within and outside the organisation.

Note: we are recruiting at both the Senior and Principal level on this call (see the corresponding Principal Bioinformatician post). Applications for the two posts will be considered together, with appointments at either Senior or Principal level being made according to level of skills and experience.

Working at Wellcome Sanger

Our flexible-hybrid working environment means you can focus on being productive and part of the team while enjoying the benefits of working remotely and from the Genome Campus when you are in the office.

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 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.