Data Annotator - MLC 2610

Fixed Term Contract until March 2027

Full Time (Hybrid working available – 1/2 days per week on site at Harwell campus) 

About Us

The Mary Lyon Centre at MRC Harwell (MLC) is located in an expanding science and innovation park in Oxfordshire and is an internationally renowned centre at the forefront of genetics research.  As the hub of the new National Mouse Genetics Network, the specialist facilities and capabilities of the MLC support a number of research groups across the UK to accelerate our understanding of human disease. 

Are you passionate about advancing the future of genetic research and eager to make a significant impact in the field? We are seeking a bioinformatician to join a small data stewardship team within the National Mouse Genetics Network (NMGN). This is an opportunity to build a strong skillset required to define core metadata through consensus decision making with working groups of scientists to search and link diverse datasets.

The NMGN is a recent major new investment by the Medical Research Council to support the enhancement of mouse research and its alignment with human clinical studies. The NMGN will use data (collected by the data platform) to link pre-clinical mouse models with clinically relevant human cohorts, allowing the rapid translation of mouse models into the clinical setting and therefore accelerating improvements to patient outcomes.

About You 

You will need to hold/have the following: 

Education/Qualifications/Training:

Essential:

• A strong life sciences or data management degree, or relevant work experience 

Desirable:

• Training or education in relevant technical skill such as metadata management 

Knowledge and Experience:

Essential:

• Experience of working with metadata, controlled vocabularies and structured data in the life sciences

• Experience of working effectively within a team

• Demonstration of consistency and independence when working on long-term projects whilst making decisions and communicating to project stakeholders 

Desirable:

• Experience and knowledge of life sciences big data such transcriptomics, behavioural time-series and genomics

• Understanding of FAIR data, or other relevant data standards. 

Personal Skills/Behaviours/Qualities:

Essential:

• Possess excellent written and verbal communication skills to engage independently with working groups of senior scientists and guide them to consensus decisions.
• Be proactive and self-organised
• Capable of working under pressure to meet deadlines
• Able to develop and maintain effective professional working relationships
• Willing to learn new technical skills as project goals change 

Key Responsibilities

• Work with NMGN stakeholders to survey data and metadata requirements for the wide range of scientific data modalities collected by the community.
• Work systematically to harmonise metadata and controlled vocabulary across the data types collected by the NMGN and refer to expert opinion from the network
• Contribute to shaping new standards for annotating scientific datasets
• Produce high-quality documentation (both written and as structured data dictionaries) as required for collaborative open-source pipelines
• Support software development teams in using standards to validate datasets at platform ingest
• Communicate effectively with NMGN stakeholders and the scientific community using various platforms such as email, video conferencing, and attending and presenting at meetings and conferences
• Learn the FAIR principles (https://www.go-fair.org/fair-principles/) and work to ensure that our data platform product is FAIR-compliant where necessary
• Flagging and escalating issues in data to project stakeholders according to a preliminary set of validation metrics to uphold the quality of scientific data
• Interacting with other UK life sciences facilities and institutes to share skills, training and guidance in data annotation.

Additional Information:

• Hybrid working is possible with this role; two days per week on site at Harwell campus. We are reviewing applications on a rolling basis and reserve the right to close the advert early. 

Benefits:

Choosing to come to work at the MRC (part of UK Research and Innovation (UKRI)) means that you will have access to a whole host of benefits, from a defined-benefit pension scheme and excellent holiday entitlement, to access to employee shopping/travel discounts and a salary sacrifice cycle-to-work scheme.  In addition, you will have the opportunity to contribute to the work of a world-class medical research organisation.

How to Apply

If you are ready to take on this exciting role and be part of a team dedicated to ground-breaking research, we would love to hear from you. For full details and to apply, please click the 'Apply' button (above).

Please quote reference MLC 2610

The closing date for applications is 18/05/2025