Microbiology and Immunology Bioinformatics Analyst (Research Professional 5)

About The Job

We are hiring a full-time Bioinformatics Analyst to support research for the Department of Microbiology and Immunology (DMI) at the University of Minnesota. The analyst in this position will conduct cutting-edge bioinformatics analyses in close collaboration with a diverse set of labs within the DMI department. The successful candidate will be part of a growing bioinformatics team within the department.

Qualifications

• The ideal candidate will have advanced knowledge of next generation sequencing technologies with demonstrated practical experience in developing and carrying out analytical strategies in the context of NGS applications of critical importance to microbiology and immunology research (e.g. variant calling, genome assembly and annotation, metagenomics, bulk and single cell RNA-sequencing, allele-specific expression analysis, bulk and single-cell ATAC-seq, viral discovery, etc.).
• The candidate will develop, maintain, organize data structures for samples and data backups.
• Candidates ideally will have experience in more than one type of bioinformatics analysis, but candidates are not expected to have experience in all types of analyses and learning new analysis techniques is part of the role.
• Required Qualifications:
  • Doctorate in the life sciences, computer science or engineering, or related field.
  • Candidates must have significant bioinformatics experience.
  • 3+ years of research experience in genomics, genetics, molecular biology or computational biology.
  • Hands-on experience in developing and carrying out data analytical strategies and pipelines for analyzing datasets from high-throughput platforms such as next generation sequencing.
  • Proficiency with the Linux shell environment, a programming language (R and/or python), plus currently used tools (e.g. BWA, HISAT2, GATK, Seurat, etc.).
  • Must be able to understand and translate life scientist researchers' scientific goals into analytical strategies and process requirements.
  • Ability to critically and independently think
  • Excellent oral and written English communication and interpersonal skills.

Preferred Qualifications

• Research background in microbiology and/or immunology is highly preferred.
• Significant experience with one or more of the following types of analysis is highly preferred: bulk and single cell transcriptomics, variant calling, genome assembly/annotation and epigenomics.
• Use of reproducible research methods and software version control (e.g. git/GitHub).
• Advanced statistical, data modeling and machine learning skills.
• Experience using high performance computing (HPC) environments and job scheduling.