Post Doctoral - Bioinformatics

About the role

Boehringer Ingelheim is seeking a motivated, enthusiastic, and creative Bioinformatics Post-Doctoral Fellow to join the Future Innovation team in the Research department located in Ames, Iowa. This position is part of the global Boehringer Ingelheim Post-Doctoral Program and focuses on conducting bioinformatic analysis within animal health to provide targets for vaccine and therapeutic solutions.

The incumbent will develop and maintain computational pipelines and algorithms across diverse biological research projects, design and interpret analyzed results, and present actionable conclusions. This role is part of a small, highly collaborative bioinformatics team requiring agility, accountability, and innovation.

About us

Boehringer-Ingelheim Animal Health (BIAH) is a family-owned company dedicated to the protection and treatment of animals from genetic disorders and infectious diseases. BIAH embraces the One Health approach, recognizing the essential link between animals, humans, and the environment. Operating in over 150 countries with more than 10,000 employees, BIAH is a global company with over $4 billion in sales in 2021.

Innovation is central to BIAH, supported by cutting-edge research in state-of-the-art facilities, including a newly built location in the Iowa State University Research Park in Ames, Iowa. BIAH values its employees, fostering a healthy work environment, meaningful work, mobility, networking, and work-life balance. Competitive compensation and benefit programs reflect the company’s high regard for its employees.

Responsibilities

• Conduct computational research supporting protein design, protein engineering, and structural biology initiatives.
• Develop and apply computational workflows for protein sequence, structure, and functional analysis using state-of-the-art bioinformatics and modeling approaches.
• Contribute to the development of robust data capture, management, and curation processes that enable high-quality datasets for machine learning and artificial intelligence applications.
• Support data infrastructure, metadata standards, and workflow automation to improve data accessibility, traceability, and reproducibility across research programs.
• Develop and document software tools, pipelines, and analytical workflows using Python, R, or other appropriate programming languages.
• Utilize version control systems (Git) and collaborative software development practices, including code review, testing, documentation, and release management, to ensure maintainable and reproducible computational research.
• Apply machine learning and artificial intelligence methods to support protein design, predictive modeling, candidate prioritization, and biological discovery.
• Create species-specific computational workflows leveraging comparative genomics, protein homology, structural modeling, literature review, and other computational approaches.
• Effectively communicate and defend scientific findings and computational approaches in written reports, presentations, and cross-functional discussions.
• Collaborate closely with biologists, protein scientists, data scientists, and software engineers to translate research goals into scalable computational solutions.
• Demonstrate technical leadership by mentoring junior scientists and promoting best practices in bioinformatics, software development, and data management.
• Maintain the highest standards of scientific integrity, data governance, and ethical use of data and computational methods.
• Comply with all applicable corporate, national, and local regulations, maintaining appropriate documentation and records in accordance with company policies and SOPs.

Requirements

• PhD from an accredited institution in Bioinformatics, Computational Biology, Computer Science, Structural Biology, Protein Engineering, or related fields.
• Demonstrated expertise in computational biology, protein sequence and structural analysis, protein modeling, or protein design methodologies.
• Strong programming skills in Python, R, or other scientific programming languages.
• Experience utilizing Git and modern version control practices for collaborative software development, code review, and documentation.
• Experience working in high-performance computing (HPC) or scalable computational environments is preferred.
• Background in infectious disease and animal health is preferred.
• Ability to function in multi-disciplinary teams.
• Strong written and verbal communication skills, with the ability to create written scientific reports and protocols.
• Ability to clearly articulate scientific concepts related to biologics discovery, protein engineering, and computational research across functions.
• Highly motivated, dependable, and well-organized, with the ability to operate in a collaborative team environment.

Eligibility Requirements:

• Must be legally authorized to work in the United States without restriction.
• Must be willing to take a drug test and post-offer physical (if required).
• Must be 18 years of age or older.

Benefits

Boehringer Ingelheim supports employee development through programs and groups focused on health and wellbeing. The company invests in global accessibility to healthcare and offers competitive compensation and benefit programs. Employees have opportunities to collaborate internationally and contribute directly to company success, with a focus on innovation and work-life balance.