Biological Data Curation Scientist (Remote, Half Time, US-based, US employment eligible only)

Phoenix Bioinformatics • Newark, CA

6d • Remote

About The Position

Phoenix Bioinformatics is looking for a remote Biological Data Curation Scientist to join their scientific data nonprofit organization. The organization is dedicated to sustaining the data infrastructure that powers global research in plant biology, paleontology, and evolutionary biology. As a biocuration scientist, a key task will be to distill knowledge from the primary literature into structured data that powers research worldwide. This role spans data, tools, and the research community. The scientist will be a plant biologist on a small, distributed team, working closely with the TAIR Director and science team to enhance TAIR's value. The ideal candidate is detail-oriented and enjoys working with tidy data. AI tools are integrated into the workflow, and candidates are expected to use them judiciously, ensuring the accuracy of the output with their scientific expertise.

Requirements

• MS or PhD in plant biology, or related field.
• A solid grounding in Arabidopsis biology and/or plant comparative genomics.
• Comfort with (or eagerness to learn) bioinformatics data, data analysis pipelines, and data curation.
• Passionate about high quality data and making data reusable.
• Familiarity with the FAIR data principles and the importance of data standardization.
• Some experience using AI tools (e.g., Claude, Gemini) to tackle tasks that would involve coding, and the judgment to check the output.
• Clear written and oral communication.
• Comfort working asynchronously and semi-independently.
• Must be authorized to work in the United States without sponsorship.
• This position requires working from a US-based location.

Nice To Haves

• Recent experience with experimental plant biology including wet lab/large scale data analysis.
• Experience with biological data curation of either your own or someone else’s data.
• Familiarity with TAIR, other plant databases, and other genomic data resources.
• Basic scripting comfort (Python, command line) as a data consumer.
• Familiarity with GitHub, JIRA or other software/project management applications.

Responsibilities

• Use AI to assist in curating gene function, annotation, and metadata from primary literature into TAIR's data resources, applying controlled vocabularies and ontologies (e.g., GO).
• Identify, evaluate, and prioritize new datasets that would increase TAIR's value, and partner with the tech team to integrate them.
• Help decide which new analysis and visualization tools are worth bringing into TAIR and integrate them.
• Validate outputs of bioinformatics tools, pipelines, and data loads for biological correctness, including the outputs of AI-assisted workflows.
• Represent TAIR to the research community by answering user questions, attending conferences, and giving presentations and workshops.
• Collaborate effectively across time zones in an asynchronous, distributed environment.

Benefits

• Generous time off: 12 holidays, plus pro-rated 72 hrs vacation and 36 hrs sick leave per year.
• One personal day equivalent per pay period.
• Excellent health insurance coverage: 99% of employee premiums and 70% of dependent premiums covered for our base plan, with the flexibility to choose other providers.
• Retirement: 401K with a matching contribution up to 8% of salary.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Part-time
• Career Level: Entry Level