Computational Biologist

Oregon Health & Science University • Portland, OR

20h • Hybrid

About The Position

The Brenden-Colson Center for Pancreatic Care (BCCPC) seeks a computational biologist who will work in an interdisciplinary environment, leveraging their skills in bioinformatics, data analysis, and machine learning to understand the complexities of pancreatic cancer development, progression, and treatment response. They will develop, adapt and implement bioinformatics pipelines, analytical and theoretical methods, and collaborate with experimental biologists to analyze data relevant to pancreatic disease, especially advanced treatment and early detection of pancreatic cancer. The BCCPC is comprised of a collaborative group of senior scientists in the OHSU School of Medicine. This position will work closely with BCCPC Program Leaders and staff on computational aspects of all pancreas research efforts within the Center. They will draw upon skills in algorithm deployment, modeling, and statistics to make inferences from complex datasets, and implement scalable high-performance workflows in pancreatic cancer research. They will provide assistance with software best practices and collaborate to build, publish, and reuse open source code. They will perform data analysis and interpretation, and provide documentation and user support for pancreas researchers and research publications. They will assist with mentorship of trainees and staff in this area of the science, maintain a strong understanding of current scientific literature, and communicate findings clearly to a variety of audiences. The ability to meet deadlines, research goals, and milestones are essential. This position will be working on a variety of BCCPC pancreas research projects, including corporate partnerships and NIH-funded collaborative grants, through all phases from initiation to closing, collaborating with wet lab scientists, clinicians, computer scientists and software engineers. The work includes applied algorithmic work, data science & data visualization, statistical learning & classical ML, but also cloud computing & high-performance computing on computer clusters, all as related to pancreatic disease research. This person will be actively engaged and accountable for the development of technical deliverables. We are looking for an enthusiastic individual who is willing to take initiative and implement systems to identify tasks and track progress. Experience with computational biology, signaling networks, and sequencing data and image analysis is desirable. An exceptional command of computational biology is required, and excellent verbal and written communication skills are essential. Salary will be commensurate with experience.

Requirements

• Master's Degree in Computational Biology or related field OR Bachelor's Degree in Computational Biology or related field AND 3 years of relevant experience
• Experience with processing and analyzing next generation genome (DNA) and transcriptome (RNA) sequencing data; experience with single-cell sequencing data
• Trained in computational biology field and practice
• Experience in implementing statistical methods as appropriate for dataset treatment (e.g. quality inspection, normalization, differential feature detection, etc.)
• Experience in using pipelines to support analytics as described to additionally facilitate improved data management, and to generate complete workflows that are reproducible and scalable
• Competency in an appropriate programming language (R and/or Python)
• An understanding of a variety of sophisticated statistical methods for data treatment
• Ability to work independently and as part of a team while being collaborative in resolving problems and guiding project direction
• Ability to use tact and diplomacy to maintain effective working relationships
• Strong understanding of life science technology and jargon
• Excellent organizational skills, attention to detail, judgment, and discretion
• Must have excellent communication (both written and verbal), analytical and organizational skills
• Ability to prioritize multiple tasks at one time

Nice To Haves

• Cancer research experience; experience with signaling network analysis; experience with image processing and analysis pipelines

Responsibilities

• Data Organization and Management : Requirements gathering; Clean and manage metadata; Access, store, and document raw data; Coordinate with pancreas research project team members; Meet publication requirements, including data and code repositing
• Platform development : Develop and apply data-analytical and theoretical methods, mathematical modeling and computational simulation techniques to apply to pancreatic cancer; Assist in implementing scalable high-performance workflows and creating documentation and providing user support
• Data Analysis : Sample/sequencing quality control assessment; Implement existing analytic packages and workflows; Adapt existing resources as needed to meet pancreatic cancer project needs
• Technical Writing/Communication : Present at regular team meetings; Clear code documentation; Support manuscript preparation; Support grant writing efforts
• Training and Mentorship : Work with pancreas research staff and trainees to further their understanding of computational biology needs and techniques

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Mid Level
• Number of Employees: 5,001-10,000 employees