Research Scientist

Institute For Medical Research Inc•Durham, NC

4h•$85,500 - $92,850•Onsite

About The Position

The Institute for Medical Research (IMR), an affiliate of the Durham VA Health Care System (DVAHCS), seeks a Research Scientist to join a multidisciplinary clinical research team under Dr. Christopher Woods. The role supports existing studies and develops new hypothesis-driven research within the DVAHCS and Veterans Health Administration. The scientist works closely with the Research Program Manager and MERL Laboratory Director and reports to the Principal Investigator, Dr. Christopher Woods. The position collaborates with research personnel, physicians, PhDs, and clinical staff at the Durham VA Medical Center and other VHA stations. This is an in-person position at the Durham VA Medical Center, with four to five days per week in the office. The successful candidate designs and conducts collaborative studies, performs and oversees advanced laboratory techniques, supports clinical specimen biorepositories, analyzes large-scale datasets, communicates findings through publications and presentations, contributes to funding applications, and supports laboratory operations and regulatory compliance. Employment is full-time with a salary range of $85,500 to $92,850. The anticipated start date is to be determined through VHA onboarding. Employees must reside in North Carolina and maintain a reasonable commuting distance to the assigned work location. Employment is at will. The employee must complete onboarding with both IMR and VHA.

Requirements

Terminal degree in a relevant scientific field.
Proven track record of peer-reviewed publications in relevant scientific literature.
Excellent oral and written communication skills, including the ability to present complex scientific findings clearly to diverse audiences.
Ability to work independently and as part of an interdisciplinary team.
Must reside in North Carolina and maintain a reasonable commuting distance to the assigned work location throughout employment.
Must successfully complete onboarding with both IMR and VHA.

Nice To Haves

Postdoctoral research experience in infectious diseases, immunology, molecular epidemiology, or a related field.
Experience working with primary human samples, including blood and blood derivatives, tissues, or respiratory specimens.
Proficiency or familiarity with bioinformatics programming languages such as R, Python, or SQL.
Proficiency or familiarity with bioinformatics tools, pipelines, and outputs for sequencing data analysis.
Familiarity with clinical or translational research environments and regulatory frameworks.
Grant writing experience and demonstrated ability to contribute to successful funding applications.

Responsibilities

Design, plan, and conduct collaborative research projects aligned with the Woods group and VHA research priorities.
Perform and oversee advanced laboratory techniques.
Support management of large clinical specimen biorepositories, including maintaining inventories and annotations.
Ensure appropriate annotation and storage of derived datasets, experimental keys, and raw and processed data.
Participate in extracting, processing, and analyzing large-scale datasets using established and novel pipelines.
Collaborate with bioinformatics and computational teams to extract, analyze, and interpret data.
Apply statistical and machine learning approaches to derive biological and epidemiological insights from complex datasets.
Prepare manuscripts, research reports, and presentations for peer-reviewed publications and scientific conferences.
Contribute to grant writing and funding applications in support of research group priorities.
Provide training, mentorship, and scientific guidance to students, fellows, and research staff as appropriate.
Collaborate with research staff to meet study milestones and objectives.
Collaborate with internal and external administrative, regulatory, clinical, computational, and translational partners.
Support and execute day-to-day operational decisions as appropriate.
Maintain accurate laboratory records and standard operating procedures in compliance with institutional and regulatory standards.
Ensure compliance with laboratory biosafety protocols, IRB/IACUC requirements, and local and national VHA research policies.
Contribute to the management, maintenance, and quality assurance of laboratory equipment and reagents.
Participate in study meetings, conference calls, and leadership discussions.