Senior Scientist, Computational Genomics

Flagship Pioneering, Inc.•Cambridge, MA

6h•$146,000 - $209,000

About The Position

We are building a new venture, FL122, with the mission of reducing the risk of polygenic disease in children born through In Vitro Fertilization (IVF). The company was founded by Flagship Pioneering, an innovative enterprise that conceives, creates, resources, and grows first-in-category life sciences companies. Flagship Pioneering has created over 100 groundbreaking companies over the past twenty years, all of which are pioneering novel and proprietary biological, industrial, and engineering approaches to solve major needs in human health and sustainability. These companies include Moderna (MRNA), Generate Biomedicines, Tessera Therapeutics, and Quotient Therapeutics. We are an equal opportunity employer. We are seeking a first Computational Genomics hire, who will conduct crucial research that will form the basis of the company’s scientific platform. As an early stage hire, you will operate with significant ownership, shaping analytical strategy from first principals, intersecting the fields of genomics, statistical genetics and statistical modeling. The role includes responsibility of the end-to-end delivery of computational research projects, including project design, implementation, interpretation and reporting results to senior leadership. We are looking for someone who is resourceful, is open to a rapidly changing, agile environment and has bias to action. The ideal candidate combines deep technical rigor with a growth mindset, pays attention to detail, and has a deep-rooted desire to achieve excellence. Being collaborative is key – the environment is an early stage startup, where all members of the team need to work closely together to break new ground in science.

Requirements

Ph.D. in biology, statistics, genetics, computational biology or a related quantitative discipline with 5+ years of relevant post-academic or industry experience with an excellent research track record
Deep expertise in the analysis of genomics data derived from Illumina sequencing platforms (expertise with additional sequencing technologies is a plus)
Experience processing next-generation sequencing data end-to-end, from raw reads through alignment, QC, and variant calling
Experience integrating and jointly analyzing multi-modal sequencing datasets, including DNA and RNA
Expertise in statistical genetics, computing polygenic risk scores using published methods and adapting or extending these methods for novel applications
Expertise in building probabilistic statistical models that explicitly account for uncertainty, prior information, and incomplete observations
Comfort operating in fast-moving, ambiguous startup environments with high ownership and accountability

Responsibilities

Deliver computational research projects with a high degree of autonomy, including project design, implementation, interpretation and reporting results to senior leadership
Collaborate with cloud engineers to set up the required infrastructure to process and store genomics datasets
Integrate multiple NGS data types into coherent analyses, going from raw input files to variant calls and higher level analyses
Develop probabilistic and Bayesian models that rigorously incorporate priors, uncertainty, and missing data to inform decision-making
Interact with external advisors, leveraging their inputs and building high-quality relationships