Senior Scientist or Postdoctoral Researcher-Furman Lab

Buck Institute • Novato, CA

8d • $125,000 - $140,000 • Onsite

About The Position

The Furman Lab at the Buck Institute for Research on Aging is seeking a Senior Scientist or Postdoctoral Researcher for a new, five-year government-funded research program focused on understanding aging mechanisms and developing healthspan extension interventions. This role offers a unique chance to contribute to large-scale, multi-institutional science at a leading aging research institute. In addition to research, the selected candidate will serve as Co-Director of the Buck Institute’s Bioinformatics and Data Science Core, aiming to enhance its capacity, services, and scientific impact.

Requirements

• Ph.D. in bioinformatics, computational biology, biostatistics, systems biology, or a related discipline.
• Substantial postdoctoral or equivalent experience (for Senior Scientist level).
• Ph.D. awarded within the past five years or expected imminently (for Postdoctoral Researcher level).
• Demonstrated record of independent research, evidenced by peer-reviewed publications in high-quality journals (for Senior Scientist level).
• Proven expertise in the analysis of next-generation sequencing data (RNA-seq, ATAC-seq, single-cell omics, whole-genome sequencing, or whole-exome sequencing).
• Experience leading or co-leading collaborative research projects and mentoring trainees (for Senior Scientist level).
• Strong analytical foundation with demonstrated proficiency in multi-omics data analysis, including published or preprint research (for Postdoctoral Researcher level).
• Enthusiasm for developing an independent research program within a collaborative and highly supportive environment (for Postdoctoral Researcher level).
• Proficiency in one or more scientific programming languages, such as Python or R.
• Fluency with standard bioinformatics toolkits, such as Bioconductor, Seurat, Scanpy, GATK, STAR, or DESeq2.
• Experience training, validating, diagnosing, and fine-tuning machine learning models, preferably multimodal models.
• Familiarity with statistical methods for multi-omics data integration, dimensionality reduction, and biological network analysis.
• Commitment to rigorous, reproducible, versioned, and well-documented computational research practices.

Nice To Haves

• Prior research experience in aging biology, geroscience, or the analysis of aging-related cohorts or model organism datasets.
• Experience with epigenomic clock methodologies, biological age estimation, or related computational frameworks.
• Experience integrating heterogeneous data, electronic health records, or large clinical datasets.
• Familiarity with multi-step agentic workflows, retrieval-augmented generation, and vector search methods.
• Experience with high-performance computing environments and workflow management systems.
• Familiarity with cloud computing platforms, such as AWS, Google Cloud, or equivalent, for large-scale data analysis.
• Experience contributing to or directing a bioinformatics core or shared resource facility.

Responsibilities

• Develop and apply computational pipelines for analyzing large-scale multi-omics datasets (genomic, transcriptomic, epigenomic, proteomic) in aging research.
• Build and refine integrative models of biological aging using longitudinal cohort and experimental data, including AI/ML approaches.
• Collaborate with experimental and clinical investigators to translate biological questions into analytical frameworks.
• Contribute to designing computational strategies for cross-platform data harmonization, quality control, and reproducible analysis.
• Serve as Co-Director of the Bioinformatics and Data Science Core, providing analytical consultation and support to Buck Institute investigators.
• Help define Core priorities and contribute to growing the Core’s scientific and operational capacity.
• Mentor junior trainees and research staff in computational methods and best practices.
• Contribute to manuscripts, grant reports, and presentations disseminating project findings.

Benefits

• Equal opportunity employer
• Commitment to creating an inclusive environment

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Senior
• Education Level: Ph.D. or professional degree