Bioinformatics Analyst II/III

Bioinformatics Analyst II/III

Job ID: req3719
Employee Type: exempt full-time
Division: Bioinformatics and Computational Science
Facility: NIH
Location: NIH Campus 9000 Rockville Pike, Bethesda, MD 20892 USA

The Frederick National Laboratory is a Federally Funded Research and Development Center (FFRDC) sponsored by the National Cancer Institute (NCI) and operated by Leidos Biomedical Research, Inc. The lab addresses some of the most urgent and intractable problems in the biomedical sciences in cancer and AIDS, drug development and first-in-human clinical trials, applications of nanotechnology in medicine, and rapid response to emerging threats of infectious diseases.

Accountability, Compassion, Collaboration, Dedication, Integrity and Versatility; it's the FNL way.

PROGRAM DESCRIPTION

The Frederick National Laboratory is dedicated to improving human health through the discovery and innovation in the biomedical sciences, focusing on cancer, AIDS and emerging infectious diseases.

The Bioinformatics and Computational Science (BACS) Directorate works collaboratively and helps to fulfill the mission of Frederick National Laboratory in the areas of bioinformatics and computational science by developing and applying world-leading computing technologies to basic and applied biomedical research challenges, data science, supporting critical operations, developing and delivering national data resources, and utilizing leading-edge software.

The Advanced Biomedical and Computational Science (ABCS) group is a part of BACS and serves as a hub of translational scientists with expertise in machine learning applied to the interpretation of 2D and 3D biomedical images, clinical and genomics integration, computational chemistry, protein modeling, bioinformatic analysis of omics data, and other applications of computational and data science. ABCS develops state-of-the-art technologies in large-scale data modeling, analysis, and integration and supports the scientific research at the Frederick National Lab by helping translate scientific questions to technical solutions for cancer and biomedical research.

KEY ROLES/RESPONSIBILITIES:

• Analysis and interpretation of high-throughput biomedical data generated by microarray, next-generation sequencing, proteomics, and metabolomics platforms
• Contribute to a team effort in designing, developing, and deploying robust workflows, as well as custom scripts, to support the analysis of high-throughput data
• Mine publicly available biological data to generate novel hypotheses or insights
• Present analysis results, in a clear and concise manner, to an audience not familiar with bioinformatics
• Direct users to existing bioinformatics tools maintained or licensed by CCR
• Assist PIs in submitting data to public genomic databases, such as GEO, and dbGaP, in compliance with the NIH Genomic Data Sharing Policy
• Work with staff to utilize NIH Biowulf computer clusters to process data streamed off the next generation sequencers (NGS); process data in a batch mode
• Train fellows and other staff to use NGS and other genomic analysis tools
• Develop other bioinformatic pipelines for processing molecular data such as bulk RNA-Seq, ChIP-seq, DNAse-seq, single-cell sequencing etc.
• Experience with various scRNAseq modalities like CITEseq, TCRseq, scATACseq and/or spatial transcriptomics experience eg. Visium or DSP is preferred
• Attend branch and lab meetings, and provide guidance and inputs on expt. design and accurate statistical inference
• Other duties as required

The Bioinformatics Analyst II is expected to work effectively as a member of a team; coordinate activities among other groups located at the Bethesda, Frederick, Rockville and Gaithersburg NCI campuses; follow sound scientific practices and maintain effective documentation of activities and analyses. Majority of time will be spent on the main NIH campus in Bethesda.

BASIC QUALIFICATIONS

To be considered for this position, you must minimally meet the knowledge, skills, and abilities listed below:

• Possession of Bachelor's degree from an accredited college/university according to the Council for Higher Education Accreditation (CHEA) or four (4) years relevant experience in lieu of degree. Foreign degrees must be evaluated for U.S. equivalency.
  • Bioinformatics Analyst II - In addition to the education requirement, minimum two (2) years of progressively responsible experience
  • Bioinformatics Analyst III - In addition to the education requirement, minimum four (5) years of progressively responsible experience
• Ability to obtain and maintain a security clearance

PREFERRED QUALIFICATIONS

Candidates with these desired skills will be given preferential consideration:

• Possession of a Ph.D. degree in any quantitative science is preferred
• Commitment to solving biological problems and communicating these solutions
• Ability to multi-task across projects
• Experience in submitting data sets to public repositories
• Management of large genomic data sets including integration with data available from public sources
• Prior customer-facing role
• Record of scientific achievements including journal publications and conference presentations
• Experience with multi-omic integration of NGS datasets
• Familiarity with designing and deploying automated analysis pipelines on HPC and Cloud environments
• Experience with scRNAseq analysis (including CITEseq, TCRseq, etc.)
• Familiartity with spatial transcriptomics (including Visium and/or Nanostring DSP)

EXPECTED COMPETENCIES

• Deep understanding of and experience in processing high throughput biomedical data: data cleaning, normalization, analysis, interpretation, and visualization
• Ability to understand and analyze data from complex experimental designs
• Proficiency in at least two of the following programming languages: Python, R, Perl, Java, and/or C/C++
• Experience in at least two of the following areas: Exome sequencing, metagenomics, ChIPSeq, RNASeq, DHS-Seq, long-read technologies, DNA methylation analysis, single-cell transcriptomics, spatial transcriptomics
• Familiarity with public databases: NCBI, Ensembl, TCGA, cBioPortal, Broad FireHose
• Knowledge of working in a cluster environment including SLURM job management

Commitment to Diversity
All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to sex, race, ethnicity, age, national origin, citizenship, religion, physical or mental disability, medical condition, genetic information, pregnancy, family structure, marital status, ancestry, domestic partner status, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, veteran or military status, or any other basis prohibited by law. Leidos will also consider for employment qualified applicants with criminal histories consistent with relevant laws.

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