What are the responsibilities and job description for the Bioinformatics Specialist position at Stowers Institute for Medical Research?
The Stowers Institute for Medical Research has an opening for a Bioinformatics Specialist to assist the Computational Biology core facility with biological data processing and analysis. The Bioinformatics Specialist will use computational tools to process, transform, visualize, and analyze datasets primarily derived from high-throughput sequencing experiments. We are seeking an intellectually curious and motivated individual who will thrive in a collaborative, biology-driven team environment. The primary focus of this position will be on developing and maintaining analysis infrastructure (pipelines, tools, and genome annotation resources) that support the institute's diverse research programs. There will also be an opportunity to work directly with researchers on collaborative data analysis projects.
Key Responsibilities:
- Develop and maintain robust, scalable pipelines for multiple sequencing platforms (Illumina, PacBio, Oxford Nanopore, etc.)
- Troubleshoot and manually process data for custom protocols or pipeline failures.
- Collaborate with IT and high performance computing team to develop or optimize pipelines
- Use R and Python for high-throughput genomic data analysis and visualization
- Follow group best practices to maintain reproducibility and organize results
Minimum Requirements:
- Undergraduate or Masters degree in Computer Science , Bioinformatics, Computational Biology, or a related computationally oriented discipline
- Proficiency with one or more scripting languages (including Python)
- Experience working in a Unix/Linux environment
- Basic understanding and interest in Biology
Preferred Skills:
- Experience with R, Bioconductor, Shiny, and Nextflow
- Experience with cluster computing (Especially slurm)
- Experience writing computational pipelines
The ideal candidate will have strong problem solving abilities, excellent communication and organization skills, good attention to detail, and the ability to manage multiple projects effectively. Software engineers and trained computer scientists with relevant skills and interest in biology are encouraged to apply.
Application Instructions: To apply, please submit the requested documents to careers@stowers.org or to Administration Department, Stowers Institute for Medical Research, 1000 E 50th Street, Kansas City, MO 64110.
Requested Documents
- Current Resume
- Cover Letter