What are the responsibilities and job description for the Bioinformatics Specialist position at Stowers Institute for Medical Research?
The Stowers Institute 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. One major aspect 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. We are especially looking for someone excited to leverage generative AI to maintain and improve our processes. 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.)
- Collaborate with IT and high-performance computing team to develop or optimize pipelines
- Explore and integrate the power of generative AI to improve our processes
- Use R and Python for high-throughput genomic data analysis and visualization
- Troubleshoot and manually process data for any custom protocols or pipeline failures.
- Communicate through meetings and email with internal groups and external companies to help troubleshoot data processing pipelines for new and developing protocols
- Follow group best practices to maintain reproducibility and organize results
Minimum requirements:
- Master's degree in 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
- Experience with sequencing data analysis (we use a wide variety of approaches but would like you to have at least some experience with short read sequencing and/or single cell protocols)
- Familiarity with standard sequencing data file formats
- Interest in exploring and using generative AI for code development and maintenance
- Basic understanding of 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, biological interest and curiosity, excitement about leveraging AI, and the ability to manage multiple projects effectively.
Application Instructions: To apply, please submit a current resume and cover letter to careers@stowers.org or to Administration Department, Stowers Institute for Medical Research, 1000 E 50th Street, Kansas City, MO 64110.