Therapeutics Discovery Bioinformatics Scientist

Therapeutics Discovery Bioinformatics Scientist

Stevenage

LifeArc is a medical research charity dedicated to transforming early stage, promising science into medical interventions that improve human health and benefit society. 

LifeArc offers a unique range of transactional science, advice and funding support for businesses or research bodies looking to develop innovative patient treatments.  Within the Translational Science area our therapeutics team advances research into early-stage drug discovery – from validating drug targets to developing molecules, with particular expertise in antibody engineering and small molecules; while our diagnostics team collaborates on assay design and development and clinical validation for diagnostics, adding industry-recognised credibility and reducing the time to bring these assays to the clinic.

The Role

We are in search of a highly motivated individual to join our dynamic group of data scientists who support our antibody therapeutic discovery team at our Centre for Therapeutic Discovery (CTD) at Stevenage. LifeArc uses new cutting-edge software tools and bioinformatics approaches to drive our scientific discovery processes. We are investing in the development of ideas that will revolutionise how our teams we can profile antibody repertoires. The role would suit a bioinformatics or data scientist keen on developing pipelines for processing high volumes of data.

If successful the candidate will be responsible for improving and expanding our antibody discovery (Single B-Cell NGS sequencing) platform in terms of data collection, processing, analysis, and management. You will be working closely with our teams of talented antibody discovery scientists.

Responsibilities

• Developing and refining data processing and analysis pipelines (especially for NGS)
• Championing software development best practices
• Integrating our workflows into our LIMS and ELN for data management
• Presenting your ideas and work to project teams and employees from a wide range of technical backgrounds
• Keeping up to date with new methods and tools
• Leadership and supervision of junior members of group

Experience & Requirements

 Essential:

• A graduate degree (MSc or PhD) in bioinformatics or related field
• Proficiency with Python or other scripting language such as R
• Experience working with high-throughput sequencing data
• A passion for creating great quality, re-usable, documented, and tested code
• A self-motivated worker who can take ownership of core bioinformatic operations
• A team player who proactively and directly communicates and collaborates with other team members

Desirable:

• Proficiency with R packages e.g. Bioconductor
• Experience with bioinformatics pipeline development
• Experience with relational databases
• Experience with Dotmatics or other LIMS software
• Experience of building and deploying applications
• Experience of using APIs

Salary

Your salary will be determined by qualifications and experience. In addition, LifeArc offers a defined contribution pension scheme, private health insurance, a flexible benefits scheme and 31 days paid holiday per year. 

LifeArc is committed to the principles and practices of equal opportunities and to encouraging the establishment of a diverse workforce. It is our policy to employ individuals on the basis of their suitability for the work to be performed and their potential for development, regardless of age, sex, race, colour, nationality, ethnic or national origin, disability, marital status, pregnancy or maternity, sexual orientation, gender reassignment, religion, or belief.  This includes creating a culture that fully reflects our commitment to equal opportunities for all. 

To apply please email your CV and covering letter explaining why you want to work for LifeArc to: Marta Miadowicz marta.miadowicz@lifearc.org.

Closing date: Friday 10^th September 2021