Principal/Senior Bioinformatician

Do you want to help us improve human health and understand life on Earth? Make your mark by shaping the future to enable or deliver life-changing science to solve some of humanity’s greatest challenges.

We have an exciting opportunity for a Principal / Senior Bioinformatician to lead/support the day-to-day running of our bioinformatics support service within the Cancer, Ageing, Somatic Mutation Informatics Team (CASM IT) for a 3 year fixed term contract.

Researchers come to us with a wide range of requests, from running automated high-throughput pipelines and troubleshooting results to exploring new computational methods, optimising large-scale analyses, developing novel software, or transitioning their work into a production environment. You will manage and improve how we support them, ensuring they receive timely, high-quality advice while also identifying opportunities to refine training, documentation, and tooling to better meet the needs of the Programme.

You will be responsible for:

• Overseeing and coordinating our helpdesk and bioinformatics support, ensuring researchers get the right help at the right time.
• Working directly with multi-omics data (e.g., somatic and germline analyses, RNA-seq, single-cell, spatial transcriptomics, methylation, CRISPR).
• Driving innovation, identifying and evaluating emerging techniques and technologies that could enhance our science.
• Advising on best practices, helping researchers apply the latest tools and approaches to their work.
• Contributing to workflow optimisation and benchmarking, ensuring CASM IT’s tools and pipelines are efficient and sustainable.
• Communicating complex scientific and computational concepts to both researchers and operational teams, acting as a bridge between research and development.
• Supporting manuscript writing, ensuring analyses and methods are well-documented and publication-ready.
• Developing training resources and workshops, equipping researchers with the skills to work more effectively with their data.

About Us:

CASM IT is a collaborative and dynamic team, working closely with researchers to ensure they have the right expertise, resources, and guidance to make the most of their data. You’ll work alongside bioinformaticians, software developers, and wet-lab researchers, helping to integrate and improve the tools and approaches they rely on. Our infrastructure includes high-performance computing and large-scale storage, supporting complex, data-intensive research in cancer genomics, single-cell and spatial transcriptomics, and multi-omics research.

This role offers you the chance to make a real impact on how bioinformatics is supported across the Programme. If you enjoy solving diverse research challenges, driving innovation, and working closely with researchers, we’d love to hear from you!

About You:

We’re looking for a highly motivated bioinformatician or computational biologist with strong communication and problem-solving skills. You should be comfortable working independently while also collaborating closely with researchers and software developers.

This role offers you the opportunity to shape and grow CASM IT’s bioinformatics support within a world-leading institute. You will work closely with scientists working at the cutting edge of cancer biology and multi-omics research, helping them unlock insights through advanced computational methods.

• MSc (or equivalent experience) in Bioinformatics, Computational Biology, Biosciences, Physics, or a related field.
• Strong experience working with multi-omics datasets, particularly in cancer genomics, single-cell, RNA-seq, or methylation analysis.
• Demonstrable in Python and/or R for bioinformatics data analysis.
• Solid UNIX/Linux and Bash scripting skills for working in HPC and cloud environments.
• Strong scientific writing skills, with experience contributing to papers, reports, or documentation.
• Excellent communication skills, capable of translating technical concepts for both scientific and operational audiences.
• Self-motivated and able to work independently, managing priorities in a dynamic environment.

Additional Skills for Principal Bioinformatician:

• PhD (or equivalent experience) in Bioinformatics, Computational Biology, Biosciences, Physics or a related field
• Proficiency in Python and/or R for Bioinformatics data analysis
• Experience with gene editing technologies (e.g., CRISPR).
• Knowledge of machine learning and/or statistical methods for bioinformatics.
• Experience developing and maintaining computational workflows (e.g., Nextflow, Snakemake, or equivalent).
• Experience troubleshooting bioinformatics issues for researchers.
• Familiarity with HPC environments and cloud computing for bioinformatics workflows.

Other Information:

Salary per annum (dependent upon skills and experience):

Please apply with your CV and a cover letter outlining which role you would like to be considered for and how you meet the criteria set out above.

Closing Date: 15th April 2025