Senior Research Scientist – Bioinformatician

I am actively working on a Senior Research Scientist – Bioinformatician (maternity cover) position within a small but fast growing pharmaceutical company focussed on developing therapeutics from the human gut microbiome. Live biotherapeutic products (LBPs) derived from the gut microbiome represent a new class of drugs that contain live organisms for the prevention, treatment or cure of disease. This is a great opportunity to join a world leader in the LBP field who currently have two clinical stage programmes and a strong pipeline of preclinical programmes in autoimmunity, inflammation, oncology and CNS disease.
Purpose of the Job
My client is looking for a bioinformatician specialising in bacterial genomics, to join a cross-disciplinary research team, the successful candidate will be responsible for the genomic characterisation of a large collection of bacterial strains. This role will involve the assembly and annotation of bacterial genomes and the candidate will need to have experience in the processing and integration of sequence datasets from different sequencing platforms. This is a full-time position which will support the in silico characterisation of bacterial strains as part of a proprietary discovery platform within the business’ research function. The successful candidate will be an integral part of the research team and will present results at project meetings; write reports; and contribute to the generation of intellectual property.
Essential qualifications and experience

• PhD or MSc Degree in bioinformatics, microbial genomics, microbiology, or related discipline
• At least 2 years of post doc experience in the field of in microbial bioinformatics/genome mining, or equivalent experience working in an industrial environment.
• Candidates need to have a proven ability to develop and undertake independent, high quality research
• Proficient in the processing and integrative analysis of NGS datasets from different sequencing platforms.
• Strong background in genome annotation.
• Extensive experience in microbial genome mining.
• Experience working with transcriptome datasets is highly desirable.
• Experience working on a Linux system.
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills.
• Self-driven with the ability to work independently, as well as integrate into a multidisciplinary team of microbiologists and bioinformaticians.
• Able to keep accurate and detailed records of data and results.
• Good organisational and communication skills.

Desirable criteria

• Knowledge of R/Python/Perl programming skills.
• Experience of working with RNASeq data would be advantageous.
• Evidence of a track record of independent critical thinking and scientific achievement.