Bioinformatician

Job description

Job responsibilities

The postholder will be required to:

• Work collaboratively both within PHW and with other UK organisations to develop new bioinformatic pipelines and services, with a primary focus on pathogen-agnostic microbial detection and characterisation, under the direction of the Senior Bioinformaticians and Head of Unit.

• Undertake specialist testing and evaluation requiring a higher level of professional expertise e.g. validation and assessment of bioinformatic tools, pipelines, and resources applicable to aid in the interpretation of results.

• Carry out, interpret, and report advanced bioinformatics procedures and investigations, providing timely and accurate responses to clinical queries related to the ongoing delivery of pathogen genomics services within PenGU

• Supervise day-to-day activities of junior bioinformatics team members and provide support and guidance for their professional development.

• Collaborate with the Unit Head and Senior Bioinformatician to maintain high standards of quality within PenGU Bioinformatics in compliance with external accredited regulatory bodies.

• Maintain high professional standards by continual professional development keeping up to date with advances in pathogen genomics and NGS technology.

Person Specification

Qualifications and Knowledge

• Honours degree in Medical Microbiology or Molecular Biology or equivalent experience
• Post graduate qualification (e.g. MSc) in a relevant subject or equivalent experience
• Demonstrable knowledge and understanding of bioinformatics methods to analyse genomics data, including using metagenomic and pathogen-agnostic characterisation approaches
• Demonstrable understanding of theoretical knowledge underpinning conventional DNA sequencing and genomics analysis approaches
• Excellent understanding of microbiology of disease and disease processes, including molecular microbiology, metagenomics, molecular epidemiology and phylogenetic analysis
• Understands and can apply the principles of good laboratory and clinical practice, and quality assurance

• Evidence of continuing professional development evidenced by Professional Portfolio developed within an appraisal framework
• Comprehensive knowledge of PC, server, storage & networking hardware, ethernet TCP/IP networking and Active Directory
• Thorough understanding of how pathogen genomics and microbiological principles can be applied within healthcare and public health surveillance settings

Experience

• Experience in analysing metagenomics data
• Current evidence-based practical experience in software/pipeline development to analyse DNA sequence data using at least one of C/C++, Python or Java
• Evidence of project-based research work, analysing large and complex datasets (including high-throughput sequencing data) where material is conflicting and drawn from multiple sources
• Demonstrable experience of participating in and co-ordinating successful, collaborative, team projects in complex and challenging environments
• Application of bioinformatics tools to analyse genomics data using the UNIX command line
• Experience of using systems for versioning software (ideally git)

• Experience of implementing and querying SQL and NoSQL databases
• Experience working in a professional software development environment including procedures such as software versioning, generation of documentation and commenting of code
• Experience of developing pipelines using workflow manager languages, e.g. Nextflow
• Experience developing software within containers or virtual machines and configuration and software maintenance of UNIX servers

Skills and Attributes

• Ability to supervise junior colleagues and provide technical instructions and training on relevant aspects of bioinformatics
• Ability to work reliably, effectively and efficiently, using own initiative to recognize problems and generate potential solutions, and making informed decisions in the absence of required information
• Ability to work calmly under pressure and to tight deadlines, correctly prioritising tasks and providing timely responses to urgent matters
• High level of literacy, numeracy, and attention to detail, particularly to communicate scientific/ clinical information to inform work colleagues or external contacts
• Ability to demonstrate understanding and application of our workplace values, together with the underpinning behaviours identified for success in this role

• Welsh Language Skills are desirable at level 1 in understanding, speaking, reading, and writing in Welsh

Other

• Prepared to work flexibly throughout the laboratory to meet the needs of the service

Disclosure and Barring Service Check

This post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act (Exceptions Order) 1975 and as such it will be necessary for a submission for Disclosure to be made to the Disclosure and Barring Service (formerly known as CRB) to check for any previous criminal convictions.

Certificate of Sponsorship

Applications from job seekers who require current Skilled worker sponsorship to work in the UK are welcome and will be considered alongside all other applications. For further information visit the UK Visas and Immigration website.

From 6 April 2017, skilled worker applicants, applying for entry clearance into the UK, have had to present a criminal record certificate from each country they have resided continuously or cumulatively for 12 months or more in the past 10 years. Adult dependants (over 18 years old) are also subject to this requirement. Guidance can be found here Criminal records checks for overseas applicants.

Employer details

Employer name

Public Health Wales

Address

Wales Genomic Health Centre

Longwood Drive, Cardiff Edge Business Park

Cardiff

CF14 7YU

https://phw.nhs.wales/