Bioinformatician - Pathogen

The Ellison Institute of Technology (EIT) tackles humanity’s greatest challenges by turning science and technology into impactful global solutions. Focused on areas like health, food security, sustainable agriculture, climate change, clean energy, and robotics in an era of artificial intelligence. EIT blends groundbreaking research with practical applications to deliver lasting results.

A cornerstone of EIT mission is its upcoming 300,000-square-foot research facility at the Oxford Science Park, set to open in 2027. This cutting-edge campus will feature advanced labs, an oncology and preventative care clinic, and collaborative spaces to strengthen its partnership with the University of Oxford. It will also host the Ellison Scholars, driving innovation for societal benefit.

The Pathogen Mission highlights EIT’s transformative approach, using Whole Genome Sequencing (WGS) and Oracle’s cloud technology to create a global pathogen metagenomics system. This initiative aims to improve diagnostics, provide early epidemic warnings, and guide treatments by profiling antimicrobial resistance. The goal is to deliver certified diagnostic tools for widespread use in labs, hospitals, and public health.

EIT fosters a culture of collaboration, innovation, and resilience, valuing diverse expertise to drive sustainable solutions to humanity’s enduring challenges.

The Pathogen program is looking for a Bioinformatician to work shoulder‑to‑shoulder with senior scientists to develop, validate, and scale bioinformatics workflows that turn raw sequencing data into actionable insights. This is an ideal role for someone early in their career who is eager to hone their skills in pathogen genomics, learn best‑practice pipeline engineering, and see their code translate into real‑world clinical and public‑health impact. 

Key Responsibilities: 

• Contribute to building, testing, and maintaining next-generation sequencing (NGS) analysis pipelines (Nextflow, Docker, Bash/Python/R), ensuring reproducibility and performance. 
• Contribute to data curation from public repositories (ENA, GenBank, GISAID) and internal studies. 
• Perform quality control, assembly, and downstream analyses (taxonomic classification, AMR calling, variant/strain typing) under guidance from senior team members. 
• Document pipeline steps and results clearly; present findings to multidisciplinary colleagues. 
• Stay current with advances in infectious disease genomics and suggest incremental improvements to existing workflows. 
• Champion EIT’s collaborative culture by sharing knowledge and supporting teammates. 

Requirements

Essential Knowledge, Skills and Experience: 

• Doctorate-level expertise (PhD or equivalent) in Bioinformatics, Computational Biology, Microbiology, Genetic Epidemiology, Genomics or a related field, combined with hands-on bioinformatics or computational biology experience. 
• Hands-on experience analysing NGS data. 
• Proficiency in Python and Bash; familiarity with R is a plus. 
• Exposure to workflow managers (e.g., Nextflow or Snakemake) and containerisation (Docker/Singularity). 
• Fundamental understanding of infectious diseases and microbial genomics. 
• Clear communicator, curious learner, and team oriented problem solver. 

Desirable Knowledge, Skills and Experience:  

• Experience with cloud platforms (e.g. OCI, AWS, GCP) or HPC environments (e.g. Slurm). 
• Familiarity with both long and shortread technologies (e.g. ONT, Illumina). 
• Basic knowledge of metagenomics, antimicrobial resistance analytics or public health monitoring. 
• Interest in data visualisation or machine learning methods for genomics. 

Benefits

We offer the following salary and benefits:

• Salary: Competitive salary on offer
• Enhanced holiday pay
• Pension
• Life Assurance
• Income Protection
• Private Medical Insurance
• Hospital Cash Plan
• Therapy Services
• Perk Box
• Electrical Car Scheme

Why work for EIT:

At the Ellison Institute, we believe a collaborative, inclusive team is key to our success. We are building a supportive environment where creative risks are encouraged, and everyone feels heard. Valuing emotional intelligence, empathy, respect, and resilience, we encourage people to be curious and to have a shared commitment to excellence. Join us and make an impact!

Terms of Appointment:

• You must have the right to work permanently in the UK with a willingness to travel as necessary.
• You will live in, or within easy commuting distance of, Oxford.
• During peak periods, some longer hours may be required and some working across multiple time zones due to the global nature of the programme.