CSIRO Postdoctoral Fellowship in Pathogen Metagenomics and Bioinformatics

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The opportunity

• Great opportunity for an early career researcher with a PhD in bioinformatics/microbiology
• Work at the Australian Centre for Disease Preparedness in Geelong
• Protect Australia against potential pathogens and biosecurity risks

CSIRO Early Research Career (CERC) Postdoctoral Fellowships provide opportunities to scientists and engineers who have completed their doctorate and have less than three years of relevant postdoctoral work experience. These fellowships aim to develop the next generation of future leaders of the innovation system.

Australia is free of many animal viruses that pose a serious threat to our livestock industry, which are currently circulating in nearby countries. CSIRO is committed to exploring innovative and emerging technologies for improved surveillance to mitigate incursion risk and zoonotic viral emergence impacts.

Based at the Australian Centre for Disease Preparedness (ACDP) in Geelong, the successful candidate will work on a project to develop unbiased high throughput sequencing (HTS)-based viral surveillance systems for screening wild animals for potential pathogens, particularly those that are considered a biosecurity risk in Australia.

Your duties will include:

• Carry out innovative, impactful research of strategic importance to CSIRO that will, where possible, lead to novel and important scientific outcomes.
• Conduct research investigations requiring originality, creativity and innovation, specifically to develop and optimise robust and rapid HTS workflows and pathogen genome analyses for surveillance and research objectives.
• Plan and design relevant studies to assess the effectiveness, sensitivity and accuracy of wet-lab protocols and bioinformatics pipelines for pathogen detection.
• Produce high quality scientific papers suitable for publication in quality journals and for client reports in collaboration with relevant project leaders or domain experts at ACDP.
• Record, manage, and analyse data/information using relevant data science techniques.

Location: Geelong, VIC

Salary: AU$96k - AU$105k plus up to 15.4% superannuation

Tenure: Specified term of 3 years

Reference: 98127

To be considered you will need:

• A doctorate (or will shortly satisfy the requirements of a PhD) in a relevant discipline area, such as bioinformatics, computational biology, or molecular virology/biology with a focus on bioinformatics. Please note: To be eligible for this role you must have no more than 3 years (full-time equivalent) of postdoctoral research experience.
• Practical experience with HTS analysis and bioinformatics techniques, such as genome assembly, metagenomics, transcriptomics, phylogenetics, evolutionary or microbiome analysis.
• Evidence of advanced data analytics and programming capabilities in at least one language relevant for bioinformatics (e.g., Python, R, BASH) and experience working with high-performance compute (HPC) servers.
• The ability to work effectively as part of a multi-disciplinary research team, plus the motivation and discipline to carry out autonomous research.
• High level written and oral communication skills with the proven ability to present research outcomes at national and international conferences and by publication in peer-reviewed journals.

For full details about this role please view the Position Description

Eligibility

Applications for this position are open to Australian/New Zealand Citizens and Australian Permanent Residents. Appointment to this role is subject to provision of a national police check and may be subject to other security/medical/character requirements specific to the ACDP facility.

Flexible working arrangements

We work flexibly at CSIRO, offering a range of options for how, when and where you work. 

Diversity and inclusion

We are working hard to recruit people representing the diversity across our society, and ensure that all our people feel supported to do their best work and feel empowered to let their ideas flourish. 

About CSIRO

At CSIRO Australia's national science agency, we solve the greatest challenges through innovative science and technology. We put the safety and wellbeing of our people above all else and earn trust everywhere because we only deal in facts. We collaborate widely and generously and deliver solutions with real impact. 

CSIRO is committed to values-based leadership to inspire performance and unlock the potential of our people.

Join us and start creating tomorrow today!

How to apply

Please apply online and provide a cover letter and CV that best demonstrate your motivation and ability to meet the requirements of this role.

Applications close

10 November 2024, 11:00pm AEDT