Associate Principle Informatician, Omics, Oncology Data Science Platforms

Do you have expertise in bioinformatics pipelines and data engineering workflows? Would you like to apply your knowledge to impact cancer research in a company that follows the science and turns ideas into life-changing medicines? Then AstraZeneca might be the one for you!

About AstraZeneca

At AstraZeneca, we put patients first and strive to meet their unmet needs worldwide. Working here

means being entrepreneurial, thinking big and working together to make the impossible a reality. If

you are swift to action, confident to lead, willing to collaborate, and curious about what science can

do, then you’re our kind of person.

Oncology Data Science Platforms                                                                        

The Oncology Data Science – Data, Analytics, and AI Platforms (ODSP) team comprises multiple groups across the Cambridge UK, Boston MA, Gaithersburg MD, Barcelona ESP, and Munich DE sites.  ODSP develops technology, software, and data infrastructure to advance our Oncology data science. Our vision is to evolve data science into a driver of innovation within Oncology. We do this by creating a strategic culture that values our data as a true business asset, organizing our data so that it’s accessible and easy to find, integrated, and re-usable for Humans & AI, and building the best computational tools to support scientific decision making.

What you’ll do

The ODSP team is growing to meet the strategic initiatives pursued by AZ Oncology for big data generation including DNA sequencing, single-cell and bulk expression, proteomics etc. We are looking for a talented and highly motivated Senior Bioinformatician with strong background in working with Next Generation Sequencing data to join our team. You will work on designing and applying innovative computational analysis methods with a focus on AZ’s exciting and rapidly growing Multi-omics research portfolio. 

Major Duties and Responsibilities

• Contribute to the development of an end-to-end data analysis capability as part of a cross-functional team.

• Manage, analyse, and deliver high throughput Multi-omics (Genomics, Transcriptomics, Proteomics, Epigenomics etc) data 
• Develop and Support testing and verification of data management analyses and tools and pipelines in collaboration with AZ stakeholders.

• Build new data extraction, transformation and loading processes.  

• Ensure accurate automation of data analysis.

• Build scalable (Cloud and HPC) solutions that work on tens of thousands of CPUs 

• Define and refine the data quality standards and validate the quality of the datasets using various tools to assess the correctness of the results  

• Assist with developing requirements for internal software development 

• Build and maintain high level of experience with team's software and IT technologies 

• Work collaboratively with scientists and outside collaborators to cultivate, process, and analyse genomic information 

• Develop and maintain an in depth understanding of the scientific and technological domains supported by the team 

• Build and steer further development of small prototype tools for bench scientists to access and visualize genomic data 

• Finally, you will collaborate with industry and academia, and exploit external resources, to find the most effective solutions to oncology data science problems 

Education, Qualifications, Skills, and Experience

Essential Requirements:

• Relevant graduate degree:
  • Bioinformatics / Computational biology

• Minimum 3 years of applied experience in bioinformatics data analysis.

• Experience in using and analysing Illumina NGS data.

• Ability to explore novel bioinformatic approaches to improve sensitivity and specificity of NGS based workflows.

• Strong, professional communication skills and excellent attention to detail, capable of developing good working relationships with diverse individuals. 
• Experience working within a team environment.
• Takes ownership of tasks and has a can-do attitude.
  • Proven programming skills, Python preferred.
  • Experience in software development standard methodologies
  • Experience in Unix
  • Experience working with Nextflow.
  • Cloud computing (preferably AWS), and High-Performance Computing (HPC)

Desirable:

• Proficiency analysing and interpreting data from multiple 'omic platforms (NGS sequencing, epigenomics, genomics, proteomics etc.) 

• Experience with code sharing and versioning (Github) and Atlassian suite (Jira, Confluence) 

• Well networked within external bioinformatics and NGS communities 

• An understanding of the contribution of bioinformatics to drug discovery 

• Awareness of machine learning, graph modelling, Bayesian analytics or other non-traditional approaches to model biological data 

Why AstraZeneca

At AstraZeneca we’re dedicated to being a Great Place to Work. Where you are empowered to push the boundaries of science and unleash your entrepreneurial spirit. There’s no better place to make a difference to medicine, patients, ­and society. An inclusive culture that champions diversity and collaboration, and always committed to lifelong learning, growth, and development. We’re on an exciting journey to pioneer the future of healthcare.

So, what’s next?

Are you already envisioning yourself joining our team? Good, because we can’t wait to hear from you!

Competitive salary and benefits package on offer

Competitive salary and benefits package on offer. The successful candidate will have access to pension contributions, A performance recognition scheme and a competitive, generous remuneration package.

Date Posted

03-Dec-2024

Closing Date

02-Feb-2025Our mission is to build an inclusive and equitable environment. We want people to feel they belong at AstraZeneca and Alexion, starting with our recruitment process. We welcome and consider applications from all qualified candidates, regardless of characteristics. We offer reasonable adjustments/accommodations to help all candidates to perform at their best. If you have a need for any adjustments/accommodations, please complete the section in the application form.

AstraZeneca requires all US employees to be fully vaccinated for COVID-19 but will consider requests for reasonable accommodations as required by applicable law.