Current Employment Opportunities

The Vancouver Prostate Centre (VPC) has an exceptional opportunity available for a full-time (1 FTE or 37.5 hours per week) staff bioinformatician to join Dr. Alexander Wyatt’s genomics and bioinformatics research team.

The Vancouver Prostate Centre

VPC has a large, multi-disciplinary research program that undertakes basic, clinical, and translational research. It is a National Centre of Excellence and a designated Centre of Excellence for Commercialization and Research. It is affiliated with the University of British Columbia and the Vancouver Coastal Health Authority. Further details on VPC and its research programs are available at www.prostatecentre.com.

Wyatt Lab

The Wyatt Lab studies the genomics of advanced prostate and bladder cancer. We develop blood- and tissue-based biomarkers for guiding selection of anti-cancer therapy (i.e., precision oncology), and we study cancer evolution in response to therapy. We use next-generation sequencing and custom bioinformatics tools to interrogate serial biopsies from cancer patients enrolled in a series of ongoing clinical trials and protocols. We work closely with senior medical oncologists and urologists to ensure our research findings are translated to the clinic. The employee would be working within a large highly trained research team where they could learn from a diverse range of individual skillsets.

More information on Wyatt Lab is available at https://blogs.ubc.ca/wyattlab/

Position Summary

The full-time position will work 37.5 hours per week. At present, all Wyatt lab members are expected to spend 5 days on-site per week. The staff bioinformatician will be responsible for analysis of next-generation DNA sequencing data as part of several ongoing research projects (see our publications as listed on our website for recent examples). Additionally, the staff bioinformatician will be involved in continued innovation of the data processing pipeline and implementation of novel analysis methods for new techniques (e.g., epigenomic data analyses of ChIP-seq and methylation [5mC/5hmC] sequencing). The ideal candidate will also have experience producing custom scientific figures to represent findings or to explore data. The position will work closely with a multidisciplinary team of postdoctoral fellows, graduate students, clinicians, and wet lab technologists in the context of different research projects.

Responsibilities

• Analyze high-throughput DNA sequencing data.
• Troubleshoot issues related to data analysis pipelines or low-quality data.
• Provide and implement improvements to the bioinformatics pipeline.
• Design and conduct analyses to improve methylation and variant calling, artifact filtering, quality control systems, and variant classification.
• Implements data management and documentation practices for the operation of the Biobank and LIMS system (i.e., OpenSpecimen).

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree or higher in Bioinformatics, a similar field, or equivalent
• 2+ years of relevant and related experience required.

Experience and Skills

• Experience using Python, Bash, and R for data analysis and plotting.
• Experience using Linux command-line tools preferred, knowledge of data visualization tools/platforms (e.g. Adobe Creative Suite, Affinity Designer) would be an additional asset.
• Knowledge of genomics, relevant NGS analyses (mapping, variant calling, etc.), and NGS file types is an asset.
• Ability to work independently while managing multiple objectives and timelines.
• Demonstrates a strong attention to detail and excellent organizational skills.
• Ability to work effectively and efficiently both in a team environment and independently.
• Meticulous organizational and record-keeping skills, and experience writing code that other people can use.
• An interest in translational biological-computational research

Compensation

Salary range for this position is $62,652 to $73,494 per annum. 

Application Procedures

Interested candidates are invited to submit their CV and a cover letter outlining their qualifications and preferably a code sample (or links to code) to @email with the subject line Staff bioinformatician, Wyatt Lab.

Closing Date: 31^st October 2024

Note: We thank all applicants for their interest. However, due to the high volume of applications received, only shortlisted candidates will be contacted. No phone calls, please.