Bioinformatics Software Architect Full-time

Bioinformatics Scientist

Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc. is the world leader in serving science, with annual revenue exceeding $40 billion. Our Mission is to enable our customers to make the world healthier, cleaner and safer. Whether our customers are accelerating life sciences research, solving complex analytical challenges, improving patient diagnostics and therapies or improving productivity in their laboratories, we are here to support them.

This is a key position within the Transplant Diagnostics R&D Bioinformatics team, based in West Hills, CA. The successful candidate will have the opportunity to partner with lab scientists, data analysts, software engineers and domain experts to build pioneering technologies and develop innovative molecular typing and antibody detection products.

The successful candidate will develop, improve, and maintain tools, pipelines, and software for the analysis of complex HLA typing data from PCR, microarray, NGS, and antibody detection platforms. This role will work in collaboration with the research staff and other departments, and requires knowledge of data analysis methods, software development, bioinformatics, statistics, molecular biology, as well as the ability to quickly grasp new subject areas.

What will you do?

• Build software tools, including development and implementation of new computational algorithms using machine learning and statistical models to provide solutions for process automation and data analytics for the R&D and manufacturing teams
• Develop pipelines for NGS analysis and other bioinformatics workflows
• Build and maintain Bioinformatics web portal for communication and distribution of Bioinformatics tools throughout the Transplant Diagnostics division
• Work with IT team to administer Bioinformatics infrastructure to ensure a robust and scalable architecture that effectively supports Bioinformatics software
• Search relevant sequence information from external sources for primer and probe design, as well as mining and analysis of genomic libraries and genomes
• Analyze and interpret complex experimental results and work hand in hand with laboratory scientists for the research and development of new molecular and antibody products
• Actively participate in software development lifecycle, including writing software specifications, code and design reviews, implementing test plans
• Regularly communicate accomplishments and progress to team members and management

Education / Experience

• PhD from an accredited higher learning institution with studies in Computer Science, Bioinformatics, Computation Biology, Life Sciences/Molecular Biology or related field AND 2 years of related postdoctoral or industrial experience; OR master's degree in Computer Science, Bioinformatics, Computational Biology, Life Sciences/Molecular Biology or related field AND 4 years of related work experience; OR bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Bioinformatics, Computational Biology, Life Sciences/Molecular Biology or related field AND 6 years of related work experience
• Experience developing analytical software tools using machine learning methods and programming languages, such as C#, Python, and SQL
• Experience developing relational databases
• Experience in developing web tools and services
• Experience with cloud technologies such as AWS and docker

Knowledge, Skills, Abilities

• Ability to translate scientific and business requirements to build robust and scalable software tools
• Proficiency in building and maintaining NGS or other bioinformatics analysis pipelines
• Proficiency working in Windows and Linux environments
• Pragmatic self-starter who is proactive, self-motivated, team-oriented, and customer-focused with a strong work ethic
• Ability to meet deadlines within a dynamic environment and able to handle multiple tasks simultaneously while adapting to changing priorities
• Be curious, detail oriented, and analytical, with a proven ability to learn quickly
• Sound understanding of statistics, machine learning algorithms, the ability to generate robust predictive models for multidimensional data
• Proactively learns products and new projects and stays ahead with Bioinformatics, computational or industry trends
• Good verbal and written communication and well-founded problem-solving skills
• Demonstrated skills in project management and formal continuous process improvement techniques
• Ability to work effectively in collaboration with diverse groups of people

Preferred Qualifications

• Knowledge of immunology, HLA
• Experience administrating a Linux system
• Understanding wet lab techniques and principles in the field of Molecular Biology, Genomics, and/or Biochemistry