Bioinformatics Research Officer

We save & change lives. At Children’s Cancer Institute we believe that a life should be long. Cancer cuts life short for hundreds of children every year, before they’ve even had a chance to make their mark. We aim to not only improve their quality of life but eradicate the cause of their pain.

As the only independent Medical Research institute in Australia focused on childhood cancer, our purpose is to translate and discover (through world class research), new treatments that will cure cancer and reduce the side effects in children and adolescents.

Choose to be part of a team that will nurture your talent, so you too can contribute to this purpose. Together, we can and we will cure all children of cancer. It’s not if. It’s when.

At Children’s Cancer Institute we are currently seeking a Bioinformatician to join our research team. We are seeking a Bioinformatician who will be responsible for developing and applying computational approaches ultimately focussed on contributing to groundbreaking advancements in biological understanding of childhood cancer and treatment (or management). Our team develops computational approaches that leverage cutting-edge advances in genomics and transcriptomics to enable precision medicine, supported by ZERO Childhood Cancer Program and the Luminesce Alliance for Precision Medicine. The role will work to support our Senior and Principal Bioinformaticians, where your work will include, but not be limited to, applying, developing and optimising analysis pipelines for use in multi-omic data analysis, with a particular focus on improving RNA-seq analysis in a precision medicine program with the aim to develop an RNA-seq only diagnostic pipeline.

As a bioinformatician you will become an important member within our research groups but will also, through our close clinical partnerships, assist in translating these assays to use in patient care. The successful candidates will therefore be independent, highly motivated and talented researchers, capable of driving change and implementing novel approaches. We are looking for a candidate that has expertise in the analysis of RNA-sequencing and whole genome or targeted DNA sequencing. If the candidate has experience in long read RNA sequencing will be advantageous but not essential. This work will be focussed particularly on development and deployment of RNA-based methods of identifying paediatric cancer features that inform diagnosis, prognosis, therapeutic targets and discovery of new molecular features. The latter includes identification of structural variants, understanding aberrant gene expression and potential drivers of cancer development. The ideal candidate will have strong expertise in data science, particularly in interpretation data from cancer genomics and a strong interest in clinical translation. The candidate will be a highly motivated and skilled researcher, capable of working well both collaboratively and independently.

As our Bioinformatician your responsibilities will include:

• Generating reproducible, high quality research results
• Developing, validating and implementing algorithms using multi-omics (notably RNA-seq) data
• Performing statistical analysis for clinical and bench-side research
• Assessing, understanding and implementing bioinformatics tools and generating bioinformatics pipelines
• Presenting work in seminars and laboratory meetings, and publishing work in academic journals
• Keeping informed of advances in the field and applying that new knowledge to your own work
• Teaching, assisting and mentoring scientists in the field of bioinformatics

To succeed you will have:

• PhD or equivalent working experience in computational biology, genomics, or related field
• Strong demonstrated expertise working with multiple next generation sequencing methods
• Expertise in at least one of the following areas is desirable: Next generation sequencing, or cancer-, cell- or molecular biology
• A demonstrated ability to design and conduct experimental work and analysis independently as well as part of a team
• Having highly developed skills in bioinformatics and genomics
• High-level proficiency in Bash, R, and/or Python
• A highly motivated, flexible, creative and empathetic attitude to your work
• Good written and oral presentation skills and strong abilities in problem-solving and independent thiniking

We will support you to be your best with benefits that include but are not limited to:

• Access to our ‘FlexBEST’ program – true flexibility from day 1
• Focus on employee wellbeing, including up to 5 gifted wellbeing days off (paid) per year

Join a group of dedicated people in a purpose-driven environment to achieve success and discover what it's like to look forward to coming to work every day and make a real difference.

Additional information about Children's Cancer Institute can be found on our website at: https://www.ccia.org.au/careers-study . We embrace diversity and encourage applications from people from diverse backgrounds and cultures.

To apply, please click the 'APPLY' link and forward both your resume AND cover letter (mandatory) clearly addressing your qualifications, research interests and particular area of expertise.