Bioinformatics Analyst I/II

Overview

Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center is an independent, nonprofit organization providing adult cancer treatment and groundbreaking research focused on cancer and infectious diseases. Based in Seattle, Fred Hutch is the only National Cancer Institute-designated cancer center in Washington.

With a track record of global leadership in bone marrow transplantation, HIV/AIDS prevention, immunotherapy and COVID-19 vaccines, Fred Hutch has earned a reputation as one of the world’s leading cancer, infectious disease and biomedical research centers. Fred Hutch operates eight clinical care sites that provide medical oncology, infusion, radiation, proton therapy and related services, and network affiliations with hospitals in five states. Together, our fully integrated research and clinical care teams seek to discover new cures to the world’s deadliest diseases and make life beyond cancer a reality.

At Fred Hutch we value collaboration, compassion, determination, excellence, innovation, integrity and respect. These values are grounded in and expressed through the principles of diversity, equity and inclusion. Our mission is directly tied to the humanity, dignity and inherent value of each employee, patient, community member and supporter. Our commitment to learning across our differences and similarities make us stronger. We seek employees who bring different and innovative ways of seeing the world and solving problems. Fred Hutch is in pursuit of becoming an anti-racist organization. We are committed to ensuring that all candidates hired share our commitment to diversity, anti-racism and inclusion.

The Chief Data Officer of the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center, Jeff Leek, established the Fred Hutch Data Science Lab (DaSL) to develop and support the overall data strategy for the organization. The mission of the Data Science Lab to ensure an effective data ecosystem at Fred Hutch by developing a modern, well documented, well implemented, overall data strategy that evolves with the needs and capabilities of those leveraging data at Fred Hutch regardless of “where they live” from the clinic to the research groups. We believe focusing on people is critical in building a strong, dynamic community united around using data to improve human health and cancer care. To do this, we aim to build a diverse, hybrid team that is inclusive, open, collaborative, and supportive both within our team and with our collaborators (find more about our values and culture ). We are strong advocates for open science and reproducible research, thus develop our work in the open as much as possible. We rely heavily on written communication and continuous collaboration in order to support our hybrid team, as well as make our work as accessible as scalably and sustainably as possible by Fred Hutch staff.  

Responsibilities

The Bioinformatics Analyst will work under the supervision of a senior scientist on translational genomics research projects as well as contributing to the Fred Hutch community at large through documentation and cross-divisional projects supporting bioinformatics. This position will involve participating in multiple collaborations on translational research projects involving a range of genomic data types. The candidate will contribute their bioinformatics and coding expertise via supporting data management, analysis coordination and presentation of results to collaborators for interpretation.  Additionally, the candidate will have direct involvement in ongoing studies of intratumoral heterogeneity in cancer generally and in leukemia specifically that involve technique development rather than application of existing approaches.

Level of Autonomy:

• • Level I: supervision via weekly check ins with scientists and clinicians involved in the various projects the analyst will be involved in as well as regular check ins with the mentor scientist. Will need to manage communications with both technical and non-technical staff members independently.
  • Level II: support from mentor scientist to provide strategic direction and guidance but collaborative work and communication with scientist and clinicians will be primarily managed by the analyst.
• Process large sequencing datasets derived from high-throughput short-read sequencing including: exome sequencing, targeted DNA sequencing panels, bulk RNA sequencing, single cell RNA sequencing (10x Genomics), and novel, emerging single cell analysis approaches using curated and documented bioinformatics workflows.
• Work with collaborators and their staff to create automated data processing, filtering and organization of genomic data sets and assist in managing the associated genomic data sets to support reporting processes.
• Develop and document reproducible approaches to data curation, bioinformatic processing, quality assessment and communication of results to collaborators.
• Create useful portals/interactive data visualizations for viewing project status as well as results for collaborators.
• Assist in development and application of novel metrics of intratumoral heterogeneity and integration of data from multiple scales (bulk data and single cell data).

Qualifications

MINIMUM QUALIFICATIONS:

For Level I :

• BS degree in Biology, Statistics, Computer Science or equivalent education with 1-2 years of experience with bioinformatics in relevant scientific domain.
• Proficiency in, at least, one modern scripting or programming language (Python, R, Node, or C )

For Level II :

• Master’s degree in bioinformatics, computational biology, genetics, or related field with at least three years' direct experience in computational analysis of large sequence-based molecular data sets.

All Levels:

• Direct experience must include best-practice germline & somatic variant calling from exome capture data, analysis of bulk RNA-seq data with multiple contrasts, analysis of multimodal single-cell profiling data, epigenetic profiling, gene set enrichment, and integration of data across multiple modalities (e.g., epigenetic profiling and RNA-seq).
• Effective use of shell scripting and significant fluency in R and/or Python 3 are essential.
• Facility with commonly used Bioconductor packages, ggplot, tidyverse etc. Ability to generate and customize common data visualizations (PCA plots, volcano plots, Circos plots, etc).
• Familiarity with workflow and high performance computing resources(e.g. Slurm).
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills are absolutely required.

PREFERRED QUALIFICATIONS:

• An interest in discussing, designing, documenting and implementing reproducible bioinformatic workflows and “laying down track” rather than reinventing the wheel.
• Ability not only to work independently, but also to work collaboratively within multidisciplinary teams including statisticians, clinicians, laboratory-based staff and IT professionals.
• Experience with messy, “real life” data sets.
• Experience with working in a cloud environment (e.g., Amazon’s EC2/S3).

A statement describing your commitment and contributions toward greater diversity, equity, inclusion, and antiracism in your career or that will be made through your work at Fred Hutch is requested of all finalists.

Bioinformatics Analyst I: The annual base salary range for this position is from $67,716.00 to $99,236.00, and pay offered will be based on experience and qualifications.  

Bioinformatics Analyst II: The annual base salary range for this position is from $76,606.40 to $114,878.00, and pay offered will be based on experience and qualifications. 

This position may be eligible for relocation assistance .  

This position may be eligible for a sign-on bonus.  

Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center offers employees a comprehensive benefits package designed to enhance health, well-being, and financial security. Benefits include medical/vision, dental, flexible spending accounts, life, disability, retirement, family life support, employee assistance program, onsite health clinic, tuition reimbursement, paid vacation (12-22 days per year), paid sick leave (12-25 days per year), paid holidays (13 days per year), paid parental leave (up to 4 weeks), and partially paid sabbatical leave (up to 6 months). 

Salary : $76,606 - $114,878