The Cruchaga lab at the NeuroGenomics and informatics (NGI) center at Washington University School of Medicine is looking for a Senior Bioinformatics Scientist with expertise in programming, database management, curation and phenotypic harmonization to join our team. The lab’s goal is dedicated to advancing the understanding of neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer disease, other dementias, and stroke, by generating, analyzing and leveraging multi-tissue multi-omic data from large and well-characterized cohorts. We are seeking applicants for this senior position to lead the management of longitudinal and cross-sectional phenotypic data.
Primary Duties and Responsibilities
- Lead various aspects of computer programing, database management and optimization. Should have expertise in data stewardship, transformation, quality control and consolidation. Familiar managing large phenotypic and clinical data sets to generate error-free reports available for researchers.
- Conceptualize, design, develop and optimize algorithms and computer programs to support databases, data management and associated applications.
- Curate and maintain phenotypic databases, updating and validating longitudinal and cross-sectional data.
- Harmonize phenotypic data; provide a centralized, confidential, and secure access to phenotypic data for the cores, projects, researchers and collaborators.
- Provide expertise for data management and analysis solutions to store and extract biological information from large data sets and associated applications.
- Processes, transform and apply qualify control steps for large data sets and associated platforms.
- Serve as the lead person for data input, data extraction and for the generation of tables and reports.
- Main point of contact to assists Principal Investigator in data request management.
- Solves practical problems relating to data harmonization and curation of large datasets.
- Provides technical support and assistance with data collection and report generation.
- Trains other researchers and staff on everyday use of databases.
- Evaluates commercial and academic bioinformatics software.
- Assists with grant preparation, clarification of methods, data generation and results description.
- Responds to data queries and assist junior staff on phenotypic data.
Preferred Qualifications
- Master or PhD degree in bioinformatics, epidemiology, computer sciences, statistics, genetics or related. Master with at least 10 years or PhD with at least five years of experience in data management, statistical analysis and data quality control for a genomics or biological cores. Expert knowledge in building and optimizing databases for clinical sciences or biological cores.
- Action-oriented, resourceful, and creative individual to lead a vertical program.
- Excellent understanding of genetics, clinical data, probabilistic models, statistics, machine learning, and discrete mathematics.
- Expertise in diverse bioinformatics tools for data storage and biological core management.
- Previous experience working for a genomics cores with biological and clinical data.
- Proficiency in scientific programming languages (e.g., Python, R, Perl, Java), in a UNIX/Linux and Windows environment.
- Experience working with structured data in SQL and NoSQL Databases.
- Solid programming experience required.
- Ability to work in a team environment to utilize technical skills to foster a collaborative environment in the phenotypic team.
- Ability to prioritize work effectively to meet evolving timelines.
- Must be flexible, with ability to respond to changing priorities rapid and effectively
- Expert coding level in FileMaker Pro required
- Experience in clinical and medical research data management and analysis beneficial
Interested candidates send a cover letter and CV to Dr. Carlos Cruchaga ( cgleason at wustl.edu )
