Bioinformatics Scientist (52471)

Position Objective: The Bioinformatics Scientist will provide support services to satisfy the overall operational objectives of the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) within the National Institutes of Health. The primary objective is to provide services and deliverables through performance of support services.

Duties and Responsibilities:

• Generate and optimize programs and scripts for the analysis of data; create programs and algorithms and develop computational infrastructure resources for organizing and parsing data from large and complex data.
• Provide broad-based programming and analytic support for a wide variety of bioinformatic and research projects.
• Install, troubleshoot and run open-source and commercial scientific software on platforms
• Performs computations on research data analysis.
• Perform computational analysis of, and interpret results.
• Provide reports based on analysis of scientific data.
• Provide interpretive analyses of data derived from different experimental platforms to generate biological meaning.
• Write custom programs and algorithms to support data analyses and discovery.
• Collaborate with scientists to design, analyze, manage and interpret all types of data.
• Design and execute computational experiments.
• Work with staff on planning of experiments, and data analysis for internal and collaborative projects; use bioinformatics expertise to advise and help bench scientists on experimental design and trouble-shooting.
• Make recommendations to investigators about the correct computational tools for testing scientific hypotheses and reaching valid
• conclusions.
• Records observations and report results at weekly laboratory meetings.
• Maintain proper and detailed documentation of the analysis performed and report results at lab meetings.
• Attend scientific and programming meetings; take and compile comprehensive notes; organize and edit content of meeting reports.
• Prepare scientific reports and progress reports; assemble data to prepare tables, graphs and slides; conduct scientific and program related information searches and report results.
• Devise novel methods of statistical analysis for collected data.
• Perform data processing and data analysis with existing computational and statistical methods.
• Assist in evaluating and interpreting results for validity and scientific meaning.
• Provides research / service goals in the context of the laboratory's overall mission.
• Create novel programs and algorithms that facilitate discovery of knowledge in investigating large and complex data. 1
• Participate in the design of new protocols involving computational methods.
• Work with staff on the development and maintenance of bioinformatics tools, scripts and pipe-lines for data.
• Participate in research design with investigators for determining best practices pertaining to the bioinformatics analysis in new and ongoing projects.
• Research and review literature to retrieve targeted clinical or scientific information, including novel statistical methods, from publicly available resources. 5
• Collaborate with staff to review current and historical procedures for the acquisition, quality control and management of data.
• Analyze and evaluate data cleaning and harmonization needs in the using a variety of descriptive statistics and analytic methods.
• Identify new tools and resources for reaching biologically meaningful conclusions.
• Collaborate with experimentalists and computational biologists to develop new computational tools to answer research questions of Interest and programmatic software applications.
• Provide training in and technical support (including product updates and version control) for programs, algorithms, archives, and pipelines generated during the course of this work.
• Instruct staff in computational analysis of data.
• Provide ad hoc trainings and hands-on workshops on the use of bioinformatics tools.
• Provide training of students, new investigators, and other laboratory personnel in the use of techniques, procedures and equipment to complete the objectives of the laboratory.
• Work with an interdisciplinary team to apply computational data analysis approaches to make biological discoveries. 2
• Collaborate with group members in experiments associated with data collection.
• Interact with all levels of staff and communicate with outside collaborators in the US and abroad.
• Collaborate with biologists, statisticians and/or other bioinformaticians in the design of models summarizing/explaining experimental data.
• Attend group meetings; present findings; author publications resulting from projects. 3
• Present analysis results at research conferences and meetings. 4
• Present new research data in group settings, at meetings or seminars.
• Present scientific and technical data at scientific conferences.
• Meet with lab members to present updates.
• Products and documentation related to performing analyses for ongoing research projects.
• Products and documents related to reviewing and summarizing relevant literature.
• Provide content for written reports and research papers on research findings.

Basic Qualifications:

• Master’s degree in Neuroscience or similar.
• Skilled in Reinforcement Learning, Cognitive Modeling, Bayesian Statistics, Machine Learning, and Generalized Linear Regression.
• Experienced in Python, R, and MATLAB.

Preferred Qualifications:

• Ability to communicate effectively, orally and in writing, with non-technical and technical staff
• Detail-oriented and possess strong organizational skills with the ability to prioritize multiple tasks and projects

*This job description is not designed to cover or contain a comprehensive listing of activities, duties or responsibilities that are required by this position.  

To perform this job successfully, an individual must be able to perform each essential duty satisfactorily. The requirements listed above are representative of the knowledge, skill, and/or ability required. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions.

GAP Solutions provides reasonable accommodations to qualified individuals with disabilities. If you need an accommodation to apply for a job, email us at [email protected]. You will need to reference the requisition number of the position in which you are interested. Your message will be routed to the appropriate recruiter who will assist you. Please note, this email address is only to be used for those individuals who need an accommodation to apply for a job. Emails for any other reason or those that do not include a requisition number will not be returned.

Qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, national origin, disability, protected veteran status or other characteristics protected by law.

This position is contingent upon contract award.