Data Engineer

The Role:

The Data Engineer will develop and maintain the infrastructure and tools required for Addgene’s data and bioinformatics environment. The ideal candidate will collaborate and effectively communicate within and across various teams on complex projects to investigate, plan and deliver data solutions.. 

To Succeed in this Role, You Will:

• Work collaboratively with team members using Kanban and Agile frameworks to respond to internal requests for datasets, analysis and visualization, and contribute to larger team projects.
• Curate, wrangle, and prepare data reports, summaries and/or visualizations for other Addgene teams
• Collaborate with team members to maintain and improve existing bioinformatics workflows written in Nextflow (a domain specific language implemented in Groovy) and develop new automation capabilities for Addgene’s bioinformatics needs
• Design, create, monitor, and improve data pipelines to enable an accurate, comprehensive, and reliable data analytics environment
• Generate large and/or complex datasets, reports, visualizations, and dashboards using Google Cloud products (BigQuery, LookerStudio) and Jupyter notebooks
• Build and strengthen our infrastructure to easily and efficiently complete tasks and projects
• Produce well-engineered software using best practices, including automated tests (Python unit testing), documentation (Confluence) and continuous integration and continuous deployment (Teamcity/Jenkins)
• Collaborate with stakeholders on other teams to clarify requirements, provide estimates, verify data output, acceptance test, and communicate limitations and/or caveats
• Work independently on assigned tasks, and effectively manage multiple responsibilities. Take initiative to make decisions that will impact team processes and output
• Review other team members’ code, and have your code reviewed
• Keep up to date with new technologies and best practices, and seek out opportunities to integrate them into our code base and processes

Skills and Competencies

Required:

• Master’s degree in Computer Science, Data Engineering, or related technical field with 1-2 years professional, full-time experience (or Bachelor’s degree with additional 3-4 years of experience)
• Minimum 1-2 years professional software or data engineering experience using Python
• At least 1 year experience with Python data science libraries, such as pandas and NumPy
• In-depth experience with relational databases and constructing complex queries (ex. SQL) to retrieve data
• Familiarity with data pipelines and ETL architectures
• Proficiency with common software engineering practices, including source control, testing, code reviews, and deployment
• Working knowledge of Linux/Unix operating systems and command-line tools
• Proactive problem-solving skills and ability to implement process improvements
• Strong communication skills and ability to translate and explain concepts and results to non-technical team members and stakeholders

Preferred: 

• Experience working with Django and writing queries to retrieve data
• Hands-on experience building and optimizing data pipelines and ETL architectures using cloud platform technologies (ex. Google Cloud, AWS)
• Familiarity with and developing ML or statistical models using Python libraries, such as PyTorch, Tensorflow, XGBoost

Benefits

At Addgene, we prioritize our people with comprehensive benefits that support both your work and your life.

Full-time employees receive:

• 100% company-paid benefit package that includes health & dental (extending to family members), life, short-term, and long-term disability insurance.
• Twenty days of PTO on top of our winter break closure and company holidays. ‌
• A 403(b) retirement account with a company match of 4% after 2 years of employment. ‌
• Annual professional development stipend
• Annual lifestyle stipend
• Fully paid public transportation for employees who work onsite four or more days per week. ‌
• Onsite yoga classes & wellness reimbursement
• Pet insurance
• Annual financial planning one-on-ones with our plan administrator

The Organization:

Addgene is a self-sustaining, thriving nonprofit life sciences organization that was created to help scientists share DNA-based research materials called plasmids. ‌Our mission is to accelerate research and discovery by improving access to useful research materials and information. Since its founding in 2004, Addgene has grown and innovated in order to assist the research community by archiving and sharing useful DNA-based research materials and resources (such as plasmids, viral vectors, and recombinant antibodies) with scientists worldwide. Broad availability of these unique research materials promotes the advancement of research in a wide variety of disciplines, including cancer, heart disease, and neurodegenerative disorders, while increasing collaboration within the scientific community. Learn more here from one of our founders, Melina Fan.

As an “Addgenie”, you will work collaboratively with internal teams to help fulfill this mission, including scientists, software engineers and product developers, renowned customer support teams, scientific content creators, and business development professionals. Together, Addgenies create and enhance opportunities for research scientists to deposit their materials, find products and resources easily on our website, and receive unparalleled support in receiving and expertly using our materials in their own experiments.

Life at Addgene:

Addgene is a truly special place to work. We are an inclusive and welcoming group of people from many backgrounds and perspectives. We believe in flexibility, actively supporting professional development, and a strong work/life balance. We value sharing ideas and feedback with each other and the company. 

We also believe it's important to make time for fun, whether it's eating popcorn at our outdoor movie night, sharing cute photos in the #pets slack channel, or sampling whiskeys at our end-of-year social hour. Bookworms, athletes, gamers, parents, foodies, and more will find community in Addgene's events and Slack channels.

Diversity, Equity, Inclusion & Belonging at Addgene

Addgene is committed to creating and fostering a diverse, supportive, and inclusive working environment. We work with a diverse and open global scientific community, and we know that the best innovations and discoveries come from diverse teams. Addgene strives for diversity, equity, and inclusion in all aspects of our work. We continuously learn from and celebrate a variety of perspectives and backgrounds as we grow, while working as a community to identify and unlearn all forms of bias. We seek to create an environment where all people can feel a sense of belonging.