Senior Bioinformatics Research Scientist

Join an excellent team of researchers dedicated to coming closer to the mission of St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, that no child will die at the dawn of life. The Compuational and Structural Biology Center(CSBC) in the Center of Excellence for Data-Driven Discovery (C3D) of the Department of
Structural Biology seeks a skilled and highly motivated Senior Bioinformatics Research Scientist. The CSBC is the collaborative interface of the C3D, working with St Jude researchers campus-wide to disseminate and implement the computational technological developments of the C3D.

As a Senior Bioinformatics Research Scientist in the CSBC, you will play a pivotal role in the ligand discovery team, led by Dr. Christoph Gorgulla. You will be the first team member in the CBSC focused on ligand discovery, joining a team of dedicated computational researchers with diverse expertise ranging
from structural bioinformatics to machine learning and AI. Your primary mission will be to work with other groups and researchers across St. Jude to implement our technologies to identify novel hit/lead compounds for the treatment of various diseases. You will work with them to optimize any results, working to obtain new tool compounds and drug candidates. Leveraging state-of-the-art computational methods, including structure-based ultra-large virtual screenings, (quantum and classical) free energy simulations, and machine-learning techniques, you will contribute to groundbreaking research in the field. The primary ligand discovery platform that we will be using is the VirtualFlow ultra-large virtual screening platform.

Collaboration is at the heart of this role, and you will closely collaborate with other computational and wet lab colleagues who validate and experimentally verify the predicted hit and lead compounds. By working together in a collaborative and intellectually stimulating environment, you will have the opportunity to contribute to a large number of ligand/drug discovery projects and make a lasting impact on the lives of children fighting cancer and other life-threatening diseases.

The successful candidate will have the opportunity to lead collaborative projects, mentor junior scientists and students, and contribute to high-impact publications.

Job Responsibilities:

• Provide research support and deliver high-quality results by formulating an efficient analytical approach with the available data.
• Deliver data files, and document the analytical process. May participate in manuscript preparation at project's conclusion.
• Assist with establishing and documenting protocols or best practices for common research tasks, and in the formulation of analytical plans that use the best approach to address challenging data analysis questions.
• Assist in the evaluation and testing of new methods and technologies.
• Contribute ideas to automate or improve existing analysis methods. Implement the improvement or work with others to do so.
• Participate in the department's developmental projects and interdepartmental team projects.
• Perform other duties as assigned to meet the goals and objectives of the department and institution.
• Maintains regular and predictable attendance.

Minimum Education and/or Training:

• Bachelor's degree in bioinformatics, cheminformatics, statistics/computer science (with a background in biological sciences or chemistry) or related field.
• Master's degree or PhD preferred.

Minimum Experience:

• Minimum Requirement: Bachelor's degree with 7+ years of relevant post-degree work in bioinformatics, cheminformatics, statistics/computer science (with a background in biological sciences or chemistry).
• Experience Exception: Master's degree with 5+ years of relevant post-degree experience (OR) PhD with 2+ years of relevant post-degree experience.
• Significant experience in at least one programming or scripting language and at least one statistical package, with R preferred.

Special Skills, Knowledge and Abilities:

• Optimizes data storage and minimizes intermediate data by reproducible computing.
• Automates multiple cloud computing tasks.
• Develops light-weight software applications with scripting languages (e.g., Perl, Python, Ruby) or programming languages (e.g. C++, JAVA).
• Performs data modeling and database design to minimize redundancy and enforce relationships between different entities in relational databases.
• Leads development, implementation, and maintenance of biomedical databases.
• Coordinates data collection, database implementation, and usage.
• Oversees QC on the data to be loaded into the database.
• Works with IS to set up and install recommended software related to database collection.
• Creates novel visualization to help data interpretation.
• Leads evaluation and testing of new methods and technologies. Contributes ideas to automate or improve existing analysis methods.
• Establishes protocols or best practices for common research tasks and SOPs.
• Leads evaluation of products and solutions, makes recommendations, and integrates solutions.
• Lead computationally focused scientific research projects with minimal to moderate supervision. 
• Computational discovery of hit and lead compounds targeting proteins.
• Using structure-based virtual screens (of ultra-large scale) using VirtualFlow, free energy simulations (quantum and classical), MD simulations, high-performance computing, cloud computing, and machine learning-based methods.
• Predict molecular properties of small molecules (using existing methods/software).
• Identify, process, organize, summarize, review, and report relevant data. Manage molecular databases containing discovered hit and lead compounds.
• Interact and collaborate with wet lab scientists on drug discovery projects.
• Interact and collaborate with other computational colleagues. 
• Contribute to manuscript preparation. 
• Actively participate in independent research projects and collaborate with interdepartmental teams, fostering interdisciplinary approaches to solving complex scientific challenges.
• Present research findings to internal and external audiences, contributing to the hospital's mission of advancing pediatric research.

Compensation

In recognition of certain U.S. state and municipal pay transparency laws, St. Jude is including a reasonable estimate of the compensation range for this role. This is an estimate offered in good faith and a specific salary offer takes into account factors that are considered in making compensation decisions including but not limited to skill sets, experience and training, licensure and certifications, and other business and organizational needs. It is not typical for an individual to be hired at or near the top of the salary range and compensation decisions are dependent on the facts and circumstances of each case. A reasonable estimate of the current salary range is $104,000 - $186,160 per year for the role of Senior Bioinformatics Research Scientist.

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