Part-Time Senior Computational Scientist in Frederick, MD

Description

Part-Time Senior Computational Scientist

Job ID: req1857
Employee Type: exempt part-time
Facility: Frederick: Ft Detrick
Location: PO Box B, Frederick, MD 21702 USA

The Frederick National Laboratory is a Federally Funded Research and Development Center (FFRDC) sponsored by the National Cancer Institute (NCI) and operated by Leidos Biomedical Research, Inc.  The lab addresses some of the most urgent and intractable problems in the biomedical sciences in cancer and AIDS, drug development and first-in-human clinical trials, applications of nanotechnology in medicine, and rapid response to emerging threats of infectious diseases.

Our core values of accountability, compassion, collaboration, dedication, integrity, and versatility serve as a guidepost for how we do our work every day in serving the public's interest.  

 Position Overview:

PROGRAM DESCRIPTION         

The Basic Science Program (BSP) pursues independent, multidisciplinary research in basic and applied molecular biology, immunology, retrovirology, cancer biology, and human genetics.  Research efforts are an integral part of the Center for Cancer Research (CCR) at the Frederick National Laboratory for Cancer Research (FNLCR).  The HLA Immunogenetics Section, BSP, under the leadership of Dr. Mary Carrington, is a component of the Laboratory of Integrative Cancer Immunology within the National Cancer Institute.    Her group studies the influence of variation at the human leukocyte antigens (HLA), killer cell immunoglobulin-like receptors (KIR), and other immunologically-relevant genotypes on risk of and outcomes to infection, cancer, autoimmune disease, and maternal-fetal disease. Recent studies have focused on identification of allele-specific characteristics that distinguish HLA alleles/allotypes, such as their differential expression level and dependence on the peptide loading complex for cell surface expression, and the molecular mechanism regulating these processes.  The impact of these differential properties is then tested in large, well-defined diseases, primarily cancer and infectious disease.  

KEY ROLES/RESPONSIBILITIES

The Computational Scientist will be expected to lead bioinformatics initiatives within the HLA Immunogenetics Section, including processing and analysis of large data sets for a variety of purposes, such as imputation or calling of highly polymorphic loci from genome-wide data, identification of mutation burden in cancer, analysis of RNAseq data in the context of immunogenetic variation, analysis of single cell sequence data, and prediction of HLA epitopes based on theoretical data.   Regular reporting of research projects conducted in the lab will be expected.  This individual will be expected to be familiar with querying biological databases (especially repositories of publicly available genomic data) and taking initiative in identifying newly released datasets that are pertinent to our goals. Experience in statistical modeling of genomics data is also desirable. Will develop computational tools for addressing a broad range of general bioinformatics questions and consult with colleagues and other scientists on problems of mutual interest.  Will critically evaluate research findings as a basis for further investigations and collaborate with experimentalists on the development of models and the use of these models to test hypothesis.

PART-TIME OPPORTUNITY!

BASIC QUALIFICATIONS

To be considered for this position you must minimally meet the knowledge, skills, and abilities listed below.  

• Possession of a PhD degree from an accredited college or university according to the Council for Higher Education Accreditation (CHEA) or eight (8) years of related experience.  Foreign degrees must be evaluated for U.S. equivalency
• In addition to the education requirement, a minimum of two (2) years of related experience
• Proficiency in developing test or production methods or protocols
• Must be familiar with computational tools available for molecular modeling including a detailed knowledge of the use of commercial tools for structural analysis as well as the capability to develop novel computational tools or specific tasks
• Broad familiarity with open-source software environments for processing/analyzing genomics data derived from next-generation sequencing (NGS) studies
• Familiarity with GATK or similar pipelines for variant calling from raw NGS data
• Extensive experience with statistical software, such as SAS, R or S-Plus
• Experience with statistical analysis of GWAS/WGS/WES variants (PLINK/MaCH/IMPUTE2 and similar)
• Familiarity with relational database management systems (e.g. mySQL, Microsoft SQL Server)
• Knowledge of at least one scripting language (Python or Perl preferred)
• Ability to contribute to the interpretation and publication of research results
  
• Ability to obtain and maintain a security clearance

PREFERRED QUALIFICATIONS

Candidates with these desired skills will be given preferential consideration:

• Experience with creating advanced graphics in R
• Experience with the analysis of Next Generation sequencing data
• Experience with database administration and maintenance
• Three (3) or more years of competent, innovative bioinformatics research experience
• Ability to communicate effectively and proactively, orally and in writing, with technical and non-technical individuals both internal and external; exercise independent judgment in developing methods, techniques and evaluation criteria to obtain desired results; must be detail-oriented and possess strong organizational skills with the ability to prioritize tasks

Equal Opportunity Employer (EOE) | Minority/Female/Disabled/Veteran (M/F/D/V) | Drug Free Workplace (DFW)

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