Bioinformatics Programmer

• Job Type: Officer of Administration
• Bargaining Unit:
• Regular/Temporary: Regular
• End Date if Temporary:
• Hours Per Week: 35
• Standard Work Schedule: M-F 9am-5pm
• Building:
• Salary Range: $80,000 - $95,000

The salary of the finalist selected for this role will be set based on a variety of factors, including but not limited to departmental budgets, qualifications, experience, education, licenses, specialty, and training. The above hiring range represents the University's good faith and reasonable estimate of the range of possible compensation at the time of posting.

Position Summary

We are looking for an enthusiastic and energetic individual to join our research effort investigating genetic and molecular variation in the context of human aging, with a focus on brain tissue. This position will work with Menon lab and other inter-disciplinary teams as part of consortium-wide projects to incorporate existing and new experimental data on the trajectory of human aging and neurological disease. The candidate will develop, execute, and maintain bioinformatics pipelines to process and analyze genetic, imaging, transcriptomic (bulk and single-nucleus RNA-seq), epigenetic, and proteomic data from mouse and human brains. In addition, the candidate will incorporate analysis results into a parse-able format for non-bioinformatics experts.

The ideal candidate should have a quantitative background (Computer Science, Statistics, Biostatistics, Computational Biology, Applied Mathematics, Computational Neuroscience, Genomics, or Bioinformatics), and extensive experience in standard workflows for analysis of large-scale molecular and imaging data, specifically to answer questions about aging associated changes in human and model system data. In-depth knowledge of at least one flavor of data (genetics, transcriptomics, epigenetics, or proteomics) is required, as well as prior experience with image analysis. Successful applicants will receive on-the-job training for other data modalities in the Menon lab. The candidate should have good knowledge of programming languages for implementing computational algorithms on large-scale data (R, Python, Perl), as well as experience working in Linux/Unix on high-performance computing/cluster platforms.

The successful candidate will be part of an integrated team of neurologists, data scientists, and cell biologists who come together to perform team-based projects. The position therefore offers a stimulating and multi-disciplinary environment and the opportunity to work with a variety of researchers at Columbia University and beyond. There will be many opportunities to contribute to multiple ongoing national and international collaborative projects.

Responsibilities

• Responsible for assembling, executing, and developing the latest bioinformatics pipelines for primary analysis of ‘omics data in the context of aging.
• Responsible for importing, developing, and implementing image analysis pipelines for tissue-level analysis of cell signatures
• Contribute to QA/QC of published and newly generated data sets.
• Develop analysis workflows to answer targeted questions about changes in molecular profiles in healthy aging or disease in human.
• Display initiative and independence in providing rapid results to various investigators generating experimental data.
• Communicate results to non-bioinformatics experts and develop novel analysis approaches in response to new questions or insight.
• Prepare summary reports of data and results for dissemination to colleagues and collaborators.
• Directly respond to inquiries regarding projects being managed. Produce subsets of data for distribution to collaborators as approved by the principal investigators.

Minimum Qualifications

• Requires bachelor’s degree or equivalent in education and experience, plus four years of related experience.

Preferred Qualifications

• Master’s Degree or PhD in bioinformatics, computational biology, applied mathematics, computational neuroscience, computer science, statistics, biostatistics, physics, or related area.

Other Requirements

• Demonstrated programming skills
• Demonstrated experience with building pipelines for at least one “omics” data modality (genetics, transcriptomics, epigenetics, proteomics).
• Strong organizational skills in managing and analyzing large datasets
• Programming experience in R, Python, Perl, or C/C++
• Ability to work independently, display initiative within a team environment, and respond rapidly to requests

Equal Opportunity Employer / Disability / Veteran

Columbia University is committed to the hiring of qualified local residents.