Bioinformatics Research Officer (OceanOmics Centre)

Job no:512865
Work type:full time
Location:Crawley
Categories:Research support, Technical/Laboratory support

OceanOmics Centre

• Building a world-leading marine vertebrate reference genome library to support ocean conservation
• 2 x full-time appointments on a 3 year fixed term basis
• Base salary range: Level 5 $73,982 – $81,999 OR Level 6 $84,665 - $89,477 p.a. plus 17% superannuation

The University of Western Australia (UWA) is ranked among the top 100 universities in the world and a member of the prestigious Australian Group of Eight research intensive universities. With a strong research track record, vibrant campus and working environments, supported by the freedom to innovate and inspire, there is no better time to join Western Australia’s top university.

About the team

The Minderoo OceanOmics Centre at UWA combines a joint Ocean Genomes Laboratory, an OceanOmics Laboratory, and Computational Biology resources.

Equipped with the latest high-throughput sequencing technology and in collaboration with national and global partners, the Ocean Genomes Laboratory will generate a comprehensive library of high quality marine vertebrate reference genome assemblies. All such reference genome data will be subject to rigorous QA/QC and all assemblies will be released publicly with open access.

The Ocean Genomes Laboratory will undertake research and development under the direction of Minderoo’s ambitious OceanOmics Program which has the goal of revolutionising ocean conservation through novel marine sampling and genomics approaches and scaling these to significantly advance our knowledge of marine life. The Ocean Gemomes Laboratory will include state of the art infrastructure including sample and eDNA preparation areas, flow cytometry, single cell sequencing equipment and the latest bioinformatics and computational biology tools.

About the opportunity

As the appointee you will, under general direction, support the development and implementation of bioinformatics tools and workflows for large-scale DNA sequencing and genome assembly of marine vertebrates, helping the centre assemble hundreds of platinum-level genomes with high-quality annotations. You will play a critical role in the quality control, security and sharing of genomic data. Appointments may be made at Level 5 or Level 6, commensurate with experience.

About you 

You will have hands-on experience in genome assembly and/or developing large bioinformatics workflows, with drive to understand and protect marine biodiversity. The ideal candidate will have excellent attention to detail and a commitment to quality, reproducibility and clear documentation. You will have excellent organisations skills, able to juggle multiple projects, and work well in a diverse team with different backgrounds.

To be considered for this role, you will demonstrate :

• A degree in a relevant discipline, such as computer science, bioinformatics, molecular biology or computational biology; or an equivalent combination of relevant experience and education/training
• Demonstrated experience with bioinformatics tools and sequencing data
• Familiarity with UNIX command-line systems
• Critical thinking skills, ability to interpret results and troubleshoot
• Familiarity with uploading data to online repositories, such as SRA and NCBI Genbank is desirable
• Demonstrated ability to use/apply bioinformatic tools and pipelines to analyse genomic, metagenomic and amplicon sequencing data is desirable
• Proficiency in programming languages relevant to bioinformatics, such as bash, python and R is desirable
• Experience with data and workflow management systems and version control for reproducible and scalable data analyses (e.g. Git, Snakemake, Nextflow)Is desirable
• Experience with collecting and organising metadata using controlled vocabularies and relational databases is desirable
• Experience with Laboratory Information Management Systems (LIMS) and workflows Is desirable

About your application

Full details of the position's responsibilities and the selection criteria are outlined in the position description:  Bioinformatics Research Officer L5 or L6 - PD.docx

You are required to address the selection criteria in your submission in a separate document. For information to assist you with compiling statements to answer the selection criteria, please visit Addressing the selection criteria .

Closing date: 11:55 PM AWST on Thursday 10th November 2022

To learn more about this opportunity, please contact Richard Edwards on (08) 6488 3142 or at [email protected]

This position is only open to applicants with relevant rights to work in Australia.

Application Details : Please apply online via the Apply Now button.

Our commitment to inclusion and diversity

UWA is committed to a diverse workforce and an equitable and inclusive workplace.  We celebrate difference and believe diversity is fundamental to achieving our goals as a globally recognised Top 100 educational and research institution.  We are committed to creating a safe work environment for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, women, people from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds, the LGBTIQA+ community and people living with disability.

• We have a globally competitive, gender neutral parental leave policy with 26 weeks paid leave after 12 months service and 36 weeks after 5 years.
• We have on-campus childcare facilities for child 6 weeks to kindy.
• We facilitate flexible working, with part-time and job-sharing arrangements considered.
• We have an ongoing partnership with Pride in Diversity and were recently awarded a Bronze Employer status for LGBTIQA+ inclusion.
• We have Athena SWAN Bronze accreditation and actively work to improve gender equity. 

Should you have any queries relating to your application, please contact the individual named in the advertisement. Alternatively, contact the Talent team at [email protected] with details of your query. To enable a quick response, please include the 6-digit job reference number and a member of the team will respond to your enquiry.

Advertised:21 Oct 2022 W. Australia Standard Time
Applications close:10 Nov 2022 11:55 PM W. Australia Standard Time