Research Assistant (Bioinformatics Support)

The Singapore Centre for Environmental Life Sciences Engineering (SCELSE) invites applications for the position of Research Assistant. 

The Singapore Centre for Environmental Life Sciences Engineering (SCELSE) is a unique interdisciplinary Research Centre of Excellence (RCE), funded by National Research Foundation, Ministry of Education, Nanyang Technological University (NTU) and National University of Singapore (NUS). Hosted by NTU in partnership with NUS, SCELSE is linking new insights from the life sciences with expertise from emerging technologies in engineering and natural sciences to understand, harness and control microbial biofilm communities and microbiomes.

SCELSE hosts a genome sequencing facility with multiple state-of-the-art instruments generating petabytes of data every year and is supported by a high-performance computing (HPC) system and multi-petabytes high-performance data storage system. The facility includes Illumina instruments (MiSeq, HiSeq, HiSeqX), Oxford Nanopore instruments (MinION, PromethION), and a PacBio instrument (PacBio RSII).

SCELSE seeks a bioinformatics support scientist who will be responsible for the day-to-day operation of the genome sequencing laboratory’s IT infrastructure. A solid understanding of genomics sequencing concepts and technologies, familiarity with common bioinformatics analysis tools and data analysis approaches are required for this position.

Key Responsibilities: 

• Day-to-day operation of the genome sequencing laboratory’s IT infrastructure.
• Providing technical support, which includes managing instrument’s raw data and subsequent post-processing, configuring and maintaining sequencing instruments, supporting the wet-lab team, and troubleshooting technical issues.
• Providing analytical support, which includes benchmarking new methods/protocols or bioinformatics tools, providing technical assessment on new advancements in genomics, and providing data analysis recommendations to other bioinformatics team members.

Job Requirements:

• Bachelor’s degree with at least 3 years of experience in a bioinformatics role with relevant technical, user support, or project experience.
• Demonstrated hands-on experience in the management and handling of next-gen sequencing instrument data (Illumina, Oxford Nanopore, and/or PacBio) and subsequent data processing.
• Strong understanding of genomics and bioinformatic concepts needed to support the analysis of next-gen sequencing data.
• Demonstrated hands-on experience in bioinformatics data analysis, e.g., sequence alignment, genome assembly, metagenomics analysis.
• Strong understanding of basic IT infrastructure knowledge, e.g., operating system, networking, data storage.
• Competence in R, Perl, Python or other scripting language appropriate for bioinformatic analyses.
• Experience in using high-performance computing is a plus.
• Experience in wet-lab molecular biology techniques is a plus.
• Strong project management skills.
• Strong analytical skills and meticulous attitude.
• Able to work independently or in a team with minimal supervision.
• Good communication, writing and presentation skills.

We regret that only shortlisted candidates will be notified.

Hiring Institution: NTU