Bioinformatics Lead - Drug Discovery

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Job description

Senior drug discovery bioinformatician, innovative biotech in London. Strong data science \/ ML & NGS\/genomics

Your new company
Hays is exclusively partnered with an exciting pharmaceutical company working on novel approaches to treating diseases such as cancer and fibrosis. They are based in London and looking to grow their bioinformatics and data science team by adding technical experts to capitalise on the groundbreaking work their biology team is carrying out.
This company has a track record of innovation and is looking to significantly grow the team over the next couple of years, backed by an upcoming funding round, leading to a number of progression and development opportunities.

Your new role
You'll be a leading part of a team bringing innovative data science and bioinformatics approaches to large biological data sets to help draw insights and aid drug discovery research on cutting-edge projects.
You will be carrying out a mix of statistical analysis (eg on NGS \/ SNP data) and programming responsibilities to help drive drug discovery, develop new therapies and aid understanding of disease.

Responsibilities will include (but aren't limited to):

* Identifying and applying appropriate bioinformatics methods to enhance the company's proprietary pipeline for drug target identification, eg tool, pipeline, algorithm or method development\/implementation;
* Hands-on programming in languages such as R, Python, Perl, Java, etc;
* Act as a technical specialist on bioinformatics and cross-functional projects;
* Work with genome browsers, public data repositories, etc;
* Lead technical and strategic projects, with both internal stakeholders and external collaborators;
* Manage and analyse large scale genetic \/ transcriptomic \/ NGS datasets using a variety of statistical & computational approaches for drug target identification and\/or validation;
* Maintaining and improving the platform's functionality, eg to enhance R&D capabilities or visualisation functions using R, Shiny, Bash or similar;
* Horizon scanning to understand what cutting edge approaches, eg tools, methodologies, databases, etc are available and lead the development and implementation of these to increase in-house capabilities;
* Proactively troubleshoot issues and participate in brainstorming sessions.

There is also scope to utilise and develop Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence methods \/ models \/ approaches for target ID and validation.

What you'll need to succeed
As well as excellent communication skills, and great problem-solving ability, candidates must have:

* Strong scripting\/programming skills, ideally with Python or R, but other languages such as Perl or Bash are also acceptable, eg for tool, pipeline, algorithm or package development;
* Experience with statistical software, eg R or Matlab;
* A very strong background in working with human \/ clinical NGS data, eg RNA-Seq, WGS, Exome or similar;
* Data analysis and interpretation skills;
* At least an MSc (or equivalent experience) in bioinformatics, statistics, biology, computer science, statistical genetics or a similar discipline, with a PhD or similar significantly preferred;
* Very good communication skills, ideally gained from working with multi-disciplinary teams or researchers in multiple locations;
* A track record of working on drug discovery projects, with a preference for pharmaceutical \/ biotech industry experience

Experience of Machine Learning or Deep Learning approaches, eg Random Forest, SVM, regression, clustering, knowledge of Keras, scikit-learn or similar would be an advantage for this role.

What you'll get in return
The opportunity to make a significant contribution to a growing company whilst working on\/leading a number of drug discovery projects, a fantastic working environment, and a market-leading salary and benefits structure.

What you need to do now
If you're interested in this role, click 'apply now' to forward an up-to-date copy of your CV, or call me on .
If this job isn't quite right for you but you are looking for a new position, please contact us for a confidential discussion on your career, as there are multiple statistical, data science and bioinformatics positions available, for both permanent and contract based opportunities.

Keywords: bioinformatics, bioinformatician, data, science, statistics, statistical, biomarker, drug, discovery, genetics, genomics, NGS, PCR, sequence, Bayesian, machine, learning, programmer, programming, scientist, diagnostics, molecular, python, R, C, Bash, platform, project, manager, developer, tool, pipeline, computational, computer