As a UW employee, you have a unique opportunity to change lives on our campuses, in our state and around the world. UW employees offer their boundless energy, creative problem-solving skills and dedication to build stronger minds and a healthier world.

UW faculty and staff also enjoy outstanding benefits, professional growth opportunities and unique resources in an environment noted for diversity, intellectual excitement, artistic pursuits and natural beauty.

The Department of Genome Science has an outstanding opportunity for up to two Bioinformatics Specialists / Software Engineers to join their team.

Our lab is located in the Department of Genome Sciences at the University of Washington. The University of Washington is proud to be one of the nation’s premier educational and research institutions. Our people are our most important asset in our pursuit of excellence in education, research, and community service. Thus, our staff enjoys outstanding benefits and professional growth opportunities as well as an environment noted for diversity, community involvement, intellectual excitement, artistic pursuits and natural beauty. 

The Department of Genome Sciences, part of the University of Washington School of Medicine, focuses on answering critical scientific questions by developing and applying genetic, genomic and computational approaches. In particular, we are making major contributions in the application of genomics to understand the fundamentals of biology and to improve human health and wellbeing. Genome Sciences boasts a collaborative, integrated environment supported by a diversity of academic disciplines. We also work with a multitude of others both on the UW campus as well as worldwide. The department has been highly successful, expanding since its beginning in 2001 to 63 training, teaching, and research faculty with annual grant awards of $56.5M in FY22.

The Department of Genome Sciences is committed to creating an environment that is welcoming and inclusive. Our goal is to foster a place of learning and working where all members can thrive and where diversity is recognized and celebrated. At Genome Sciences, we aim to create supportive spaces for those who are marginalized in higher education or society. To achieve this, we recognize that it is our ongoing responsibility to understand, acknowledge, and challenge systems of privilege and disadvantage in higher education such as those based on race, color, creed, caste, religion, national origin, citizenship, sex, age, marital status, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, disability, veteran status, or socioeconomic status.

POSITION PURPOSE
The Bioinformatics Specialist will collaborate with the Investigator, postdoctoral fellows, and students to develop, implement, and execute computational methods and tools to assess the organization of recent segmental duplications and structural variation using next-generation Illumina and long-read technologies. The successful candidate will focus on the discovery of genetic variation relevant to neurocognitive disease, including autism, and will work as part of sequencing consortia to develop methods to sequence and assemble higher-quality genomes.

Position Complexities:
This lab is involved in several different projects simultaneously, which requires skills in integrating data and systems. Familiarity with existing bioinformatics-specific software tools, especially data mining of whole-genome shotgun sequence data analysis, is required. Experience in genomics research is necessary for performance of this job. The ideal candidate will independently perform scientific investigative procedures applying professional judgment, interpreting experimental results, guiding lab members through bioinformatics methods and analyses, and preparing research reports for presentation or publication.

Position Dimensions and Impact to the University of Washington:
This position will work in a prominent laboratory whose work impacts other researchers worldwide. High functioning will be reflected in even greater funding opportunities and enhancement of the reputation of the University as a biomedical research powerhouse.

DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES