Public Health Genomics Bioinformatician (AusTrakka)

University of Melbourne; Melbourne; On-site; AUD 111,000 - 120,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

17% superannuation

Salary packaging

Professional development opportunities

Health and wellbeing programs

Discounted services

Job summary

The University of Melbourne seeks a bioinformatics specialist to apply advanced skills to national pathogen genomics surveillance through AusTrakka. You will directly inform outbreak detection and public health responses by analyzing genomic data, refining pipelines, and supporting continuous improvement of Australia’s genomics capability.

Working with leading experts across jurisdictions, you will gain exposure to the full public health genomics ecosystem, building relationships with

Qualifications

• Hold a postgraduate qualification in Bioinformatics, Computational Biology or a closely related discipline.
• Use Python and/or R confidently and work effectively in a UNIX or Linux environment.
• Design, validate and troubleshoot bioinformatics pipelines using standard tools for assembly, gene detection and phylogenetics.
• Work with large next-generation sequencing datasets, including phylogenomics, ideally in a public health or clinical context.
• Manage competing priorities and high-throughput analyses while maintaining accuracy, documentation quality and required turnaround times.
• Bring experience or interest in workflow engines, containers, and advanced statistical or microbial genomics approaches.

Responsibilities

• Plan, execute and report routine and ad hoc AusTrakka genomic analyses that support surveillance and outbreak investigations.
• Collaborate with genomic epidemiologists and public health partners to interpret findings and communicate clear, actionable reports.
• Design, develop, validate and maintain bioinformatics pipelines and workflows for routine pathogen genomics service delivery.
• Maintain high standards for data management, documentation, turnaround times and audit-ready practice across analyses and pipelines.
• Represent AusTrakka and MDU PHL bioinformatics capabilities in internal and external forums, including meetings and conferences.

Skills

Python

R

UNIX/Linux

NGS data

Bioinformatics pipelines

Education

Postgraduate qualification in Bioinformatics or Computational Biology

Tools

AusTrakka

Workflow engines

Containers

Job description

The University of Melbourne seeks a bioinformatics specialist to apply advanced skills to national pathogen genomics surveillance through AusTrakka. You will directly inform outbreak detection and public health responses by analyzing genomic data, refining pipelines, and supporting continuous improvement of Australia’s genomics capability.

Working with leading experts across jurisdictions, you will gain exposure to the full public health genomics ecosystem, building relationships with