Bioinformatics Technician I

University of British Columbia; Vancouver; On-site; CAD 30,000 - 60,000; Full time

Job summary

A leading educational institution in Vancouver is seeking a Bioinformatics Technician to support its data analysis pipelines and manage data systems. This role requires collaboration with various teams, the development of bioinformatics pipelines, and expertise in data handling. Candidates should possess a relevant technical program completion or a degree, along with a minimum of three years of related experience. Strong communication skills and attention to detail are essential.

Qualifications

• Completion of a relevant technical program or a university degree in a relevant discipline.
• Minimum three years of related experience or an equivalent combination of education and experience.

Responsibilities

• Process sequencing data including data quality assessment.
• Work closely with the laboratory team to assess and evaluate sequencing quality.
• Provide design and technical suggestions to maintain an end-to-end system for data.
• Assist with the development, documentation, and validation of new NGS analysis pipelines.
• Develop software tests by creating test data and inputs.
• Document and communicate analysis results in written and oral form.
• Contribute to team interactions by consultation and collaboration.
• Ongoing professional development in bioinformatics, data management, and analysis.

Job description

Job Summary

The Bioinformatics Technician will support the SBC’s data analysis pipelines and data management systems. You will contribute to the analysis of DNA and RNA sequencing data produced at the sequencing facility, develop and maintain bioinformatics pipelines, and apply innovative computational and statistical methods. Your work directly helps the UBC research community and external clients by providing fast, high quality sequencing data to facilitate discoveries in various research fields.

Who we are

UBC established the Sequencing and Bioinformatics Consortium (SBC) to make sequencing affordable and accessible to the largest number of researchers on campus. Data analysis, data management and systems administration are critical components of all SBC activity. The environment is one of rapid change and new technologies and methods, each requiring customized and novel data solutions.

Organizational Status

You will report to the Bioinformatics Specialist, and work in collaboration with the SBC lab team, the Advanced Research Computing (ARC) team, UBC IT, and SBC’s clients (including researchers, staff, students, and industry partners).

Work Performed

• Process sequencing data including data quality assessment, generation of reports using established pipelines, and assist with analysis and data interpretation.
• Work closely with the laboratory team to assess and evaluate sequencing quality, optimize performance, and validate results.
• Provide design and technical suggestions to the Bioinformatics Specialist to maintain an end-to-end system that efficiently stores, analyses and disseminates high-quality data and results.
• Assist with the development, documentation, and validation of new NGS analysis pipelines and reporting templates.
• Develop software tests by creating test data and inputs and testing code.
• Document and communicate analysis results in written and oral form.
• Contribute to team interactions by consultation, collaboration, teamwork and task sharing.
• Ongoing professional development in bioinformatics, data management, and analysis.
• Performs tasks as needed not described above in consultation with the Bioinformatics Specialist.

Consequence of Error/Judgement

Errors made could influence the ability of researchers and staff to meet critical deadlines, as well as compromise the results of research projects, and therefore impact the credibility of the facility's clientele. Consequently, documenting and reporting errors to the Bioinformatics Specialist as soon as they are uncovered is essential. Processing errors may lead to the loss of data and/or the generation of erroneous data. This will necessitate the repetition of the work, causing delay to the client, adversely affecting the integrity of the facility.

Supervision Received

The Bioinformatics Technician works under the direction of the Bioinformatics Specialist.

Supervision Given

May distribute work assignments to junior staff and train new employees on routines, procedures, and operation of equipment.

Minimum Qualifications

Completion of a relevant technical program or a university degree in a relevant discipline and a minimum three years of related experience or an equivalent combination of education and experience.

• Willingness to respect diverse perspectives, including perspectives in conflict with one’s own
• Demonstrates a commitment to enhancing one’s own awareness, knowledge, and skills related to equity, diversity, and inclusion

Preferred Qualifications

• Undergraduate degree in a relevant subject area: bioinformatics, data science, biostatistics, microbiology, genetics, or genomics; an equivalent combination of training and experience will be considered.
• Experience in working with the Unix/Linux environment.
• Proficient with Python, R, or other coding languages.
• Experience handling NGS data including quality control/quality assurance.
• Knowledge of statistical techniques and analysis of large data sets.
• Demonstrated attention to detail, as required for execution of analysis.
• As this position also involves extensive personal interaction as well as via phone and email, written and verbal English communication skills are essential.
• Ability to plan and carry out multiple tasks and projects, to prioritize and organize effectively, to work under stress and to meet established timelines.
• The following qualifications would be an asset
  • Experience with standard NGS analysis tools, such as QC (e.g., FastQC), alignment (e.g., BWA or Bowtie), and variant detection (e.g., GATK, samtools).
  • 1+ years experience working in a clinical or research setting related to genomics is preferred
  • Familiarity with GitHub and high performance computing HPC clusters.