Associate Scientist, Post Doc Fellow- Computational Immunology
Merck
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Benefits offered by this job
Job summary
Merck is seeking a Postdoctoral Research Fellow to lead analyses of large-scale single-cell RNA-seq and spatial transcriptomics data in immune-mediated inflammatory diseases. You will build cellular atlases, map spatial niches, and identify biomarkers to inform therapeutic strategies.
The role emphasizes multidisciplinary collaboration, development of novel computational methods, and publication-quality work within a vibrant translational research environment at Merck.
Qualifications
- PhD in relevant field required.
- Experience with single-cell and spatial omics datasets.
- Proficiency in R or Python.
- Experience with GPU computing, HPC, and AWS for large-scale analyses.
- Ability to develop scalable computational pipelines for scRNA-seq and spatial omics.
- Strong publication record in computational biology or related fields.
Responsibilities
- Analyze large-scale single-cell RNA-seq and spatial transcriptomics datasets.
- Develop and implement methods for data integration and annotation.
- Apply ML and network biology approaches to derive biological insights.
- Integrate multi-omics and clinical data to generate actionable hypotheses.
- Collaborate with immunologists, translational scientists, and computational researchers.
- Lead publication-quality analyses and manuscripts.
Skills
Education
Tools
Job description
We are seeking a highly motivated Postdoctoral Research Fellow to join a cross-functional translational research team focused on understanding the cellular and tissue mechanisms underlying chronic immune-mediated inflammatory diseases. The successful candidate will leverage large-scale single-cell and spatial transcriptomics datasets from human tissue cohorts to identify disease-driving cellular programs, tissue microenvironments, and translational biomarkers.
- Receive mentorship from experts across computational biology, immunology, translational medicine, and drug discovery.
- Publish first-author manuscripts in leading scientific journals.
- Present at major international scientific conferences.
- Develop expertise in cutting-edge single-cell, spatial, and multi-omics technologies.
- Build a strong interdisciplinary network across academia and industry.
- Gain experience translating complex biological datasets into actionable therapeutic insights.
The successful candidate will contribute to the development of comprehensive cellular and spatial atlases of chronic immune-mediated inflammatory diseases, generating insights into disease circuits, tissue microenvironments, biomarker biology, and translational mechanisms. The work is expected to result in multiple high-impact publications and presentations while providing foundational knowledge to support therapeutic discovery and development.
This research will help advance our understanding of how cellular programs and tissue organization contribute to disease pathogenesis and therapeutic response, enabling more precise approaches to target discovery, biomarker identification, and patient stratification.
- Develop comprehensive single-cell transcriptomic references from diseased and comparator tissues.
- Identify disease-associated immune, epithelial, stromal, and vascular cell states.
- Harmonize and annotate cellular populations across cohorts and studies.
- Characterize molecular pathways and regulatory programs that drive disease heterogeneity.
- Define shared and disease-specific cellular mechanisms across inflammatory conditions.
- Analyze spatial transcriptomics datasets to localize disease-associated cell states within tissue architecture.
- Characterize cellular neighborhoods and multicellular interaction networks in situ.
- Identify tissue microenvironments associated with inflammation, remodeling, fibrosis, and disease progression.
- Develop computational frameworks for spatial niche discovery and tissue organization analysis.
- Integrate spatial and single-cell datasets to generate mechanistic hypotheses regarding disease biology.
- Evaluate target expression and pathway activity across cellular and spatial contexts.
- Identify biomarkers associated with disease biology, therapeutic response, and patient stratification.
- Characterize disease endotypes and molecular signatures linked to clinical heterogeneity.
- Integrate multimodal datasets to construct disease-mechanism and translational biology models.
- Generate hypotheses supporting therapeutic target evaluation and precision medicine approaches.
- Analyze large-scale single-cell RNA-seq, spatial transcriptomics, and related multi-omics datasets.
- Develop and implement computational methods for data integration, annotation, and interpretation.
- Apply advanced bioinformatics, statistical modeling, machine learning, and network biology approaches.
- Integrate transcriptomic, spatial, proteomic, and clinical data to generate biological insights.
- Collaborate closely with immunologists, translational scientists, clinicians, and computational researchers.
- Lead publication-quality analyses and prepare manuscripts for peer-reviewed journals.
- Present findings at internal scientific forums and external conferences.
- Contribute to the development of innovative analytical methods and reusable computational resources.
- Collaborate across Data, AI and Genome Sciences (DAGS), Immunology Discovery, and Translational Medicine teams.
Education Minimum Requirement:
- Must currently hold a PhD OR
- Receive a Ph.D. no later than spring 2027
- Ph.D. in Computational Biology, Bioinformatics, Systems Biology, Genomics, Computer Science, Statistics, or a related discipline.
- Strong programming skills in R and/or Python.
- Experience analyzing large-scale genomics or multi-omics datasets.
- Hands-on experience with GPU computing, HPC clusters, and AWS cloud environments for large-scale single-cell and spatial omics analyses.
- Ability to develop and optimize scalable computational pipelines for scRNA-seq, spatial transcriptomics, and multimodal biological data.
- Demonstrated publication record in computational biology, genomics, immunology, or related fields.
- Strong scientific communication, presentation, and collaborative skills.
- Single-cell omics analysis workflows (e.g., Seurat, Scanpy, scVI, CellChat, MultiNicheNet, or related tools).
- Spatial transcriptomics platforms such as Xenium, CosMx, Visium, MERFISH, or related technologies.
- Background in immunology, inflammatory diseases, tissue biology, or translational research.
- Machine learning, network analysis, systems biology, or multimodal data integration.
- Familiarity with cloud computing and high-performance computing environments.
- Working with large-scale human cohort datasets.
The salary range for this role is: $82,000-$92,000
This is the lowest to highest salary we in good faith believe we would pay for this role at the time of this posting. An employee’s position within the salary range will be based on several factors including, but not limited to relevant education, qualifications, certifications, experience, skills, geographic location, government requirements, and business or organizational needs.
The successful candidate will be eligible for annual bonus and long-term incentive, if applicable.
We offer a comprehensive package of benefits. Available benefits include medical, dental, vision healthcare and other insurance benefits (for employee and family), retirement benefits, including 401(k), paid holidays, vacation, and compassionate and sick days.
The salary range for this role is $87,300.00 - $137,400.00
This is the lowest to highest salary we in good faith believe we would pay for this role at the time of this posting. An employee’s position within the salary range will be based on several factors including, but not limited to relevant education, qualifications, certifications, experience, skills, geographic location, government requirements, and business or organizational needs.
The successful candidate will be eligible for annual bonus and long-term incentive, if applicable.
We offer a comprehensive package of benefits. Available benefits include medical, dental, vision healthcare and other insurance benefits (for employee and family), retirement benefits, including 401(k), paid holidays, vacation, and compassionate and sick days. More information about benefits is available at https://jobs.merck.com/us/en/compensation-and-benefits.
Bioinformatics, Biomarkers, Disease Research, High Performance Computing (HPC), Machine Learning (ML), Researching, Signaling Pathways, Systems Biology, Transcriptomics, Translational Medicine
Our company is committed to inclusion, ensuring that candidates can engage in a hiring process that exhibits their true capabilities.
We are proud to be a company that embraces the value of bringing together, talented, and committed people with diverse experiences, perspectives, skills and backgrounds. The fastest way to breakthrough innovation is when people with diverse ideas, broad experiences, backgrounds, and skills come together in an inclusive environment. We encourage our colleagues to respectfully challenge one another’s thinking and approach problems collectively.
As an Equal Employment Opportunity Employer, we provide equal opportunities to all employees and applicants for employment and prohibit discrimination on the basis of race, color, age, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, protected veteran status, disability status, or other applicable legally protected characteristics. As a federal contractor, we comply with all affirmative action requirements for protected veterans and individuals with disabilities. For more information about personal rights under the U.S. Equal Opportunity Employment laws, visit:
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We are proud to be a company that embraces the value of bringing together, talented, and committed people with diverse experiences, perspectives, skills and backgrounds. The fastest way to breakthrough innovation is when people with diverse ideas, broad experiences, backgrounds, and skills come together in an inclusive environment. We encourage our colleagues to respectfully challenge one another’s thinking and approach problems collectively.
Learn more about your rights, including under California, Colorado and other US State Acts
We will consider qualified applicants with arrest and conviction records for employment in compliance with the San Francisco Fair Chance Ordinance
We will consider for employment all qualified applicants, including those with criminal histories, in a manner consistent with the requirements of applicable state and local laws, including the City of Los Angeles’ Fair Chance Initiative for Hiring Ordinance
Regular
Domestic
Yes
10%
Not Applicable
Not Indicated
No
N/A
10/19/2026
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