One Health Bioinformatics & Diagnostics Scientist

Texas A&M University System; College Station (TX); On-site; USD 90,000 - 130,000; Full time

Job summary

Texas A&M Agrilife Research in College Station, Texas, seeks an Associate Research Scientist to lead bioinformatics and molecular diagnostics efforts for One Health. The role focuses on developing qPCR, sequencing-based detection methods, and reproducible pipelines across short and long-read platforms.

The incumbent will guide students and staff, publish results, and contribute to grant proposals while coordinating with federal and state partners on data sharing and surveillance initiatives.

Qualifications

• PhD in Bioinformatics, Microbiology, Molecular Biology, Biomedical or Veterinary Sciences, Animal Science, or a closely related field.
• Three years of research experience beyond the doctoral degree in bioinformatics, molecular diagnostics, or pathogen genomics.
• Knowledge of microbial ecology, infectious disease surveillance, and antimicrobial resistance within a One Health framework.
• Proficiency in R and Bash on Linux/HPC systems (including SLURM) and working knowledge of Python; experience with workflow managers (e.g., Nextflow or Snakemake) and Git.
• Familiarity with tools such as QIIME 2, DADA2, Dorado, minimap2, Kraken2, BLAST+, SPAdes or Flye, AMRFinderPlus, and IQ-TREE.
• Ability to plan and execute independent research, manage concurrent projects, and meet publication and reporting deadlines.
• Strong scientific writing and oral communication

Responsibilities

• Leads development and validation of molecular detection assays for One Health surveillance.
• Designs sequencing studies across diverse sample types on Illumina and Oxford Nanopore platforms.
• Builds reproducible bioinformatics pipelines for read processing, taxonomy, genome assembly, and resistance gene detection.
• Maintains reference databases and benchmarks pipeline performance.
• Manages sequencing data, metadata, and analysis code under lab policies.
• Integrates molecular results with epidemiological data to support sponsors and partners.
• Prepares manuscripts and drafts methods for proposals.
• Coordinates sample logistics and data sharing with collaborators.
• Maintains biosafety, contamination control, and lab housekeeping.

Skills

PhD in Bioinformatics

Research experience

R and Bash on Linux/HPC

Python

Workflow managers

Git

QIIME 2

DADA2

Dorado

minimap2

Education

PhD in Bioinformatics or related field

Tools

SLURM

Nextflow

Snakemake

IQ-TREE

DADA2 tooling

minimap2

Kraken2

BLAST+

Job description

Texas A&M Agrilife Research in College Station, Texas, seeks an Associate Research Scientist to lead bioinformatics and molecular diagnostics efforts for One Health. The role focuses on developing qPCR, sequencing-based detection methods, and reproducible pipelines across short and long-read platforms.

The incumbent will guide students and staff, publish results, and contribute to grant proposals while coordinating with federal and state partners on data sharing and surveillance initiatives.