Pathogen Genomics Scientist - Surveillance & Epidemic Readiness

Parsons; Frederick (MD); On-site; USD 104,000 - 181,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Medical benefits

401(k)

Paid time off

Flexible work schedules

Job summary

Parsons is seeking Research Scientists—Pathogen Genomics and Surveillance to support infectious-disease research at NMRC BDRD, conducting molecular biology, genomics, microbiology, virology, and bioinformatics.

The role involves design and conduct of infectious-disease research, wet-lab activities, NGS and analysis, protocol development, and pathogen surveillance across diverse sample types, with travel as required.

Qualifications

• Ph.D. in molecular biology, biology, microbiology, virology, emerging infectious diseases, biochemistry, or a closely related field.
• Practical postdoctoral research experience in virology, bacteriology, and/or genomics.
• At least two years of demonstrable applied experience relevant to genomics, microbiology, virology, bacteriology, bioinformatics, or bioinformatics-platform and software development.

Responsibilities

• Design and conduct basic and applied infectious-disease research.
• Perform wet-laboratory activities supporting genomics, pathogen detection, and characterization.
• Conduct or support NGS and bioinformatics analysis of complex samples.
• Develop, test, and improve laboratory and analytical protocols.
• Design probes or primers and assess analytical sensitivity and specificity.
• Support target-enrichment, shotgun-sequencing, and amplicon-sequencing approaches.
• Perform pathogen surveillance and contribute to the detection of known or novel pathogens.
• Analyze research data, troubleshoot technical issues, and document experimental results.
• Support epidemic, pandemic, and emerging-pathogen research activities.
• Prepare protocols, SOPs, technical reports, presentations, manuscripts, and database-ready data.
• Collaborate with multidisciplinary researchers and CONUS or OCONUS partners.
• Travel domestically and internationally when required.

Skills

Data analysis

Troubleshooting

Scientific writing

Communication skills

Education

PhD in molecular biology or related field

Tools

Bioinformatics pipelines

NGS platforms

Job description

Parsons is seeking Research Scientists—Pathogen Genomics and Surveillance to support infectious-disease research at NMRC BDRD, conducting molecular biology, genomics, microbiology, virology, and bioinformatics.

The role involves design and conduct of infectious-disease research, wet-lab activities, NGS and analysis, protocol development, and pathogen surveillance across diverse sample types, with travel as required.