Research Programmer III- Machine Learning & Computational Neuroscience, Kennedy Lab

Scripps Research; San Diego (CA); On-site; USD 75,000 - 100,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Employer contributed retirement plan

Health and welfare plans

Flexible Spending Accounts

Vacation and sick leave

Free on-site parking

Job summary

Scripps Research in La Jolla, CA seeks a Research Programmer III (Software Engineer) to develop software for projects tracking behavior and neural activity, and to build ML and computer vision pipelines for high-throughput phenotyping. You will contribute to scalable software, train neural networks, manage code with git, and collaborate with a multidisciplinary lab team.

A bachelor's degree and at least four years in software development are required.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree or equivalent in a STEM field with programming education/experience.
• Minimum of four years experience in software development or research programming.
• Experience with Python programming.
• Experience building and training deep neural networks for ML tasks.
• Ability to apply fundamentals of software development.
• Experience with version control (Git).

Responsibilities

• Develop software for research projects tracking behavior and neural activity.
• Build ML/vision pipelines for high-throughput animal phenotyping and drug screening goals.
• Collaborate within a multidisciplinary computational lab environment.
• Contribute to scalable system architectures and open-source software where appropriate.

Skills

Python

Deep neural networks

Git & GitHub

Education

Bachelor's degree in Engineering, Computer Science, Data Science, Applied Math, or related field

Tools

Git/GitHub

Job description

POSITION TITLE: Research Programmer III (Software Engineer)

Position Summary

The Kennedy laboratory is involved in numerous projects to track, quantify, and forecast individual and group behavior and relate it to recorded neural activity. We develop new computational methods to understand how agents (animals, humans, virtual) gather information about their sensory environment, integrate this with internal motivational needs, and execute goal-directed actions in complex, naturalistic environments. We also develop machine learning and computer vision platforms for high-throughput animal phenotyping, with the goal of accelerating drug screening and repurposing efforts at Scripps.

Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree in Engineering, Computer Science, Data Science, Applied Math, or related field, or an equivalent combination of education, training and/or experience. Other STEM degrees may be accepted if accompanied with programming education, training, and/or experience.
• Minimum of four years experience in software application development or research programming.
• Experience with software development in Python.
• Experience building and training deep neural networks for supervised, unsupervised, or reinforcement learning problems.
• A demonstrated ability to apply the fundamentals of software application development.
• Experience with version control, including git and github.

Please include code samples and/or a link to a public code repository with examples of your work.

Preferred Skillset

Prior experience with the one or more of the following is preferred:

• Experience with sequence/time series data, control/reinforcement learning problems and environments, time series forecasting.
• An understanding of generative modeling (hidden Markov models, diffusion models, etc).
• Familiarity with topics in motor control, robotics, and neuroscience.

As a member of a computational lab working in team projects, the following general skills are also preferred:

• Experience developing scalable system architectures that adhere to good software engineering principles.
• Ability to tackle large, open-ended research questions independently and as part of a team.
• Willingness to be an active participant in a computational lab environment, including taking part in lab meetings, journal clubs, and hackathons.
• Experience working within a diverse, interdisciplinary team.
• Experience contributing to open source software projects.

LOCATION: La Jolla, California.

PHYSICAL REQUIREMENTS

This position works in an office environment, and it is expected that work will be primarily performed in-person.

Compenstaion

The expected hiring range for this position is $75,000 to $100,000 per year, commensurate with experience.

Comprehensive Benefits Include

• Employer Contributed Retirement Plan – Depending on eligibility, employees receive an employer contributed retirement plan (no employee contribution required) and the option to contribute to a 403(b) (which is similar to a 401(k) using your own pre or post-tax dollars)
• Full Suite of Health and Welfare plans including three medical plan options (including an HSA available option), dental, vision, life insurance, disability, EAP and more
• Access to Flexible Spending Accounts (Medical/Dependent Care)
• Competitive vacation and sick leave policies
• Free, on-site parking

The above statements describe the level of work performed and expected in general terms. The statements are not intended to list all the responsibilities, duties and/or skills required of employees so classified, and the content herein is subject to change due to the business needs of Scripps Research, with or without notice. Furthermore, nothing in this job description shall be interpreted to be in conflict with or to eliminate or modify in any way the employment-at-will status of Scripps Research staff.

EEO Statement

The Scripps Research Institute is an Equal Opportunity Employer. We promote diversity of thought, culture and background in the fields of science. All qualified applicants are encouraged to apply and will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability, protected veteran status, or any other legally protected characteristic or status.