Jobs in United States

The FWC envisions a Florida where fish and wildlife are abundant and thriving in healthy and connected natural landscapes with vital working lands and waterways; where natural resources are valued and safely enjoyed by all; and wherein natural systems support vibrant human communities and a strong economy.

Our Mission: Managing fish and wildlife resources for their long-term well-being and the benefit of people.

The Harmful Algal Bloom (HAB) group of Fish and Wildlife Research Institute (FWRI) in St. Petersburg, FL, invites applications for a full-time Other Personnel Service (OPS) Assistant Research Scientist to provide bioinformatic support to ongoing research.

Minimum Qualifications: 7 years professional experience in a closely-related biological field or laboratory program is required. A bachelor’s degree from an accredited college or university with major course of study in one of the natural sciences or mathematics and three years of professional experience in one of the natural sciences or mathematics; or a master’s degree from an accredited college or university with major course of study in one of the natural sciences or mathematics and two years of professional experience as described above; or a doctorate from an accredited college or university with major course of study in one of the natural sciences or mathematics can substitute for the required experience.

Preferred Qualifications: Preference may be given to candidates with a degree in data science, molecular biology, or genetics, experience performing bioinformatic analyses or working in a molecular biology or genetics laboratory, and/or expertise with phytoplankton and harmful algae, including culturing.

Requirements: Employment in this position is contingent upon a satisfactory Level 1 background check at no cost to the candidate. The application package must include a cover letter.

Position Overview and Responsibilities:

• Grant funding related to three different projects using environmental DNA will support this position: 1) guiding restoration in Florida Bay by examining cyanobacteria and sponge interactions, 2) advancing HAB monitoring using 18S and 16S barcoding from subtropical to polar systems, and 3) applying detection strategies for target groups of phytoplankton as part of event response.
• Working as part of a dynamic and collaborative team to develop, validate, and implement analytical workflows to detect and quantify harmful phytoplankton taxa, their communities, and/or their physiological responses to environmental stimuli.
• Maintain robust documentation of workflows and codes
• Training staff on analytical and computational workflows and pipelines
• Coordinating and executing genetic analyses associated with DNA sequencing by high throughput, Sanger, or Nanopore platforms for sequence variation by generating, synthesizing, and analyzing data using bioinformatics and appropriate statistics and troubleshooting techniques
• Develop and maintain analysis tools and applications tailored to biological datasets
• Managing large, complex datasets (involving data entry, QA/QC, and working with other staff to ensure continuity) and conducting ecological and/or phylogenetic analysis
• Participating in oceanic field sampling and routine sample analyses
• Maintaining phytoplankton stock cultures and preparation and sampling of cultures for experiments
• Assisting with and/or leading preparation of technical reports, scientific manuscripts, and material for grant submissions and reports.
• Interacting with IT and procurement staff as needed to maintain analytical infrastructure
• Contributing to communication activities including presenting results to end-users of methods and associated data, and other outreach as requested.

Knowledge, Skills and Abilities: A strong working knowledge of: programming and data science principles; generation and analysis of genetic data associated with fragment length polymorphisms and sequence markers (e.g. 16S, 18S, COI, physiology markers) for taxonomic identification, enumeration, phylogenetics, and ecological inference; genetic sequencing platforms (e.g. Sanger, short read, Nanopore); biological sequence databases and associated tools (e.g., NCBI BLAST); experimental design; laboratory techniques; culturing phytoplankton; bioinformatic workflows, associated statistics, and visualization tools (e.g., QIIME2, scripting languages such as Python, R); Microsoft Office Suite

The State of Florida is an Equal Opportunity Employer/Affirmative Action Employer, and does not tolerate discrimination or violence in the workplace.