Career Center

The Department of Laboratory Medicine serves as a regional resource for clinical laboratory services required for patient care, research and educational programs in laboratory medicine. The department currently employs 900 people who work at the award-winning University of Washington Medical Center (ranked among the top medical centers in the United States as rated by U.S. News & World Report), Harborview Medical Center (the region's only Level I Trauma center, known for innovations and excellence in trauma care and its centers of emphasis: Trauma, Burn, Neurosciences, AIDS/STD CARER, and mentally- and medically- vulnerable populations.), and many other clinical and research facilities in the area. The University of Washington (UW) is proud to be one of the nation’s premier educational and research institutions. Our people are the most important asset in our pursuit of achieving excellence in education, research, and community service. Our staff not only enjoy outstanding benefits and professional growth opportunities, but also an environment noted for diversity, community involvement, intellectual excitement and natural beauty.

The University of Washington Medical Center - Health Sciences Center has an outstanding opportunity for a Full-time, Days, Research Scientist / Engineer Senior. The selected candidate will serve as a Research Scientist Senior in the Hoofnagle Laboratory to support research and development of new assays that will be used in clinical research and in the care of patients. General areas of interest for the Hoofnagle laboratory include cancer biomarkers, chronic kidney disease, disorders of bone and mineral metabolism, obesity, and lipid disorders.

GENERAL DUTIES:
This position will directly supervise the employees of the Hoofnagle laboratory (40%), help oversee the research projects being performed in the Hoofnagle laboratory [assist in experimental design, data interpretation, and prioritization (35%)], perform experiments (5%), help maintain instruments (3%), assist in compiling data for grants and manuscripts (15%), and present data at local, regional, and national conferences (2%). More specifically:

Directly supervise the employees assigned to work in the Hoofnagle Laboratory, including training, daily oversight, mentoring, scheduling and prioritization of tasks, evaluation of performance, development and implementation of performance improvement plans and corrective action, and management of leave requests.

Utilize targeted and data-independent proteomics and metabolomics technologies for the sensitive and specific quantification of proteins and small molecules for the diagnosis of disease, particularly when appropriate alternative methods currently do not exist.

Integrate proteomics and metabolomics technology to synergize with traditional and newer workflows, including histology and tissue-based genomics, to expand understanding of the pathophysiology of different disease states;

Leverage developed and implemented technological advantages to reduce cost, turn-around time, and error rates of existing platforms;

Communicate with outside scientists in academics and industry to develop collaborative projects and sell scientific products;

Ensure that instruments are operational, including the establishment of routine maintenance programs, training around and monitoring the performance of routine maintenance by others, communication with outside service engineers and their supervisors, and performance of routine maintenance when needed;

Analyze experimental data with various software and analysis tools, including command-line driven bioinformatics database searching platforms that utilize parallelized servers and cloud-computing environments, while maintaining data integrity of large datasets, to generate fundable hypotheses and publication-ready figures;

Generate conclusions based on experimental data, author text and figures for publication and grant submission, and present research data at lab meeting, joined group meetings, regional conferences, and national conferences, as appropriate;

Optimize protocols and troubleshoot experiments that are necessary to generate relevant data and improve data quality;

Manage projects of moderate size and scope, which includes making substantial contributions to the determination of feasibility, identifying long- and short-term goals, initiating projects, developing tasks and assigning those tasks, monitoring progress on assigned tasks, accommodating schedule changes to cooperatively accomplish required daily and weekly work, analyzing issues thoroughly while considering all factors in order to obtain and use resources efficiently and effectively;

Train non-Hoofnagle laboratory technicians and medical laboratory scientists in experimental procedures and assays;

Create an inventory management strategy for important laboratory reagents and supplies, particularly reagents that are important in the National Institutes of Health initiative on rigor in scientific research, and manage its ongoing implementation; monitor inventory and order reagents and supplies, if needed;

Perform work accurately and precisely and meet completion deadlines;

Identify research problems; create opportunities to enhance technical methodology or content through expansion of existing or development of new efforts;

Maintain complete, accurate, legible records.  Create SOPs, thoroughly document any modifications;

Provide ongoing feedback and updates to Dr. Hoofnagle and actively solicit input on overcoming roadblocks and impediments to success.

Perform other duties as assigned.

REQUIREMENTS:

Education requirement:  Master’s in Life Sciences (including chemistry, biophysics, biochemistry, etc.).
AND

Excellent writing skills as evidenced by peer-reviewed publications and participation in constructing funding applications.
AND

A detailed understanding of liquid chromatography and tandem mass spectrometry.
AND

At least 5 years of working experience in proteomics and metabolomics

DESIRED:

PhD degree in Life Sciences (including chemistry, biophysics, biochemistry, etc.).

Professional, collaborative demeanor; extraordinary team player with deep-seated dedication to improving patient care; impeccable work ethic and communication skills.
AND

6+years of working experience in proteomics and metabolomics.
AND

Experience with: mass spectrometry, quality control, standard operating procedures, and method validation.

CONDITIONS OF EMPLOYMENT:

Will be considered essential staff and as such will be required to report to work when scheduled despite inclement weather.

May be required to work in other Department locations.

Must be able to meet with all shifts on a regular basis.

May work weekends and holidays.

May be asked to work hours beyond normal open hours of the laboratory depending on staffing needs and current testing requirements.