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Why join Harvard Medical School?

Harvard Medical School's mission is to nurture a diverse, inclusive community dedicated to alleviating suffering and improving health and well-being for all through excellence in teaching and learning, discovery and scholarship, and service and leadership.

You’ll be at the heart of biomedical discovery, education, and innovation, working alongside world-renowned faculty and a community dedicated to improving human health. This is more than a job - it’s an opportunity to shape the future of medicine.

The Brugge Laboratory at Harvard Medical School is seeking a highly motivated Bioinformaticist II to join a dynamic team of researchers working on the Breast Atlas project, funded by the Gray Foundation. The Bioinformaticist II will collaborate with investigators in the Brugge lab and partner labs to perform bioinformatics analyses, statistical modeling, and hypothesis generation from large-scale, multi-modal patient-derived datasets.

This position will work with other scientists to define different states of epithelial and stromal cells in breast tissues from women who carry wildtype or mutant forms of BRCA1 or BRCA2. The lab uses advanced single cell approaches to profile the genetic, epigenetic and transcriptomic landscape to identify strategies to preventive the progress of breast cancer. They integrate this information with high-throughput immunofluorescence microscopy to locate cells of interest in situ. This position will play a key scientific role leveraging computational strategies and bioinformatics tools and analysis methods expertise to identify the earliest molecular changes that take place prior to cancer initiation as well as critical programs involved in therapy resistance.

In this role, the person will have a path to grow and thrive through unique opportunities to examine normal breast tissues from women at high-risk of developing breast cancer. The person would be able to pursue innovative approaches to address fundamental biological questions of tumor biology while advancing their knowledge of cancer biology alongside some of the brightest minds in cancer research.

Analysis scenarios will involve applying cutting-edge bioinformatics, statistics, ML/AI, and data analysis methods integrating clinical and multi-modal data sets from donor tissues and from oncology clinical studies. Data types include scRNAseq, scATACseq, spatial transcriptomics, among others. This role offers a path for scientific growth and innovation, including opportunities to publish in high-impact journals and contribute to the development of preventive and therapeutic strategies for breast and ovarian cancer. The position also includes flexibility for partial remote work.

Specific duties and responsibilities include:

• Develop and apply computational methods to integrate diverse ‘omics’ datasets.
• Analyze incoming data using established analytical pipelines and assess or develop new methods as needed.
• Collaborate with bench scientists to design experiments and analytical strategies.
• Interpret and summarize findings for internal and external collaborators.
• Prepare figures and presentation materials for manuscripts, grants, and seminars.
• Lead in-depth analyses of genes and molecular programs relevant to breast cancer initiation and progression.
• Provide expertise in specialized bioinformatics tools and statistical methods.
• Document all work thoroughly, adhering to NIH data management requirements as needed.
• Generate manuscript-level reports of final analyses and results.
• Visualize and present data using advanced techniques for clear communication.
• Collaborate with a team including another bioinformaticist and two computational imaging experts.
• Contribute to writing and editing computational biology sections of manuscripts and grants.

Basic Qualifications:

• Master's degree in biological sciences required.
• 5+ years' experience in the area of bioinformatics.

Additional Qualifications and Skills:

• PHD STRONGLY PREFERRED
• High-level proficiency in R and Python and other programming languages.
• Expertise in high-performance computing environments.
• Experience analyzing single cell -omics data.
• Strong problem solving, biological, statistical and computational capabilities.
• Excellent collaboration and communication skills, especially in written/verbal presentation and data visualization.
• Familiarity with modern AI/ML methods (i.e. Graphical Neural Networks (GNNs) or Transformers) and cloud computing is a plus.
• Must be independent, rigorous and think creatively.

• Term: This is a one-year term position from the date of hire, with the possibility of extension, contingent upon work performance and continued funding to support the position. 
• Standard Hours/Schedule: 35 hrs. per week | Monday - Friday | 9:00 am - 5:00 pm
• Visa Sponsorship Information: Harvard University is unable to provide visa sponsorship for this position.
• Pre-Employment Screening: Identity, Education
• Other Information: Please note that we are currently conducting a majority of interviews and onboarding remotely and virtually. We appreciate your understanding.
• Staying Informed About Your Application: Due to the high volume of applications, we may not always be able to reach out right away, but you can track your status anytime through the Careers@Harvard portal.
• Not ready to apply? Join our talent community to keep in touch and learn about future opportunities! https://www.gem.com/form?formID=16341e35-cbc6-4904-88a3-09b35763307e

Work Format Details

This is a position that is based at a Harvard campus location with some remote work options available. Additional details will be discussed during the interview process. All remote work must be performed within one of the Harvard Registered Payroll States, which currently includes Massachusetts, Connecticut, Maine, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, Vermont, Georgia, Illinois, Maryland, New Jersey, New York, Virginia, Washington, and California (CA for exempt positions only). Certain visa types and funding sources may limit work location. Individuals must meet work location sponsorship requirements prior to employment. 

Salary Grade and Ranges

This position is salary grade level 057. Please visit  Harvard's Salary Ranges  to view the corresponding salary range and related information. 

Benefits

Harvard offers a comprehensive benefits package that is designed to support a healthy work-life balance and your physical, mental and financial wellbeing. Because here, you are what matters. Our benefits include, but are not limited to: 

• Generous paid time off including parental leave 
• Medical, dental, and vision health insurance coverage starting on day one 
• Retirement plans with university contributions 
• Wellbeing and mental health resources 
• Support for families and caregivers 
• Professional development opportunities including tuition assistance and reimbursement 
• Commuter benefits, discounts and campus perks 

Learn more about these and additional benefits on our Benefits & Wellbeing Page. 

EEO/Non-Discrimination Commitment Statement

Harvard University is committed to equal opportunity and non-discrimination. We seek talent from all parts of society and the world, and we strive to ensure everyone at Harvard thrives. Our differences help our community advance Harvard's academic purposes.

Harvard has an equal employment opportunity policy that outlines our commitment to prohibiting discrimination on the basis of race, ethnicity, color, national origin, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, veteran status, religion, disability, or any other characteristic protected by law or identified in the university's non-discrimination policy. Harvard's equal employment opportunity policy and non-discrimination policy help all community members participate fully in work and campus life free from harassment and discrimination.

About Harvard University

Harvard University is devoted to excellence in teaching, learning, and research, and to developing leaders in many disciplines who make a difference globally. The University, which is based in Cambridge and Boston, Massachusetts, has an enrollment of over 20,000 degree candidates, including undergraduate, graduate, and professional students. Harvard has more than 360,000 alumni around the world. The University has twelve degree-granting Schools in addition to the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study, offering a truly global education. Established in 1636, Harvard is the oldest institution of higher education in the United States.

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