Staff Scientist with -OMICs expertise to innovate high-throughput analysis pipelines

Staff Scientists at ISTA (www.ista.ac.at) pursue basic research projects in collaboration with professors, providing high-level scientific and/or technical expertise normally not present within research groups. Similar to a Group Leader position, they are evaluated for tenure based on their research output; however, different from a Group Leader position, this evaluation is based on co-authorships with other groups at ISTA. In addition to collaborative work, they are given a small budget to pursue their own research, but cannot have their own team.

Recent advances in high-throughput methodologies, including single-cell transcriptomics, spatial transcriptomics, epigenomics, as well as the combination of the above into multi-omic platforms, have transformed the landscape of life sciences. These cutting-edge methodologies are being employed here at ISTA by many Life Sciences groups. A bottleneck in this analysis is the derivation and implementation of the customized pipelines for each of these datasets that go well beyond standard methods.

We are searching for a Staff Scientist to innovate new advanced -OMICs analysis pipelines, catalyze -OMICs discoveries in several of our groups (e.g. Sweeney, Novarino, Heisenberg, de Bono, Siegert), and move us in new directions in statistics and computational biology. The position will be associated with ISTA’s Scientific Computing Facility.

Your Profile

• Ph.D. in Computational Biology, Statistics, Bioinformatics, or a related field.
• Expertise in the analysis of single cell transcriptomic, epigenomic and multi-omic analysis  required, including devising quality control and novel pipelines for analysis of both bulk and single-cell RNA, ATAC-, and multi-omic data sets; harmonizing publicly available datasets; performing targeted analysis of specific molecular interactions within these datasets (receptor-ligand); comparing data sets across species.
• Advanced skills in the cell segmentation and expression analysis pipelines recommended, including multiplexed fluorescent in situ (merFISH) and transcriptomic spatial (Vizium, etc) data
• Additional proficiency in microbiome, metabolomic, and proteomic data analysis and statistical pipeline design and/or the innovation of whole genome sequencing and assembly would be a bonus
• Proven technical proficiency at the highest level, as demonstrated by previous experience and research publications
• Advanced software development
• Proficient in English, the working language at ISTA, and exceptional communication skills, both oral and written
• Multi-project management acumen and a proven team player attitude is crucial for this position
• Experience in working on multidisciplinary projects is a plus