Bioinformatician (embedded)
Sequencing is becoming a major technique in ecology and in the life sciences in general. The second and third generation sequencing platforms produce more data and the cost per base pair are going down. This enables more and more researchers to have their samples sequenced. Of course there is a greater demand for help with downstream analysis of the data and a need for efficient storage and management of the results.
Therefore the Netherlands Institute of Ecology (NIOO-KNAW) offers the position of a bioinformatician (embedded).
Vacancy number ME-013077
This bioinformatician has a general task to support researchers in each department by writing scripts (preferably in Python) and to contribute to the maintenance of the IT infrastructure. Good communication skills in English and experience with system administration on Linux systems are obligatory. The type of sequencing data being worked on is quite broad. It ranges from single bacteria or fungi to higher organisms (plants, insects, birds) and genetic material recovered directly from environmental (soil) samples (metagenomes).
Requirements:
- HBO or university degree in bio-informatics or related fields
- Knowledge and experience in a UNIX environment (Ubuntu or something similar) including working with command line programs (required)
- Knowledge of hardware and IT infrastructure (required). Experience with Zabbix is a pre.
- Knowledge of technologies like SGE, PBS, LDAP, NFS (recommended)
- Good programming skills, preferably Python (required) and R (recommended)
- Experience with SSH, screen, SCP (recommended)
- Ability to communicate in English (required)
- Be able to handle large amounts of data and work systematically and well-organized (required)
- Knowledge of SQL and experience with Postgresql, or Sqlite (not essential)
- Knowledge of next generation sequencing techniques (454 pyrosequencing, Illumina, IonTorrent) (recommended)
- Experience with workflow management systems like Galaxy (recommended)
- Experience on analysis of 16S /18S rRNA and/or functional genes with tools like Qiime/Mothur (not essential)
- Experience with analysis of (meta)genomes including assembly (velvet, SOAPdenovo) and taxonomic or functional annotation (recommended)
- Being familiar with cloud computing (not essential)
Appointment: This is a temporary appointment, initially for 1 year and upon satisfactory performance to be prolonged for another year.
Salary: Salary depends on training and work experience. We offer an extensive package of fringe benefits.
Location: The Netherlands Institute of Ecology (NIOO-KNAW) in Wageningen, The Netherlands.
Information: For more information please contact Mattias de Hollander (T + 31 (0) 317-473503). Information on NIOO-KNAW can be found on this website. Information on the peer review
Applications: Please send your application including curriculum vitae and vacancy number to vacature@nioo.knaw.nl. The closing date for application is 1 August 2013, with interviews planned in the second half of September.
"This is a temporary appointment, initially for 1 year and upon satisfactory performance to be prolonged for another year." I have now seen this more often in job offers to seek highly qualified staff on an international basis with outstanding IT competences while providing only a measly future perspective. Is this now common practice, and is this attractive for highly skilled computational people who could get an IT job almost everywhere? (I guess not)
This is a very useful comment, hope they will read. They don't take it seriously enough. At one IT place I worked at, I've been told that it takes for best performing new hires ~6 months, while for rest ~12 months to adjust, and they echoed Joel S. with the cost of a new hire to be ~12 months of the salary, Peopleware full of the evidence... yet, "...temporary appointment..."