Description
Job Description:
The Military & Veteran’s Health Operation of Leidos is currently looking for a Bioinformatics Engineer to support biological research at the Biological Defense Research Directorate (BDRD) at the Naval Medical Research Center (NMRC) in Frederick, MD. The BDRD within NMRC facilitates biological defense research including not only rapid detection of infectious diseases of global importance and the enhancement of global disease surveillance for early pathogen detection and response, but also new approaches in medical countermeasures, such as advancing phage therapy to treat multidrug resistant bacterial infections. The Bioinformatics Engineer plays an important role in the quality control, assembly, annotation, and dissemination of microbial (bacterial and viral) genomes, metagenomes, transcriptomes and metatranscriptomes in a military medical research setting. The Bioinformatics Engineer collaborates with a team of bioinformatics analysts, computational biologists, and infectious disease experts to manipulate and query high-throughput genetic data to answer complex biological questions in a fast-paced environment. This involves installation and testing of open source bioinformatic software as well as working with a team to create new pipelines, workflows, and standards for customized solutions.
Primary Responsibilities
The ideal candidate shall:
Manipulate and process raw sequencing data from in-house Next Generation Sequencing (NGS) platforms (MiSeq, NextSeq500, NovaSeq6000, PacBio, MinION), microarrays, publicly accessible databases, and/or external collaborators.
Assist in microbial genome assemblies and downstream analyses to a complete (polished genome) standard, they will also contribute to other tasks such as analysis of RNAseq data and bioinformatic pipeline development and testing.
Perform quality control of sequencing data, genome assembly, gene annotation, etc.
Perform well in a fast-paced, fluid environment.
Integrate high-throughput data from multiple sequencing platforms.
Use a variety of bioinformatic tools and potentially develop new software applications to solve salient problems in the field of genomics.
Download, install, and benchmark open-source software packages from a variety of sources (GitHub, SourceForge, etc.).
Assist staff scientists in summarizing research data, preparing posters, and/or presenting results via conference presentations, scientific publications, or project reports.
Attend internal meetings and teleconferences as well as external meetings with collaborators and stakeholders when deemed appropriate.
Contribute to technical reports, presentations and manuscripts for publication.
Assist with appropriate training of other personnel.
Work is to be performed on a government installation. The normal work week is Monday - Friday 0900 to 1730; regular telework one or more days a week may be possible after an initial acclimation period, dependent on the mission space and supervisor approval.
Candidates may need to work evenings and weekends on very rare occasions.
10% travel, including OCONUS, may be required.
Basic Qualifications
The candidate will be required to acquire, at a minimum, a SECRET classification access level. Preference will be given to a candidate who already has this clearance level.
Due to Federal contract requirements, US citizenship is required.
Strong background in genomics, bioinformatics computer science, bacterial or viral genetics, and/or computational biology.
Candidates must have completed a Master’s degree from an accredited US university, or international university of equivalent standard, in Bioinformatics, Computer Science (combined with experience or education in biology or bioinformatics), Computational Biology, Mathematics or a closely related area.
Candidates must have at least 2-4 years of hands-on experience in Bioinformatics.
Possess programming skills in languages such as JAVA, PERL, PYTHON, and statistical software such as R or R Studio.
Maintain a familiarity with next generation sequencing and current standards in bioinformatics.
Have excellent verbal and writing communications skills.
Be able to think independently and must have excellent problem-solving skills.
Be able to perform under deadlines and in austere environments.
Must be able to sit extensive hours and lift 25 lbs. without assistance.
Experience in phage genetics and/or pathogen discovery is a plus.
Preferred Qualifications
Experience in a military medical research laboratory is a plus.
Ability to work well independently with little to no supervision.
Naval Health East - NHE
Pay Range:
Covid Guidance
In order to enter Leidos facilities in the U.S. and to attend Leidos events outside our facilities, employees are required to be vaccinated for COVID-19 or maintain proof of a negative COVID-19 test within 96 hours of entry. In addition, we are receiving guidance from certain customers that onsite contractor personnel will need to be fully vaccinated to access customer facilities. If you are not vaccinated, please consider getting your COVID-19 vaccination as soon as possible. If you have any questions, please contact your Talent Acquisition POC.
About Leidos
Leidos is a Fortune 500® technology, engineering, and science solutions and services leader working to solve the world’s toughest challenges in the defense, intelligence, civil, and health markets. The company’s 43,000 employees support vital missions for government and commercial customers. Headquartered in Reston, Virginia, Leidos reported annual revenues of approximately $13.7 billion for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2021. For more information, visit www.Leidos.com.
Pay and Benefits
Pay and benefits are fundamental to any career decision. That's why we craft compensation packages that reflect the importance of the work we do for our customers. Employment benefits include competitive compensation, Health and Wellness programs, Income Protection, Paid Leave and Retirement. More details are available here.
Securing Your Data
Leidos will never ask you to provide payment-related information at any part of the employment application process. And Leidos will communicate with you only through emails that are sent from a Leidos.com email address. If you receive an email purporting to be from Leidos that asks for payment-related information or any other personal information, please report the email to [email protected].
Commitment to Diversity
All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to sex, race, ethnicity, age, national origin, citizenship, religion, physical or mental disability, medical condition, genetic information, pregnancy, family structure, marital status, ancestry, domestic partner status, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, veteran or military status, or any other basis prohibited by law. Leidos will also consider for employment qualified applicants with criminal histories consistent with relevant laws.
