JOB SUMMARY

We are looking for two Bioinformaticians to work within Core Bioinformatics Division; the division is part of the Digital and Data Directorate within UKHSA.
UKHSA currently performs genomic sequencing of around 20 human pathogens, this data is used to inform clinical and public health pathways for managing the spread of human pathogens within the UK.
Both roles within the Bioinformatics Division will be part of a small team of bioinformaticians supporting the service delivery and the development of new pathogen pipelines and new analysis components which will be integrated into the overarching bioinformatics processes for delivering a genomics service within UKHSA.

JOB DESCRIPTION

• Contribute to day-to-day running and maintenance of the software and computer systems delivering existing UKHSA Whole Genome Sequencing (WGS) pipelines.
• Contribute to expanding deployment of existing WGS pipelines to additional computational platforms (external cloud)
• Support the identification and sharing of best bioinformatics practice
• Contribute to refactoring existing WGS software components
• Develop tested, validated, and versioned software components for WGS analyses, incorporate into and validate new WGS pipeline versions
• Satisfy support requests logged through helpdesk
• Analyse data from projects to which you are assigned, accepting responsibility for generating reports within agreed timelines.
• Lead preparation of reports, posters and publications arising from the data
• Represent UKHSA at internal, National, and international meetings.
• Work consistent with the Bioinformatics Unit quality management system, ISO and other accreditation standards; participate in quality audits to support the unit’s accredited service.
• Always comply with safety and quality protocols and procedures

NATIONALITY REQUIREMENTS

This job is broadly open to the following groups:

• UK nationals
• nationals of the Republic of Ireland
• nationals of Commonwealth countries who have the right to work in the UK
• nationals of the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein and family members of those nationalities with settled or pre-settled status under the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS)
• nationals of the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein and family members of those nationalities who have made a valid application for settled or pre-settled status under the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS)
• individuals with limited leave to remain or indefinite leave to remain who were eligible to apply for EUSS on or before 31 December 2020
• Turkish nationals, and certain family members of Turkish nationals, who have accrued the right to work in the Civil Service

Further information on nationality requirements

TYPE OF ROLE

Administration / Corporate Support
Digital
Information Technology

RESPONSIBILITIES WILL INCLUDE

Communication and key working relationships
The post holder will develop working relationships and communicate regularly with a wide range of individuals, clinical and non-clinical, internal, and external to UKHSA. This will include:

Internal

• Substantial interactions with members of the Bioinformatics Team and the Central Sequencing Lab (CSL)
• Regular interactions with Laboratory scientists, embedded bioinformaticians and epidemiologists.
• Substantial interactions within Digital & Data and with central IT (ICT) colleagues.

External

• Interaction with external scientific computing experts to deliver appropriate technologies through external cloud-based resource and utilising UKHSA computing infrastructure.
• Interactions with collaborating centres (Oxford University, EBI) to deliver software process for analysing WGS data.