Director, Clinicogenomics Data Quality

at  Southern Research

GENERAL SUMMARY

Southern Research (SR) is at a pivotal moment in its 84-year history. At the start of 2022, SR launched a new strategic plan focused on translational research in the life sciences. SR intends to invest over $150 million in this new strategy, including development of new facilities, platforms, and programs. We believe in the power of SR and our partners to unlock the immense potential of Alabama’s biotech ecosystem to spur economic development, create jobs, and draw investment. Downtown Birmingham sees over $700M in extramural biomedical research every year, including over $300M from the NIH, in large part due to the contributions of Southern Research and the University of Alabama at Birmingham. We are on a mission to translate our R&D volume into investment, high-performance companies, and quality jobs in Alabama and in the Southeast United States.
The Director of Clinicogenomics Data Quality will report to the Chief Data Officer. The Director of Clinicogenomics Data Quality will be responsible for independent quality checks and assessments of genomic and clinical data sets collected through an Alabama State-wide initiative that provides access to clinical whole genome sequencing and facilitates sharing of patients’ EMR/EHR data. The role will conduct clinicogenomic data management activities, including database specification, design, set-up, validation, quality assurance and implementation of data extraction procedures.

REQUIREMENTS/MINIMUM QUALIFICATIONS

• Experience:
• Hands-on experience in human genetics/multi-omics and clinical data analysis and software development
• Hands-on experience in data ETL, data management, and data sharing for genomic and clinical applications
• Hands-on experience with databases, including SQL and no-SQL
• Hands-on experience with scripting language, such as Bash and Python
• Hands-on experience in cloud platform (AWS) and commercial data platforms (datalake/warehouse such as Amazon Redshift / HealthOmics / HealthLake and Snowflake
• Education:
• Master’s degree in Computer Science/Engineering, Biomedical Engineering, Bioinformatics, or related field; PhD degree preferred
• 10+ years of experience in healthcare IT, software development, or bioinformatics
• Strong understanding of healthcare data standards (FHIR, HL7) and genomic data formats
• Experience with cloud infrastructure, preferably AWS
• Familiarity with HIPAA, Good Clinical Data Management Practice, and Computer Security
• Excellent communication and leadership skills

PREFERRED QUALIFICATIONS

• Hands-on experience in clinical genotype and phenotype data analysis and modeling in the context of clinical trial design
• Familiarity with commercial/open-source data analytical platforms
• Familiarity with advanced data visualization techniques
• Familiarity with clinical actionable variant interpretation and classification
• DevOps experience such as unit testing, CI/CD is a plus.
• Strong curiosity and the ability to learn quickly and adapt to a fast-changing environment

• Serves as the SME in clinical genomic data analysis, ETL, management and engineering
• Provides hands-on support towards building company’s clinicogenomic data analytical platform
• Designs, implements, and maintains databases to ensure accurate health information management
• Designs, develops, evaluates, and deploys state-of-the-art analytical solutions to gain valuable data insights based on genomic, phenotypic, and clinical datasets
• Evaluates, organizes, and manages company’s valuable data assets
• Designs cloud-based data model/schema to efficiently manage and query large scale genomic dataset
• Supports both internal and external data requirements by leveraging AI/ML capabilities to keep up with the increasing demands of the business
• Collaborates in a multidisciplinary and regulated clinical diagnostics environment with geneticists, bioinformaticians, software engineers, and IT infrastructure professionals