Bioinformatics Technician I

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Note: Applications will be accepted until 11:59 PM on the Posting End Date.

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At UBC we believe that attracting and sustaining a diverse workforce is key to the successful pursuit of excellence in research innovation and learning for all faculty staff and students. Our commitment to employment equity helps achieve inclusion and fairness brings rich diversity to UBC as a workplace and creates the necessary conditions for a rewarding career.

Job Summary

The Bioinformatics Technician will support the SBCs data analysis pipelines and data management systems. You will contribute to the analysis of DNA and RNA sequencing data produced at the sequencing facility develop and maintain bioinformatics pipelines and apply innovative computational and statistical methods. Your work directly helps the UBC research community and external clients by providing fast high quality sequencing data to facilitate discoveries in various research fields.

Who we are

UBC established the Sequencing and Bioinformatics Consortium (SBC) to make sequencing affordable and accessible to the largest number of researchers on campus. Data analysis data management and systems administration are critical components of all SBC activity. The environment is one of rapid change and new technologies and methods each requiring customized and novel data solutions.

Organizational Status

You will report to the Bioinformatics Specialist and work in collaboration with the SBC lab team the Advanced Research Computing (ARC) team UBC IT and SBCs clients (including researchers staff students and industry partners).

Work Performed

• Process sequencing data including data quality assessment generation of reports using established pipelines and assist with analysis and data interpretation.
• Work closely with the laboratory team to assess and evaluate sequencing quality optimize performance and validate results.
• Provide design and technical suggestions to the Bioinformatics Specialist to maintain an end-to-end system that efficiently stores analyses and disseminates high-quality data and results.
• Assist with the development documentation and validation of new NGS analysis pipelines and reporting templates.
• Develop software tests by creating test data and inputs and testing code.
• Document and communicate analysis results in written and oral form.
• Contribute to team interactions by consultation collaboration teamwork and task sharing.
• Ongoing professional development in bioinformatics data management and analysis.
• Performs tasks as needed not described above in consultation with the Bioinformatics Specialist.

Consequence of Error/Judgement
Errors made could influence the ability of researchers and staff to meet critical deadlines as well as compromise the results of research projects and therefore impact the credibility of the facilitys clientele. Consequently documenting and reporting errors to the Bioinformatics Specialist as soon as they are uncovered is absolutely essential. Processing errors may lead to the loss of data and/or the generation of erroneous data. This will necessitate the repetition of the work causing delay to the client adversely affecting the integrity of the facility.

Supervision Received

The Bioinformatics Technician works under the direction of the Bioinformatics Specialist.

Supervision Given
May distribute work assignments to junior staff and train new employees on routines procedures and operation of equipment.

Minimum Qualifications
Completion of a relevant technical program or a university degree in a relevant discipline and a minimum three years of related experience or an equivalent combination of education and experience.

- Willingness to respect diverse perspectives including perspectives in conflict with ones own
- Demonstrates a commitment to enhancing ones own awareness knowledge and skills related to equity diversity and inclusion

Preferred Qualifications

• Undergraduate degree in a relevant subject area: bioinformatics data science biostatistics microbiology genetics or genomics; an equivalent combination of training and experience will be considered.
• Experience in working with the Unix/Linux environment.
• Proficient with Python R or other coding languages.
• Experience handling NGS data including quality control/quality assurance.
• Knowledge of statistical techniques and analysis of large data sets.
• Demonstrated attention to detail as required for execution of analysis.
• As this position also involves extensive personal interaction as well as via phone and email written and verbal English communication skills are essential.
• Ability to plan and carry out multiple tasks and projects to prioritize and organize effectively to work under stress and to meet established timelines.
• The following qualifications would be an asset
  • Experience with standard NGS analysis tools such as QC e.g. fastqc alignment e.g. BWA or bowtie and variant detection e.g. GATK samtools software.
  • 1 years experience working in a clinical or research setting related to genomics is preferred
  • Familiarity with GitHub and high performance computing HPC clusters.