Bioinformatician

Join us as a Bioinformatician and make an invaluable contribution to our Food Safety & Biosecurity!

This is an exciting opportunity to join a growing multidisciplinary team of molecular biologists and bioinformaticians working at the forefront of crop health food safety and environmental science. You will contribute to both production service delivery for public and privatesector customers as well as innovative R&D projects. As a bioinformatician you will work primarily with highthroughput DNA sequence data from Illumina and Oxford Nanopore Technologies platforms supporting applications such as metabarcoding genomics metagenomics and transcriptomics. Your work will help develop and deploy new approaches in areas including crop protection and pathology soil health invasive species food safety food authenticity and wider environmental applications.

What youll be doing:

• Performing bioinformatics analysis in a broad range of applications and projects.
• Evaluation and implementation of bioinformatics methodology and software.
• Development of new bioinformatics analysis approaches.
• Development and maintenance of bioinformatics pipelines.
• Writing technical documentation on the postholders activities listed above.
• Contributions to project reports and manuscripts.
• Attending customer-facing meetings alongside Fera colleagues on occasions.
• Attending internal and external conferences/seminars with the opportunity to present as appropriate.
• There will be the opportunity to suggest and contribute to new project proposals and eventually to lead projects.

What were looking for:

• An MSc or higher in biology computer science maths statistics bioinformatics or other relevant subject.
• Experience in the analysis of DNA sequence data preferably including high throughput sequencing platforms in applications such as metabarcoding genomics metagenomics transcriptomics.
• A sound understanding of the molecular biology fundamentals of DNA RNA genes genomes.
• General knowledge of principles of common DNA sequencing platforms and the data outputs for each.
• Proven experience in Linux/UNIX Bash.
• Proven experience in at least one of R Python or Perl with experience in a second.
• Ability to write clear documentation of analyses planned and performed and of development work in accordance with defined procedures and guidelines.
• Ability to plan work and work to deadlines.
• Ability to work collaboratively with colleagues in a multidisciplinary team.
• Keen interest in applying bioinformatics skills to a variety of production and research areas in crop health soil health food safety environmental science.
• A keen interest in learning new technical skills and relevant scientific knowledge.

Whats in it for you

• Salary: 31170
• 25 days holiday (rising to 29) with the opportunity to buy & sell extra leave.
• Flexible working hours on-site gym restaurant and free parking
• The opportunity to take a paid day out of the office volunteering for our charity partners or a cause of your choice
• Company matched pension life assurance a cycle2work scheme 15 weeks fully paid maternity adoption and shared parental leave paternity pay of two weeksand plenty more.
• Voluntary benefits designed to suit your lifestyle from discounts on retail and socialising to health & wellbeing travel and technology
• Fera operates a LTIP ( Long Term Incentive Plan) under which all employees are awarded points towards shares in the Employee Benefits Trust on an annual basis. The Employee Benefits Trust holds shares on behalf of our employee at the point of an equity event the shares will realise a cash value.

What we hope youll do next:

Choose Apply now to fill out our short application so that we can find out more about you. If you have any questions youd like to ask before applying you can contact

Were an equal opportunity employer which means we recruit and develop people based on their merit and passion. Were committed to providing an inclusive barrier-free recruitment process and working environment for everyone. If you need the job description or application form in an alternative format or if youd like to discuss other changes or support you might need going forward please email at and well get back to you.

At Fera were making the world a better healthier and safer place. Were a joint venture partnership between Bridgepoint and Defra and were working proactively to protect the world we live in and the food we eat. Our teams are investigating plant and bee health crop protection and sustainable agriculture. Join us and discover better as you deliver world-class science for the future.