Postdoctoral Fellow

Do you want to help us improve human health and understand life on Earth? Make your mark by shaping the future to enable or deliver life-changing science to solve some of humanity's greatest challenges.

**About the Role**:
Would you like to help shape the future of pathogen surveillance? We have an exciting opportunity for a **Computational Postdoctoral Fellow (PDF)**, who is passionate about respiratory viruses and the microbiome and excited about the goals of our institute, to be based in the Team led by Dr Ewan Harrison at the Wellcome Sanger Institute for **3 years fixed term**.

**About Us**:
One of the biggest challenges in the battle against infectious disease is that pathogens are continually evolving. Genomic surveillance involves sequencing the genetic material of pathogenic microbes and their vectors so that evolutionary changes that affect transmission, disease severity and susceptibility to treatment can be observed.

The Respiratory Virus and Microbiome Initiative (RVI) is a new initiative with the Parasites and Microbes (PaM) programme at the Wellcome Sanger Institute. RVI aims to establish the next generation sequencing methods for routine genomic surveillance of respiratory viruses and other pathogens, including during a future epidemic/pandemic.

As a Postdoctoral Fellow in the Harrison team, you will join a dynamic and collaborative multi-disciplinary team with expertise in performing sequencing and bioinformatics analysis, and laboratory investigations.

You will play a key role in the successful delivery of RVI's goals:

- Generation of knowledge on the transmission and evolution of known respiratory viruses and other pathogens.
- Generate further understanding of respiratory virus diversity and biology to inform early warning systems for new pandemic threats.
- Generate new understanding of respiratory microbiome dynamics and how this influences health and infection, including understanding colonisation by members of the respiratory microbiota.
- Tracking and understanding pathogen evolution in the respiratory tract at a population level.

**About You**:
This key computational postdoctoral fellowship provides an exciting opportunity to lead projects working with collaborators, from different sectors, on a national scale. You will conduct original research and contribute to the development of sequencing and bioinformatics analysis of RVI. This role is an opportunity to contribute to a large-scale pathogen genomics programme led by Dr Ewan Harrison, to conduct analysis on large scale and novel datasets, and to help shape the future of pathogen surveillance.

As a member of the Harrison team, you will join a team engaged in generating, processing, analysing and interpreting genomic data at scale and establishing capabilities for large-scale genomic surveillance of respiratory viruses. You will be passionate about science and motivated to make an impact on pathogen surveillance and generating knowledge on the transmission and evolution of respiratory viruses and other pathogens. As a member of the Harrison team, you will work collaboratively with internal and external stakeholders integral to the project's progress. You will have strong understanding of computational biology and large pathogen data sets.

**Technical Skills**:

- PhD in and relevant experience in (e.g. viral genomics, pathogen genomics, metagenomics) or equivalent qualification in Biological Sciences
- Experience in high throughout computational biology
- Experience in handling, processing large pathogen data sets
- Attention to detail when performing routine tasks
- Experience in programming (Python, R, etc.)
- Experience in statistical analysis
- Ability to test, implement and troubleshoot new approaches and techniques

**Competencies and Behaviours**:

- Thorough record keeping, with strong organisational and communication skills, and good work ethic
- Motivation and ambition to make a personal contribution to the RVI and pathogen research
- A team player who enjoys working with others in a friendly and collegiate manner
- Ability to build collaborative working relationships with internal and external stakeholders
- Demonstrates inclusivity and respect for all

**Other information**

**Salary**: £35,707 - £44,712

**Closing Date**: 10th April 2023

**Working at Wellcome Sanger**:
Our flexible-hybrid working environment is designed to support a healthy work-life balance. This means you can work flexibly with a combination of working from home, and working from our Campus to allow you to focus on being productive and part of the team while enjoying the benefits of working flexibly.

We aim to attract, recruit, retain and develop talent from the widest possible talent pool, thereby gaining insight and access to different markets to generate a greater impact on the world. We have a supportive culture with the following staff networks, LGBTQ+, Parents and Carers and Race Equity to bring people together to share experiences, offer specific support and development opportunities and raise awareness. The networks are also a place for allies to provide support to others.

We want our people to be whoever they want to be because we believe people who bring their best selves to work, do their best work. That's why we're committed to creating a truly inclusive culture at Sanger Institute. We will consider all individuals without discrimination and are committed to creating an inclusive environment for all employees, where everyone can thrive.

**Our Benefits**:
We are proud to deliver an awarding campus-wide employee wellbeing strategy and programme. The importance of good health and adopting a healthier lifestyle and the commitment to reduce work-related stress is strongly acknowledged and recognised at Sanger Institute.