Senior Scientist, Bioinformatics, Oncology R&D

Waltham, MA or Gaithersburg, MD

Join a dedicated Oncology team that’s growing fast and building a strong track record of success. Our pioneering approach is identifying and treating patients earlier, focusing on early stage cancer trials and listening and evolving based on their needs. As a team we are deeply committed to transforming the lives of patients living with cancer – with the ultimate aim of eliminating cancer as a cause of death. There’s no better place to make an impact – here we are uniquely placed with the funding, the ambition and the bravery to make it happen.

AstraZeneca is a global, science-driven biopharmaceutical company. We are dedicated to discovering, developing, and delivering innovative, meaningful medicines and healthcare solutions that enrich the lives of patients. The vision of AstraZeneca Oncology is to redefine cancer, redefine our solutions to cancer, and restore patients' lives.

The Early Computational Oncology team works with our oncology drug project teams throughout the research and early development pipeline, from new target discovery to translational medicine and clinical trials. Our global group aligns its activities to AstraZeneca’s primary areas of focus in Oncology: immuno-oncology, DNA damage response, tumor drivers & resistance, epigenetics, cell therapies and antibody-drug conjugates.

Main Duties and Responsibilities:

• Work as part of drug project and clinical teams to understand their scientific and technical challenges and proactively impact these using bioinformatics.

• Apply data and knowledge analytics to deliver actionable insight driving discovery and development of the next generation of cancer medicines.
• Discover, design and code innovative ways to identify and visualize meaningful patterns in complex data.
• Work with our labs to influence generation of data assets.
• Share code and train peers and bench scientists in the tools critical to understanding complex data.
• Collaborate with industry and academia.
• Publish your work in high impact journals.

Essential Requirements:

• Relevant PhD (or equivalent graduate degree plus 1 + years proven applied experience), combining:
  • technical expertise in either bioinformatics, computational biology, biostatistics, mathematical modelling, data science or knowledge engineering.
  • a deep understanding of the molecular mechanisms driving cancer or immunological disorders.
• R and/or Python programming and visualization expertise.
• Skilled in effective communication of complex data to a non-expert.
• Expertise in one or more of the following:
  • Analysis and interpretation of patient genomic testing data, and integration with clinical response to identify response biomarkers
  • Analysis and immunological interpretation of data including transcriptomics, single cell, Flow, CyTOF.
  • Analysis of epigenetic data including ATACseq and ChIPseq, and multi-omics.
  • Data management including curation, data engineering, FAIR and reproducible research practices.
  • Knowledge engineering/analytics including knowledge graphs, ontologies, triple/quad stores, NLP, concept maps.
• Enthusiasm and persistence in the application of analytic methods to complex biological problems.
• Familiarity with the Unix environment.
• Capability of successfully managing multiple simultaneous projects.
• Working effectively within cross-disciplinary science teams, including with functional leaders.
• Experience contributing to the research community through publication, conferences and code.

Next Steps – Apply today!

AstraZeneca is a global, innovation-driven biopharmaceutical business that focuses on the discovery, development and commercialization of prescription medicines for some of the world’s most serious diseases. But we're more than one of the world's leading pharmaceutical companies. At AstraZeneca, we're proud to have a unique workplace culture that inspires innovation and collaboration. Here, employees are empowered to express diverse perspectives - and are made to feel valued, energized and rewarded for their ideas and creativity.

To be considered for this exciting opportunity, please complete the full application on our website at your earliest convenience – it is the only way that our Recruiter and Hiring Manager can know that you feel well qualified for this opportunity.  If you know someone who would be a great fit, please share this posting with them.

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AstraZeneca embraces diversity and equality of opportunity.  We are committed to building an inclusive and diverse team representing all backgrounds, with as wide a range of perspectives as possible, and harnessing industry-leading skills.  We believe that the more inclusive we are, the better our work will be.  We welcome and consider applications to join our team from all qualified candidates, regardless of their characteristics.  We comply with all applicable laws and regulations on non-discrimination in employment (and recruitment), as well as work authorization and employment eligibility verification requirements.