The initial focus of the recently created Bill & Melinda Gates Medical Research Institute (“Gates MRI”) will be dedicated to translating findings from basic science into potential solutions that will fill the product pipeline for malaria, tuberculosis, enteric and diarrheal diseases, and maternal and neonatal child health. It is committed to saving lives by improving the pace and predictability of translational medicine in global health. The Gates MRI will relentlessly seek out innovative strategies to develop the best drugs, biologics, and vaccines to fight some of the toughest, most complex disease problems in the world.

The Gates MRI will bring together top talent from diverse scientific backgrounds and work across a range of disease areas and modalities to build upon the best work being done in scientific discovery, constantly pushing the envelope and embracing new methodologies. Unlike the private sector in biotech and pharma, the Gates MRI has the unique luxury of operating outside a traditional for-profit delivery model to enable rapid innovation and agile decision-making. Imagine never having to raise capital, having the freedom to take scientific risks, and being solely focused on finding solutions for diseases that take the lives of more than 2 million people per year.

The Gates MRI anticipates and accepts that some of these approaches will fail. However, it will fail fast and iterate quickly in order to rapidly identify the most promising candidates for development. To enable a fast to decision mindset, the Gates MRI will operate using small teams and a flat structure with the understanding that it is essential to break out of silos and embrace unconventional approaches across modalities. The four core mantras that will permeate across the organization and drive progress at every level are:
• Urgency: Strive every day to do better than your last best accomplishment.
• Collaboration: Solving the world’s most complex disease burdens is a team effort.
• Innovation: Uncover new methods, approaches and solutions to achieve unprecedented results.
• Rigor: Follow the science with passion and perseverance.

Though the Gates MRI will be a diverse group of passionate change-makers, creative fixers and relentless advocates, these four core values will be universally adopted by all who join the Gates MRI and strive to improve the health and wellness of the world’s most vulnerable populations.

THE POSITION
We are seeking an exceptionally talented and motivated individual for a contract position of Bioinformatics Scientist. The position will report to the Bioinformatics / Systems Biology Leader and work on several projects centering on discovery of predictive biomarkers and improving the mechanistic understanding of human protective immunity to tuberculosis. The work will support Gates MRI product development teams in decision making and addressing key scientific challenges. The Bioinformatics Scientist will work on multi-scale high-dimensional datasets and develop/implement advanced bioinformatics/biostatistics approaches with cutting-edge machine-learning algorithms to facilitate Translational Science, bridging between early-phase vaccine/drug development and late-phase clinical trials. The successful candidate should have the capacity for innovation and risk-taking in order to accommodate the fast-paced development of data analysis in recently emerging omics technologies. This is a 12-month contract position, with possibility of extension contingent upon performance and continued business need.

RESPONSIBILITIES
• Process, analyze and interpret omics data from bulk/single-cell RNA-seq and ATAC-seq.
• Implement and develop analytics approaches for multiple omics data, including transcriptome, proteome, epigenome, and metabolome.
• Perform and develop multivariate statistical analysis and visualization of high-dimensional data.
• Landscape and conduct integrated analysis of the published omics datasets for hypotheses generating and testing.
• Work as part of a team to establish an automated workflow for data processing and integration in a cloud environment.
• Work collaboratively with teams for analytics pipeline development, including but not limited to multi-omics data analysis, machine-learning model, network analysis and benchmark.
• Interpret, report and prepare for publication the results of independent and collaborative research.
QUALIFICATIONS
 Master’s degree with 2-3 years of experience, or PhD’s degree with 0-2 years of experience in a related field
(Bioinformatics, Computational Biology, Bioengineering).
 Strong programming experience is required; working knowledge of Python and R are required; knowledge of MATLAB is a plus
 Experience with high-performance computing cluster and working in a Linux environment is required
 Experience with analyses of next-generation sequencing data is required
 Experience with machine learning, network analysis and/or statistical models is a great plus
 Solid knowledge in basic molecular biology and immunology is a plus
 Capability for interpretation and innovative analyses of large biological datasets
 Ability to communicate technical information and scientific concepts in a clear manner.
 Personal attributes: self-driven, fast learner, problem solver. Must be able to meet deadlines consistently.

If you have interest, please send your CV/resume to Wen-Han Yu, PhD, Bioinformatics/Systems Biology Leader at Bill & Melinda Gates Medical Research Institute - wenhan.yu@gatesmri.org