Location: Manchester (hybrid role) - 3 days in the Manchester office / 2 days working from home
Contract Type: Full-time, Permanent
Salary & Benefits: Competitive Salary + Benefits Package
About Yourgene Health:
Yourgene Health is a leading integrated technologies and services business, enabling the delivery of genomic medicine. The group works in partnership with global leaders in DNA technology to advance diagnostic science.
Yourgene primarily develops, manufactures, and commercialises simple and accurate molecular diagnostic solutions for reproductive health, precision medicine, and infectious diseases. The Group's flagship in vitro diagnostic products include non-invasive prenatal tests (NIPT) for Down's Syndrome and other genetic disorders, Cystic Fibrosis screening tests, invasive rapid aneuploidy tests, and DPYD genotyping.
Yourgene has a range of innovative DNA sample preparation platforms, powered by Ranger Technology, the Yourgene LightBench and Yourgene QS250, ideal for cell-free DNA applications in NIPT and oncology including liquid biopsy.
Yourgene also has a global laboratory service network equipped to be a full life-cycle partner for clinical, research, and pharmaceutical organisations to support partners at the preclinical, clinical, and post-market stage to develop, manufacture, obtain regulatory approval, and commercialise new products and services. In addition, Yourgene offers NIPT and high-throughput Covid testing service.
Yourgene Health is headquartered in Manchester, UK with facilities in Taipei, Singapore, the US, and Canada.
Our Culture:
Yourgene is a growing, vibrant, and exciting place to work. We are looking for committed, driven individuals to be part of our next growth journey. Our culture is described by our employees as collegiate, friendly, professional, innovative, open, and fast-paced. We have many social and well-being initiatives run by our Social Huddle that keep our sense of community alive during challenging times that the pandemic has thrown our way. At Yourgene, we focus on putting values-led programmes in place to ensure that we can attract, retain, and develop our people. We want our people to have a career with Yourgene and we ensure that they are recognised and rewarded for their achievements and commitment; everyone plays a critical role in our growth journey.
Description of Role:
We have an opportunity for a Senior Bioinformatician to join our Bioinformatics and Software Development team to participate in the design, development, and maintenance of the company’s assays and bioinformatics pipelines. As a Senior Bioinformatician, you will carry out a range of activities including analysing large data sets, writing standalone bioinformatics pipelines for non-bioinformaticians to analyse data, and developing pipelines integrated into assays and tests across our full portfolio of reproductive health, precision medicine, and infectious disease products. You will be responsible for the surveillance of our infectious disease assays against the latest genetic databases ensuring that our products continue to detect all emerging variants as they arise.
You will work closely with the research and development team to make product ideas into high-performing assays used across our customer base which includes clinical, veterinary, environmental testing, and research customers. Whether working on a research-use-only or regulated assay, you will ensure that our product design and maintenance meets our ISO13485 and ISO9001 quality management system requirements and that software meets the required standards. You will support our genomics services and product development functions building analysis pipelines for a range of clinical assays within an ISO15189 environment. You will build bioinformatics solutions that support customers’ use of our assays in the field and collaborate with the software team to develop data analysis algorithms into customer-friendly software solutions.
You will have a strong background in bioinformatics and genomics with expertise in several programming languages including Python. You will have a demonstrated ability to work independently, supervising and training both junior staff and R&D team members.
Key Areas of Responsibility:
* The bioinformatics design of PCR assays using a range of PCR chemistries including ARMS PCR, QF PCR, Taqman, HyBeacon, High resolution melt.
* Design NGS assays using amplicon and hybrid capture technologies.
* Lead surveillance of infectious disease assays, curating sequence data and mining public databases.
* Use bioinformatics tools to assess the performance of assays and analyse large datasets.
* Write new bioinformatics pipelines and data analysis algorithms for use internally by our product development and genomic services teams, and externally by our customers.
* Keep up to date with new technologies to improve the design process and enable new product development.
* Work closely with internal and external collaborators to define the bioinformatics requirements for assays, set timelines and lead design reviews.
* Lead multiple work packages, providing regular progress reports and delivering timely results.
* Lead the analysis of large data sets and document development studies, ensuring compliance with all applicable regulatory standards.
* Provide expert technical support for customers when required.
* Ensure the completion of research-related documentation (including technical summaries) in line with our ISO15189, ISO13485, and ISO9001 quality management systems.
* Supervise and mentor junior team members.
Qualifications, Skills, and Abilities:
* MSc in Bioinformatics, Computational Biology, Genomics, or Biological Science with 5+ years of direct bioinformatics experience.
* Experience with Linux/Unix environments and proficiency in multiple programming and/or scripting languages (Python and BASH strongly preferred, with R, Perl, Java, and C++ all beneficial).
* Experience in setting up and maintaining bioinformatics pipelines in cloud and server environments (Nextflow, GATK, Picard preferred).
* Experience in using public databases for the analysis of genomic sequences.
* Experience in applying diverse bioinformatics tools to either human or microbial genomes.
* Must have experience in and understanding of design principles for a range of PCR and QPCR assays.
* Must have knowledge of Next Generation Sequencing technologies and associated bioinformatic analytical approaches.
* Experience of developing, modifying, and debugging code used for data analysis, preferably Python.
* Problem-solving skills and ability to respond to sudden unexpected demands.
* Must be able to use initiative to identify and implement tested solutions to improve processes and services.
* Must have ability to anticipate and resolve problems before they arise.
* The ability to work well within a team and have strong written and verbal communication skills is critical.
* Excellent organizational skills and outstanding attention to detail are required for this role.
* Expertise in sequence analysis tools for mapping and comparative genomics.
* Experience of working in industry, developing bioinformatics pipelines to analyse genomic data.
* Direct experience in writing bioinformatics pipelines for NGS data analysis and experience in analysing large datasets.
* Experience of working within a quality system in a regulated industry is highly advantageous, particularly ISO13485, ISO9001, and/or ISO15189.
* Experience in statistical analysis of data and a range of statistical packages.
* Demonstrated experience to lead and deliver complex projects on time.
Closing Date: Sunday 16th February, 2025
Yourgene Health is committed to encouraging equality, diversity, and inclusion among our workforce. The aim is for our workforce to be truly representative of all sections of society and for each employee to feel respected and able to give their best.
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