Senior Bioinformatics Research Scientist

St. Jude Children's Research Hospital's Pediatric Translational Neuroscience Initiative (PTNI) is dedicated to understanding and treating catastrophic childhood neurological diseases. PTNI bridges basic and clinical neuroscience, partnering with industry and foundations to accelerate the translation of novel therapies from bench to bedside. The Center for Pediatric Neurological Disease Research (CPNDR), PTNI's basic science arm, houses the McKinnon Lab, which is seeking a Senior Bioinformatics Research Scientist to lead sequencing and multi-omics analysis pipelines.

We're looking for a self-starter with deep expertise in bioinformatics and human genetics, a genuine commitment to neurological disease research, and exceptional communication skills. The ideal candidate stays at the forefront of emerging tools and technologies and uses that knowledge to expand CPNDR's analytical capabilities.

This scientist will independently design and implement analytical strategies across multiple genomics platforms, interpret complex datasets, and translate findings for diverse audiences. These include principal investigators, laboratory personnel with limited computational backgrounds, collaborating laboratories, and institutional core facilities. The role requires strong project ownership and the ability to prioritize competing demands across laboratory research initiatives as scientific needs evolve.

The successful candidate will apply advanced problem-solving and independent scientific judgment, not simply execute established workflows under supervision. Responsibilities include diagnosing sequencing and data-quality issues, identifying root causes of unexpected results, and developing and implementing corrective analytical strategies with minimal direction. This level of autonomy is essential to providing reliable, innovative computational support as our research portfolio continues to expand.

Areas of Focus

• Bulk and single-cell transcriptomics from patient cells, organoids, and animal models, supporting rare disease gene discovery and analysis
• Analysis of patient disease mutations and cross-disorder comparisons
• Multiple sequencing platforms, including short- and long-read technologies
• Integration and management of multi-omics data (DNA, RNA, methylation etc.)
• Familiarity in building or managing GUI applications and databases for multi-omic sequencing results and clinical datasets from diverse sources.

Additional Responsibilities

• Train and mentor PTNI and laboratory members
• Prepare documentation and educational materials
• Serve as liaison among researchers, institutional computational resources, and collaborating research groups
• Establish best practices and strengthen lab-wide bioinformatics capabilities
• Ensure computational infrastructure supports rapidly evolving research priorities

Job Responsibilities

• Provide research support and deliver high-quality results by formulating an efficient analytical approach with the available data.
• Deliver data files, and document the analytical process. May participate in manuscript preparation at project's conclusion.
• Assist with establishing and documenting protocols or best practices for common research tasks, and in the formulation of analytical plans that use the best approach to address challenging data analysis questions.
• Assist in the evaluation and testing of new methods and technologies.
• Contribute ideas to automate or improve existing analysis methods. Implement the improvement or work with others to do so.
• Participate in the department's developmental projects and interdepartmental team projects.
• Perform other duties as assigned to meet the goals and objectives of the department and institution.
• Maintains regular and predictable attendance.

Minimum Education and/or Training

• Bachelor's degree in bioinformatics, cheminformatics, statistics/computer science (with a background in biological sciences or chemistry) or related field.
• Master's degree or PhD preferred.

Minimum Experience

• Minimum Requirement: Bachelor's degree with 7+ years of relevant post-degree work in bioinformatics, cheminformatics, statistics/computer science (with a background in biological sciences or chemistry).
• Experience Exception: Master's degree with 5+ years of relevant post-degree experience (OR) PhD with 2+ years of relevant post-degree experience.
• Significant experience in at least one programming or scripting language and at least one statistical package, with R preferred.