Bioinformatics Analyst

Are you looking for a career that will make an impact?

The Performance and Readiness Division of Leidos is currently looking for a Bioinformatics Analyst to support biological research at the Biological Defense Research Directorate (BDRD) at the Naval Medical Research Center (NMRC) in Frederick, MD.  The BDRD within NMRC facilitates biological defense research including not only rapid detection of infectious diseases of global importance and the enhancement of global disease surveillance for early pathogen detection and response, but also new approaches in medical countermeasures, such as advancing phage therapy to treat multidrug resistant bacterial infections. 

Are you ready for unique and exciting work?

The Bioinformatics Analyst plays an important role in the quality control, assembly, annotation, and dissemination of microbial (bacterial and viral) genomes, metagenomes, transcriptomes and metatranscriptomes in a military medical research setting. This involves installation and testing of open source bioinformatic software as well as working with a team to create new pipelines, workflows, and standards for customized solutions.

Primary Responsibilities.

The ideal candidate shall:

• Manipulate and process raw sequencing data from in-house Next Generation Sequencing (NGS) platforms (MiSeq, NextSeq500, NovaSeq6000, PacBio, MinION), microarrays, publicly accessible databases, and/or external collaborators.

• Assist in microbial genome assemblies and downstream analyses to a complete (polished genome) standard, they will also contribute to other tasks such as analysis of RNAseq data and bioinformatic pipeline development and testing.

• Perform quality control of sequencing data, genome assembly, gene annotation, etc.

• Perform well in a fast-paced, fluid environment.

• Integrate high-throughput data from multiple sequencing platforms.

• Use a variety of bioinformatic tools and potentially develop new software applications to solve salient problems in the field of genomics.

• Download, install, and benchmark open-source software packages from a variety of sources (GitHub, SourceForge, etc.).

• Assist staff scientists in summarizing research data, preparing posters, and/or presenting results via conference presentations, scientific publications, or project reports.

• Attend internal meetings and teleconferences as well as external meetings with collaborators and stakeholders when deemed appropriate.

• Contribute to technical reports, presentations and manuscripts for publication.

• Assist with appropriate training of other personnel.

• Candidates may need to work evenings and weekends on very rare occasions.

• 10% travel, including OCONUS, may be required.

If this sounds like an environment where you can thrive, keep reading for the keys to success!

Basic Qualifications.

• Candidates must have completed a Master’s degree from an accredited US university, or international university of equivalent standard, in Bioinformatics, Computer Science (combined with experience or education in biology or bioinformatics), Computational Biology, Mathematics or a closely related area.

• Candidates must have at least 2+ years of hands-on experience in Bioinformatics.

• Background in genomics, bioinformatics computer science, bacterial or viral genetics, and/or computational biology.

• Possess programming skills in languages such as JAVA, PERL, PYTHON, and statistical software such as R or R Studio.

• Maintain a familiarity with next generation sequencing and current standards in bioinformatics.

• Have excellent verbal and writing communications skills.

• Be able to think independently and must have excellent problem-solving skills.

• Be able to perform under deadlines and in austere environments.

• Must be able to sit extensive hours and lift 25 lbs. without assistance.

• The candidate will be required to acquire, at a minimum, a SECRET classification access level.  Preference will be given to a candidate who already has this clearance level.

• Due to Federal contract requirements, US citizenship is required.

Preferred Qualifications.

• Experience in phage genetics and/or pathogen discovery is a plus.

Original Posting Date:2025-02-25

While subject to change based on business needs, Leidos reasonably anticipates that this job requisition will remain open for at least 3 days with an anticipated close date of no earlier than 3 days after the original posting date as listed above.

Pay Range:Pay Range $85,150.00 - $153,925.00

The Leidos pay range for this job level is a general guideline only and not a guarantee of compensation or salary. Additional factors considered in extending an offer include (but are not limited to) responsibilities of the job, education, experience, knowledge, skills, and abilities, as well as internal equity, alignment with market data, applicable bargaining agreement (if any), or other law.