Job Description
APPLICATION INSTRUCTIONS: CURRENT PENN STATE EMPLOYEE (faculty, staff, technical service, or student), please login to Workday to complete the internal application process . Please do not apply here, apply internally through Workday. CURRENT PENN STATE STUDENT (not employed previously at the university) and seeking employment with Penn State, please login to Workday to complete the student application process. Please do not apply here, apply internally through Workday. If you are NOT a current employee or student, please click “Apply” and complete the application process for external applicants . Approval of remote and hybrid work is not guaranteed regardless of work location. For additional information on remote work at Penn State, see Notice to Out of State Applicants . This position is funded for 6 months; continuation past 6 months will be based on university need, performance, and/or availability of funding. POSITION SPECIFICS Position Summary The Penn State College of Medicine, Department of Molecular and Precision Medicine and Department of Medicine, seek a PhD-trained Senior Bioinformatician / Research Data Scientist to support an expanding portfolio of translational and precision health research programs. The successful candidate will develop, implement, and evaluate advanced computational and statistical approaches to analyze high-dimensional biological data, including multi-omics datasets. This role will collaborate closely with faculty investigators across disciplines—including aging biology, infectious diseases, cancer biology, and mucosal immunology—to integrate genomics, transcriptomics (including single-cell), proteomics, and related datasets into mechanistic and translational insights. The Senior Bioinformatician will serve as a key computational partner across multiple projects, contributing to study design, data analysis, visualization, and interpretation while helping to build sustainable computational infrastructure within the department. Key Responsibilities Develop, select, and apply advanced computational and statistical methods to analyze complex biological datasets Perform integrative multi-omics analyses (e.g., genomics, transcriptomics, single-cell RNA-seq, proteomics, epigenomics) Utilize and implement tools such as Scanpy and other single-cell analysis frameworks Develop and maintain reproducible workflows in Python and related programming environments Collaborate with faculty to design computational strategies aligned with research aims Develop novel algorithms, software tools, and analytical pipelines to address emerging research questions Generate high-quality visualizations and analytical summaries for manuscripts, grant applications, and presentations Contribute to interpretation of results and development of new hypotheses Support training of trainees and junior investigators in data analysis best practices Ensure data management, documentation, and reproducibility standards are maintained Preferred Qualifications PhD in Bioinformatics, Computational Biology, Biology, Biomedical Sciences, Biostatistics, Computer Science, or related field Demonstrated experience analyzing high-dimensional biological or omics datasets Strong programming