Bioinformatics Research Associate II (contract)

Title: Research Associate II

Pay range: $44.00 - $57.00

Work Schedule: M-F 9am-5pm EST

Location: Waltham, MA

Contract Length: 12 months

Description:
Sanofi's contingent workforce program, FLEXT Direct, is seeking a Research Associate II for a 12-month contract opportunity to join the Next Generation Sequencing (NGS) Core group. This role supports genomic analyses of multiple therapeutic modalities within the Genomic Medicine Unit (GMU) CMC organization. The Research Associate II will lead the analysis of gene therapy-driven projects, working cross-functionally to develop and implement genomic analytical solutions for programs spanning precandidate selection through late-phase clinical development. The ideal candidate will support end-to-end NGS analysis solutions through analytical pipeline design and execution. Strong independent problem-solving and troubleshooting skills are preferred.

Key Responsibilities:

• Support computational needs for the development and validation of NGS-based assays.

• Collaborate with a multi-disciplinary team of scientists and engineers to implement genomic analytical solutions for programs spanning precandidate selection through late-phase clinical development.

• Develop, execute, and maintain NGS analysis pipelines for execution in cloud-based computational environments.

• Keep records of development work and testing in a GxP environment utilizing electronic notebook solutions.

• Represent the group at internal meetings.

Basic Qualifications:

• Degree in a relevant computer science discipline with a minimum of 3 years of relevant industry experience.

• Minimum of 1 year experience with NGS, including knowledge and hands-on dry-lab experience.

• Expertise in bioinformatics with a working understanding of genomic analysis solutions (e.g., FastQC, Bowtie2, SAMtools, NCBI BLAST+, Nextflow, etc.).

• Scripting experience in coding languages (e.g., bash, awk, Python, R, etc.).

• Understanding of NGS platforms, specifically those utilizing the synthesis-by-sequencing technique (i.e., Illumina platforms).

• Ability to work independently and adapt under aggressive and/or changing timelines.

Preferred Qualifications:

• Familiarity with the software development lifecycle (e.g., Git).

• Experience with automated unit testing for test-driven design (TDD).

• Familiarity with basic molecular biology techniques (e.g., ligation, PCR, and qPCR) as well as nucleic acid extraction and analysis techniques (e.g., Nanodrop, DNA fragment analyzers, ddPCR, etc.).

• Knowledge of and experience with other sequencing platforms (i.e., SMRT sequencing).

• Prior experience in leading the internalization of custom NGS analysis pipelines is highly preferred.

• Wet-lab method development experience to support NGS workflows.