Bioinformatician, Arnie Charbonneau Cancer Institute

Description

The Arnie Charbonneau Cancer Institute in the Cumming School of Medicine invites applications for a Bioinformatician. This Full‑time Fixed‑Term position is for approximately X months per year (based on the length of grant funding), with the possibility of extension.

This position reports to the Senior Research Lead.

The Charbonneau Cancer Institute is at the forefront of integrating genomic data into both clinical and discovery settings, impacting patient care and our understanding of cancer biology. The successful candidate will (1) analyze data from emerging and established next‑generation sequencing technologies and (2) build genomics data infrastructure to facilitate large‑scale analysis of cancer genomics data.

The bioinformatician will support the development of a novel sequencing platform that offers unprecedented sensitivity into cellular processes underlying cancer evolution. In this capacity, the candidate will compare multiomics data from in‑house and public datasets, participating in collaborative work in groundbreaking research.

The candidate will also play a vital role in building data infrastructure to enable reproducible, scalable, and extensible analyses of genomics data from cancer patients. In this capacity, the candidate will assist in building critical infrastructure to track patient samples, quality control, and genomics analyses. This work will have an immediate impact on cancer patients across a wide geographic area, while also building one of the largest whole‑genome sequencing datasets in Canada and enabling translational studies in the search for novel therapeutics.

• Contribute to the full lifecycle of research projects, including dataset curation, at local, national and international meetings

• Contribute to the development and maintenance of a scalable relational database for oncology data provenance to track deidentified patients, samples, and derived datasets
• Support adherence to institutional standards for data access control and resilience in collaboration with IT teams
• Define data models and schemas that support diverse study designs, sample hierarchies, and analysis versioning
• Establish data validation and quality control to ensure integrity

• Work collaboratively with other staff and trainees to achieve shared goals
• Work collaboratively with multiple research groups on translational medicine projects
• Explain complex information to internal stakeholders through presentations or one‑on‑one consultations
• Actively engage teammates for feedback, contribute to project planning and coordination, and flag risks early to maintain clarity, momentum, and scientific rigor across the workflow

• BSc or MSc in Bioinformatics, Computer Science, Molecular Biology, or related field
• Minimum 1 year of research experience in data science, genomics, or bioinformatics
• Proficiency in Python, R, or another high‑level programming language, including use of IDEs and agentic coding tools
• Hands‑on experience with Linux/Unix environments, virtual machines, and HPC clusters
• Familiarity with genomic data structures (FASTQ, BAM, BED, VCF) and the design of modular, reproducible data (bioinformatics) pipelines for efficiently processing, analyzing, and storing large datasets
• Experience with SQL and the design and management of relational databases (e.g., Postgre
  
  SQL) would be an asset
• Familiarity with data operations practices including data validation, quality control, access control, and data resilience standards
• Familiarity with workflow management systems (e.g., Nextflow, Snakemake, WDL), package managers (e.g., Conda), containerization tools (e.g., Docker, Singularity), and version control (Git)
• Strong written and verbal communication skills, evidenced by technical documentation, publications, or presentations to diverse audiences
• Experience contributing to scientific manuscripts or grant applications, such as preparation of figures, methods sections, and data summaries
• Excellent organizational, problem‑solving, and interpersonal skills, with ability to…