Huck Institutes Life Sciences NSF NCEMS Postdoctoral Scholar

Huck Institutes of the Life Sciences NSF NCEMS Postdoctoral Scholar

United States, Pennsylvania, University Park

• If you are a current Penn State employee or student, log in to Workday and complete the internal application process.
• If you are an external applicant, click “Apply” and complete the external application process.

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 is a term position; the length of the term will be discussed during the interview process. Continuation past the term length discussed will be based on university need, performance, and/or availability of funding.

• Collaborate with center working groups to develop and implement computational methods for integrating, analyzing, and visualizing complex molecular and cellular biology data.
• Provide technical experience in wrangling, harmonizing, and standardizing existing biological datasets, including advanced experience with next‑generation sequencing data. Implement comprehensive quality control measures to ensure data accuracy and consistency.
• Provide expert advice to working groups in evolutionary biology, including construction of phylogenetic trees and population genetics analyses.
• Offer support and guidance on selection and application of bioinformatics and computational biology tools and pipelines, especially for sequence alignment, gene expression analysis, and variant calling, following open and reproducible science best practices. Develop and maintain quality assurance protocols for workflows.
• Have hands‑on experience in data processing from raw data for modern techniques, including RNA‑Seq, single‑cell RNA‑Seq, ChIP‑Seq, DNA‑Seq, ATAC‑Seq, and Hi‑C. Support publication of intermediate data products, code, and documentation.
• Stay up‑to‑date with the latest advancements in bioinformatics, computational biology, and available biological datasets.

• PhD in Computational Biology, Bioinformatics, Computer Science, Statistics, or a related field.
• Solid foundation and expertise in Python and/or R for data analysis, scripting, and statistical modeling.
• Mastery using bioinformatics or computational biology software (e.g., BLAST, GATK, Bioconductor).
• Expertise in data wrangling, harmonization, big data analytics, ETL processes, and extracting meaningful insights from complex datasets.
• Experience with large‑scale molecular and cellular datasets, including genomic, transcriptomic, proteomic, metabolomic, lipidomic, epigenomic, interactomic, structural, glycomic, and single‑cell multi‑omics data.
• Hands‑on experience with Git version control systems and Data Version Control (DVC).
• Understanding of genetic principles, molecular biology techniques, and genomic databases.
• Experience developing new bioinformatics tools as required by research needs.
• Publications in peer‑reviewed journals demonstrating contributions to the field.

Candidates must also have impeccable ethics and integrity, a strong work ethic, strong interpersonal and written skills, and the ability to work well in a team environment.

• A current Curriculum Vitae or Resume
• A cover letter detailing the candidate's interest in the role

Employment with the University will require successful completion of background checks in accordance with University policies.

Penn State provides a competitive benefits package for full‑time employees designed to support personal and professional well‑being. For more detailed information, please visit our Benefits Page. (For Postdoctoral benefits, see our Postdoctoral Benefits page.)

Penn State is an equal opportunity employer and is committed to providing employment opportunities to all qualified applicants without regard to race, color, religion, age, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability, or protected veteran status. If you are unable to use our online application process due to an impairment or disability, please contact 814‑865‑1473.