Scientific Assistant- Bioinformatics

Scientific Assistant
- Bioinformatics

Online applications must be received before 11:59pm on June 28, 2026. If a date is not listed above, review the Applicant Instructions below for more details.

Available Title(s): 1161- - Scientific Assistant

Business

Title:

Scientific Assistant
- Bioinformatics

Employee Type:
Admin. Professional (+) (Fixed Term)

Join a dynamic and collaborative research team where you will explore how the microbiome, host genetics, and immune system shape atopic diseases and related biological questions. As a Scientific Assistant specializing in computational biology, bioinformatics, and data analysis, you will play a central role as the lab's bioinformatics expert, driving high-impact research through reproducible analyses, pipeline development, and organized data and code management.

In this role, you will help maintain secure, well-documented research data systems, analyze sequencing and multi-omics datasets, and contribute to manuscripts and grant outputs. You will also support and mentor lab members by onboarding them to computational workflows and promoting best practices.

This is a full-time (100% FTE), temporary position. This position is overtime eligible.

This is a temporary position expected to end on June 30, 2027. Renewal is dependent on the need for extension and/or if additional funding is secured to extend employment.

$3,750.85 - $5,397.56 | Commensurate with experience and qualifications. In accordance with RCW 49.58.110, the above salary reflects the full salary range for this position. Individual placement within the range is based on the candidate's current experience, education, skills, and abilities related to the position.

WSU offers a comprehensive benefits package which includes paid sick and vacation leave; paid holidays; medical, dental, life and disability insurance package for employees and dependents; retirement; deferred compensation, optional supplemental retirement accounts; training and development; and employee tuition waiver. For additional information, please review the detailed Summary of Benefits offered by WSU for AP staff and Total Compensation.

• A Bachelor's degree in computational biology, bioinformatics, genomics, microbiology, biology, statistics, computer science, data science, or engineering discipline and three (3) years of progressively responsible related professional research experience. Any combination of relevant education and experience may be substituted for the educational requirement on a year-for-year basis. A Master's degree in an appropriate related scientific or engineering discipline may be substituted for up to one year of the required work experience.
• Minimum of 3 years of relevant experience in computational biology, bioinformatics, genomics, biological data analysis, or related research support.
• Demonstrated experience analyzing biological or biomedical datasets using R, Python, command-line tools, and/or other relevant computational platforms.
• Experience working in Linux/Unix environments and managing files, scripts, and analyses on shared computing systems or high-performance computing resources.
• Strong organizational and time-management skills, with the ability to manage multiple projects, timelines, and data-analysis requests simultaneously.
• Ability to maintain clear documentation of code, analyses, workflows, data organization, and project decisions to support reproducible research.
• Ability to communicate computational methods, results, assumptions, and limitations clearly to both computational and non-computational collaborators.
• Demonstrated ability to work independently and collaboratively in a research environment.
• Commitment to responsible data handling, data security, and compliance with institutional policies for research data access and use.

• Master's degree in computational biology, bioinformatics, genomics, statistics, computer science, data science, microbiology, or a related field.
• Experience with next-generation sequencing data analysis, microbiome/metagenomic analysis, amplicon sequencing, shotgun metagenomics, genomics, transcriptomics, multi-omics integration, or related biological data types.
• Experience developing, maintaining, or applying reproducible workflows using workflow managers, structured pipeline frameworks, containers, or cloud/HPC environments.
• Experience with Git/Git Hub or other version-control systems.
• Experience with statistical modeling, machine learning, data visualization, and/or multi-omics integration.
• Familiarity with human-subjects research data, controlled-access datasets, data-use agreements, or data security and access-control requirements.
• Experience mentoring, training, or onboarding students, junior staff, or collaborators in computational methods.
• Experience preparing figures, tables, methods text, technical documentation, or analysis reports for manuscripts,…