Bioinformatics Specialist; Junior, Assistant, Associate, or Rank - ULLIAN LAB

Application Window

Open date: July 2, 2026

Next review date: Friday, Jul 17, 2026 at 11:59pm (Pacific Time)

Apply by this date to ensure full consideration by the committee.

Final date: Sunday, Jan 2, 2028 at 11:59pm (Pacific Time)

Applications will continue to be accepted until this date, but those received after the review date will only be considered if the position has not yet been filled.

BIOINFORMATICS SPECIALIST (JUNIOR, ASSISTANT, ASSOCIATE, or FULL Rank) - ULLIAN LAB

The Department of Ophthalmology at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) is hiring a full-time Junior, Assistant, Associate, or Full Specialist to focus on bioinformatics and data analysis for various research projects. The role involves collaborating across multiple laboratories, including Rock Hall, Cardiovascular Research Building, Sandler Neurosciences Center, and Wayne and Gladys Valley Center for Vision on the UCSF Mission Bay Campus.

The Specialist will collaborate with Vision researchers to provide comprehensive bioinformatics support to users of the Department of Ophthalmology's NIH-funded Vision Core Grant.

• Provide expertise in the design, execution, data management, and analysis of a variety of genomics projects, including but not limited to single-cell/bulk RNA‑seq, ATAC‑seq, spatial transcriptomics (MERFISH/Visium), proteomics, metabolomics, and other omics data across modalities.
• Develop bioinformatics tools for whole genome sequencing, targeted sequencing, RNA sequencing, and single‑cell sequencing to analyze sequence data and provide support to various research projects in mammalian eye diseases.
• Design and implement state‑of‑the‑art analysis pipelines using best software engineering practices, including benchmarking, quantitative assessment, adaptation, and parameter optimization of emerging bioinformatic pipelines and algorithms.

The successful candidate will participate in collaborative projects in vision neuroscience, develop and cultivate relationships with research groups, give oral presentations, and produce high‑quality publication‑level figures, graphs, and written materials. The position offers career development opportunities such as co‑authorship of manuscripts, participation in meetings and conferences, and networking within and beyond the UCSF campus.

• Specialist appointment at the Junior rank must possess a Baccalaureate degree (or equivalent) or at least four years of research experience.
• Specialist appointment at the Assistant rank must possess a Master’s degree or a baccalaureate degree with three or more years of research experience.
• Specialist appointment at the Associate rank must possess a Master’s degree (or equivalent) or five to ten years of experience in the relevant specialization.
• Specialist appointment at the Full rank must possess a terminal degree (or equivalent) or ten or more years of experience in the relevant specialization.
• Specialist at the Full rank must possess post‑doctoral level training in bioinformatics and a strong research background in vision neuroscience with specialized knowledge of the human, primate, and non‑human primate visual system.
• The candidate must have organizational and collaborative skills.
• Must be adaptable, reliable, and willing to learn.
• Excellent communication, organizational, and time‑management skills are essential.
• Applicants’ materials must list current and/or pending qualifications upon submission.
• Applicant must have all requirements met by time of hire.

• Background knowledge of genomics, genetics, molecular biology, data science, and statistical modeling.
• Proficiency with R, Unix, Bash, Python. SLURM for HPC. Git version control.
• Experience with single‑cell omics analysis pipelines and tools such as Seurat, Signac, Monocle, Harmony, Liger, FastMNN, Limma, RNA‑velocity, SCENIC, Scanpy, GSVA, GO‑PCA, Clustering Trees, Encode‑ATAC‑seq, Niche Net, CellPhoneDB, Cell Chat, InferCNV, Metascape, etc.
• Knowledge of whole genome sequencing (WGS) and typical NGC analysis pipelines and tools such as FastQC, samtools, bwa, bedtools, freebayes, GATK, SOILoCo, Lep‑Map3,…