Staff Scientist

Overview

Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center is an independent, nonprofit organization providing adult cancer treatment and groundbreaking research focused on cancer and infectious diseases. Based in Seattle, Fred Hutch is the only National Cancer Institute-designated cancer center in Washington.

With a track record of global leadership in bone marrow transplantation, HIV/AIDS prevention, immunotherapy and COVID-19 vaccines, Fred Hutch has earned a reputation as one of the world’s leading cancer, infectious disease and biomedical research centers. Fred Hutch operates eight clinical care sites that provide medical oncology, infusion, radiation, proton therapy and related services, and network affiliations with hospitals in five states.

Together, our fully integrated research and clinical care teams seek to discover new cures to the world’s deadliest diseases and make life beyond cancer a reality.

At Fred Hutch we value collaboration, compassion, determination, excellence, innovation, integrity and respect. Our mission is directly tied to the humanity, dignity and inherent value of each employee, patient, community member and supporter. Our commitment to learning across our differences and similarities make us stronger. We seek employees who bring different and innovative ways of seeing the world and solving problems.

A Staff Scientist position in the Nelson, Haffner, Li and Ha research groups located in the Human Biology Division and Computational Biology Program is available immediately. We have established a research team working with interdisciplinary collaborators who have expertise in genomics, genetics, pathology, experimental therapeutics, cancer biology, and clinical cancer research. We are seeking a highly motivated individual with experience in applying bench laboratory experimentation and computational and analytical approaches to the study genomics and epigenetics of cancer.

The specific focus for this position involves developing assays using ctDNA/cfDNA in cancer diagnostics.

Candidates who are excited about driving projects and participating in teams that develop and apply technologies for interrogating cancer genotypes and phenotypes through bioinformatics, data science, genomics, spatial biology and drug development are encouraged to apply. The position has a competitive salary with excellent benefits.

The research projects and responsibilities for this Staff Scientist position include:

• Conduct research independently as well as contribute to research being done by other team members.
• Assist in project development, design, and management
• Participate in the training of undergraduate, graduate, and postdoctoral scientists.
• Lead mining and integration of large-scale multi-omic datasets (WGS, methylation, chromatin, cfDNA) to identify quantitative biomarkers for ctDNA detection and tumor characterization.
• Develop, refine, and benchmark computational pipelines for biomarker selection using statistical modeling, machine learning, and deep learning approaches.
• Build robust cloud-based workflows and scalable pipelines for large-scale genomic data processing.
• Innovate and evaluate new metrics for ctDNA quantification (e.g., methylation-based signals, fragmentation, gene expression inference).
• Design and optimize ctDNA assays using low-cost molecular platforms such as low-pass WGS, EM-seq, targeted sequencing, ddPCR and others.
• Translate computational biomarkers into practical assays via targeted primer/panel design, reaction optimization, and QC framework development.
• Conduct analytical validation studies including LOD determination, precision, reproducibility, and specificity.
• Contribute to development of prognostic biomarkers for clinical applications.
• Collaborate with CLIA/CAP laboratory teams to integrate assay workflows into clinical pipelines, including documentation for LDT deployment.
• Support translational studies in collaboration with clinicians and academic/industry partners (e.g., tumor detection, subtyping, therapeutic stratification).
• Lead validation efforts on real-world biospecimens such as plasma.

Candidates with strong interest and/or expertise in any of these research areas…