Bioinformatics Specialist II

Please see Special Instructions for more details.

Employer will not sponsor for employment Visa status. The Limited term of this appointment is until 12/23/26 at this time, with the potential to extend the appointment terms or become a permanent position.

Job Description

Summary:

The Antibiotic Resistance Action Center at George Washington University Milken Institute School of Public Health is seeking a collaborative and experienced Bioinformatics Specialist II to support research in microbial genomics and the human microbiome within a public health and translational research setting. The Specialist will join a dynamic Molecular Epidemiology and Microbiome research group that investigates the impact of environmental and occupational exposures on human health, with a focus on microbiome-mediated modulation of innate immune responses and downstream susceptibility to inflammatory and infectious diseases.

The group also studies the emergence, evolution, and spread of antimicrobial-resistant pathogens across human, animal, and environmental systems, and their implications for human health within a One Health framework. As a Bioinformatics Specialist II, the candidate will serve as a Senior Bioinformatics Specialist and will lead and execute complex, reproducible analyses of microbial genomic, microbiome, and epidemiologic datasets; develop and refine analytical pipelines;

and contribute substantively to study design and interpretation. The position offers significant opportunities to lead analytical components of peer‑reviewed publications, mentor students, and work closely with senior investigators and interdisciplinary collaborators to shape the scientific direction of projects in molecular epidemiology and microbiome research.

Key Responsibilities

• Host–Microbiome–Innate Immunity Analytics
  • Apply metagenomic, single‑cell, and bulk transcriptomics approaches to characterize how microbiome composition and function modulate innate immune responses, and how immune‑mediated pressures in turn reshape microbial communities and influence host susceptibility to infectious and inflammatory diseases.
• Molecular Epidemiology of Antimicrobial Resistance (One Health)
  • Develop and apply analytic pipelines integrating genomic and epidemiologic data to study the emergence, evolution, and transmission of antimicrobial‑resistant pathogens across human, animal, and environmental reservoirs, with emphasis on resistance determinants, population structure, and transmission networks.
• Synergistic Integration of Microbiome and AMR Research
  • Integrate microbiome–immune analysis, microbial ecology, and molecular epidemiology frameworks to elucidate how immune‑driven and ecological selection pressures contribute to pathogen fitness, antimicrobial resistance emergence, and spread across interconnected One Health systems.
• Quantitative Modeling and Translation
  • Use bioinformatics, statistics, data science, and machine learning to build risk models and surveillance tools that connect host immunity, microbial ecology, and pathogen transmission dynamics, enabling targeted interventions, prevention strategies, and policy‑relevant insights.
• Maintain and update bioinformatics pipelines and workflows.
• Perform data management, quality control, and documentation to ensure reproducible analyses.
• Work in a high‑performance computing (HPC) environment.
• Work closely with principal investigators (Drs. Lance Price and Cindy Liu), senior scientists, and other members of the wet and dry lab team at ARAC to facilitate project management, study design, data curation and analysis.
• Work closely with external collaborators at other institutions to facilitate data curation and analysis for multi‑omic datasets and clinical studies.
• Contribute to abstracts, posters, and manuscripts for scientific publications and presentations.
• Assist with training students or staff in bioinformatics methods, as appropriate.

Performs other related duties as assigned. The omission of specific duties does not preclude the supervisor from assigning duties that are logically related to the position.

Minimum Qualifications:

Qualified candidates will hold a Bachelor’s…