The Computational Biology (CBIO) unit at the de Duve Institute in Brussels, Belgium, seeks to appoint a full time research software engineer. The successful candidate will join the research group of Professor Laurent Gatto and will have the opportunity to work on projects across a broad range of biomedically relevant topics in collaboration with researchers of the biomedical campus of UCLouvain. The focus of the position is on rigorous research software engineering, analysis pipeline development and high-throughput biology data analysis, with the possibility of engaging in teaching activities.

If you recognise yourself in any of the following profiles, please consider applying.

• You have created/maintained/used software to address research problems in high throughput biology (such as, for example genomics, transcriptomics, epigenetics, proteomics and/or metabolomics).
• You can rapidly assimilate understanding of new biomedical questions, and quickly connect research needs to software requirements.
• You are committed to open source software development best practices and know how to adapt these to biomedical research contexts.

Duties and activities

The research software engineer will be expected to contribute to various activities, including :

• Research projects: support and advise collaborators with their data analyses and contributed to scientific reports and publications.
• Maintain and develop research software and repositories linked to the ongoing research in the group and collaborative projects.
• Participate in the administration of the computing and data storage infrastructure.
• Attend scientific conferences to present their research and development and workshops to improve and learn new sets of skills.
• Contribute to bioinformatics teaching, both within the institute and the School of Biomedical Sciences.

Required skills

The ideal candidate would be either a researcher with a focus on research software and data analysis, or a software developer with an interest in research and biomedical sciences. We are looking for a motivated candidate with a PhD or a Master's degree in bioinformatics or equivalent, possessing computational and quantitative skills such as:

• Good knowledge of the R programming language and the Bioconductor infrastructure (important).
• Experience with the processing and analysis of omics data (important).
• Experience in open and reproducible research, open source software and open data (desirable).
• Experience in C/C++ (desirable).
• Experience in JavaScript, specifically the development of online visualisation applications (optional).
• Experience in teaching, ideally the Data and Software Carpentry curricula or interest in training to become an instructor (desirable).
• Experience in high performance computing (desirable).
• Experience with code versioning and collaborative tools such as, for example, git, and GitHub/GitLab (desirable).
• Experience with other languages commonly used in computational biology and bioinformatics like Python or Julia (optional).
• Knowledge of French and English is desirable.

Contract on external resources, full time, with initial duration of 2 years (1 year renewable once). Position available mid August.

We value equality, diversity and an open, collaborative and welcoming work environment.

Please send your application by email to Laurent Gatto (laurent.gatto@uclouvain.be) referencing this position, including a CV, motivation letter and two references. Don't hesitate to contact me for additional information or post questions here.