The Opportunity

Are you an established Bioinformatics expert seeking your next senior leadership opportunity? Would you like to play an integral role in driving meaningful and impactful health initiatives? Then this could be the role for you!

We are now on the lookout for a Head of Bioinformatics to join our team at Burnet! You will play a key role in building bioinformatics capacity and capability to catalyse transformational research to achieve the Burnet 2030 purpose: to create and translate knowledge into better health, so no-one is left behind.

You will provide leadership across the organisation and will be responsible for building bioinformatics as a key research platform with the potential to establish a specific working group in the future. You will collaborate with existing working groups to provide high quality bioinformatics support and build technical capacity and best practice in the conduct of OMICS experiments and analysis of OMICs data.

In this role, you will also:

• Identify and engage researchers with bioinformatics skills to lead a community of best practice
• Provide high quality bioinformatics support, advice, and training to staff/students
• Conduct bioinformatics analysis for Burnet staff/students, and externally
• Support development of software packages for genomic, transcriptomic, proteomic and metabolomic, multi-omics data relevant to Burnet research
• Support development of best practice in bioinformatics coding, pipelines, workflows, and version control
• Collaborate with working groups to attract independent grant funding to build the bioinformatics platform
• Make intellectual contributions in generating, analysing and interpreting research data
• Design and conduct bioinformatics workshops, drop in sessions, and/or tailored training of staff and students
• Co-supervise and contribute to scientific mentoring of Honours/PhD/Masters students and staff

Refer to the attached position description for full details. This is a full-time position, initially for a 7-year period with possibility of extension upon review.

This is truly a unique opportunity to shake up an industry, make a meaningful impact, and put your name on it. Don’t miss out!

Role location

Although we would prefer the incumbent be based in Melbourne, we are also accepting applicants based Australia wide to conduct the role remotely with once a month travel to our Melbourne office. Travel expenses will be provided by the institute as well as relocation expenses for candidates willing to relocate to Melbourne.

Let’s talk about you

The following criteria are essential requirements:

• Experience in biological or medical research
• Experience in general bioinformatics skills i.e. NGS data/genomics/transcriptomics
• Experience in single cell transcriptomics or metaproteomics or metabolomics or multi-OMICs bioinformatic analyses
• Experience in writing code, proficiency in R, Python and/or other programming language for data analysis
• Knowledge of biostatistics relevant to OMICs analyses
• Proven interpersonal and collaborative skills in achieving research outcomes
• Proven skills in communicating and teaching bioinformatics
• Proven ability in maintaining accurate and detailed records of bioinformatic analyses, and data management

The following experience is also desirable:

• Research experience that has resulted in publications, conference presentations or reports or other tangible outputs
• Proven ability to effectively prioritise tasks and develop timelines for completion of milestones to achieve project goals
• Experience in building bioinformatics capacity in a research setting
• Experience in high performance computing (HPC) systems administration
• Demonstrated ability and potential for excellence and productivity in research
• Ability to prepare applications for funding National/International opportunities
• Track record in gaining independent funding
• Experience in pipeline development

The Burnet experience…

We want you to have a successful and meaningful career at Burnet and are committed to providing a supportive workplace environment for all our people. You will be part of a collaborative culture where progressive leadership, innovation, respect, and excellence are valued. Join a team of talented individuals who are passionate about what they do – achieving a more equitable world through better health. Hear from some of our talented staff about their career journeys at Burnet here!

We offer:

• A monthly accrued day off for full-time staff
• 14 weeks paid parental leave
• Flexible working arrangements
• Generous salary packaging
• Opportunities for career and professional development

Who are we?

Burnet Institute is a leading Australian, unaligned, not-for-profit, organisation passionate about social justice, equality and evidence-based research.

Burnet Institute brings together a highly diverse skill base, with more than 400 staff and students working across cutting-edge research and projects to address some of the most relevant global health issues.  Institute-wide interdisciplinary health programs Disease Elimination, Health Security and Pandemic Preparedness, and Maternal, Child and Adolescent Health are at the heart of our daily decision making. Harnessing our international and local field presence, our laboratories, and our mixed development and research cultures drives a greater focus on the most relevant health issues and achieves a greater impact as a result.

Whilst our headquarters is in Melbourne, Australia, we also have offices in Papua New Guinea and Myanmar, and are actively involved in research and public health programs throughout Australia, the Asia-Pacific region and Africa. Burnet is the only unaligned organisation in Australia that has dual accreditation with both the Australian National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) and the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT).

Bring your whole self to work

At Burnet, we foster a diverse and inclusive culture. We want our people to feel like they belong and are free to be themselves at work. We have an active Gender Equity, Diversity & Inclusion (GEDI) Council that works to promote and improve gender equity, diversity and inclusion across the Institute, by developing and implementing strategies informed by both national and international best practice and staff input. Burnet holds an Athena SWAN Institutional Bronze Award from Science in Gender Equity (SAGE).

Sounds great! How do I apply?

Apply below and attach the following documents:

• Statement addressing the selection criteria (as outlined above and in the attached position description)
• Resume

Applications close at 11:59pm AEDT on Tuesday, 28^th March 2023.

As part of our commitment to gender equity, we have included a question in the application process on gender. This will allow us to monitor and report on gender in relation to our recruitment process.

Burnet is a child safe organisation. The successful applicant will be required to apply for a Working with Children check and/or National Police Check. Australian working rights and evidence of full vaccination against Covid-19 will also be required.