BACKGROUND:
The Institute for Genome Science in Baltimore, Maryland is currently seeking Bioinformatics Software Engineers. There are currently two (2) positions available. The Bioinformatics Software Engineer position is an exciting opportunity to join the Informatics Department at the Institute for Genome Sciences, a world class institute to support genomic, basic and translational research to improve human health at the University of Maryland, School of Medicine and beyond. We intend to accomplish this goal by leveraging the expertise of our domain experts, computational scientists, and engineers, a state-of-the-art computational facility and our partnerships with other universities and organizations.

RESPONSIBILITIES:
Primary responsibilities for this position include the development of integrated data analysis pipelines and database tools to support human microbiome research, involving the application of high throughput DNA sequencing methods to microbial communities isolated from human body sites.

• Maintain daily operation of an engineered analytical system, including preparing queries, extracting data requested by researchers, and arraying data in prescribed formats
• Take requests for system queries or for enhancements of existing analytical or reporting software and assess requirements for additional software engineering to accomplish task
• Consulting with managers or senior staff, translate requirements into software specifications
• Using third generation and advanced programming languages and tools, accomplish specified upgrade, data query or analysis request, or enhancement of operating protocol
• Confer with scientists or senior staff in unit to determine how scientific inquiries or analyses can be performed more efficiently using current analytical or operating systems and the software that interacts with them
• Scan other scientific sites performing similar research and analytical activities and track use of innovative tools and methods that are in the published research and in the public domain for possible use in local methods and software development

• Bachelor’s degree in Bioinformatics, Computer Science, Computer Engineering, or four years of relevant software engineering experience or education
• Ability to operate in a UNIX/Linux operating environment
• Proficiency in Perl, and one or more relational database management systems. Knowledge of one or more programming languages such as C++, C#, R, Java. Familiarity with web technologies such as HTML, CSS, PHP, Ajax

• Programming skills in appropriate industry standard 3rd and 4th Generation Languages and Tool Sets
• Ability to support production data management and software pipeline operation
• Ability to provide support to senior-level staff
• Excellent oral and written communication, presentation and interpersonal skills
• Ability to keep current with emerging software and programming technologies/techniques Ability to use advanced software tools in an innovative fashion to address systems, data analysis and data presentation problems
• Knowledge of methods for storing, analyzing, and presenting large data sets
• Familiarity with object-oriented analysis and programming
• Familiarity with bioinformatics tools such as sequence similarity, assembly, and alignment tools