Staff scientist in Bioinformatics and Data Science to advance infection biology research

Department of Plant Physiology
Closing date: 2025-08-31

As a national hub for molecular biosciences in Sweden, SciLifeLab develops and maintains unique research infrastructure, services and data resources for life science. The overall aim of SciLifeLab is to facilitate cutting-edge, multi-disciplinary life science research and promote its translation to the benefit of society. About 200 research groups, 1500 researchers and 40 national infrastructure units are associated with SciLifeLab with nodes across Sweden. 

The SciLifeLab and Wallenberg National Program for Data-Driven Life Science (DDLS) is a 12-year initiative that focuses on data-driven research, to train and recruit the next generation of life scientists and create strong and globally competitive computational and data science capabilities in Swedish life science. The program aims to strengthen national collaborations between universities, bridge the research communities of life and data sciences, and create partnerships with industry, healthcare and other national and international actors.

We are now looking for an outstanding candidate with expertise in machine learning, bioinformatics or advanced statistical methods, to help explore molecular, imaging, clinical and/or epidemiological data. You will apply, adapt and develop machine learning approaches to provide data analysis support to data-driven Swedish research projects of scientific excellence, as well as being a driver of advanced postgraduate data analytics training on a national level. 

As a member of our team, you will be fully integrated with the SciLifeLab Bioinformatics Platform (National Bioinformatics Infrastructure Sweden: www.nbis.se), a unique national infrastructure with over 120 experts providing advanced bioinformatics support, infrastructure and training to the Swedish life science research community, and participating in international collaborations.

Your future workplace

You will join one of the main bioinformatic sites at Umeå university with over 20 bioinformaticians supporting multiple research fields, hosted at the Department of Plant Physiology. The workplace is located right at  the Chemical-Biological Centre (KBC), a life science hub hosting multiple instrument and technology platforms, and in close proximity to several national SciLifeLab data-producing facilities. Umeå university has a strong community of infection biology research, including the Nordic EMBL node Laboratory for Molecular Infection Medicine Sweden (MIMS, www.umu.se/mims/). 

For more information about working at Umeå University: www.umu.se/en/work-with-us/.

The bioinformatics group is hosted by the Department of Plant Physiology at Umeå Plant Science Centre, which has more than 200 employees and 35 research groups (UPSC, www.upsc.se). You will be working in a supportive group that delivers expert analysis and is pushing the research field forward.

Main responsibilities

The main responsibilities are to:

• Carry out advanced data analyses within nationally prioritized data-driven life science research projects, using state-of-the-art computational methods
• Develop and implement necessary tools and workflows for such analyses
• Educate other scientists across Sweden in advanced data analytics through collaboration within supported projects, advanced national postgraduate courses, and consultations
• Engage in the continuous development and improvement of the bioinformatics platform, the DDLS program, and SciLifeLab

Qualification requirements

We are looking for a highly motivated candidate with strong skills in applied bioinformatics, data science, and/or machine learning, to provide advanced data analysis support to Swedish life science research projects of scientific excellence. The candidate is required to meet the following qualifications:

(i) Ph.D. in Bioinformatics, Data Science, Biotechnology, Engineering, Physics, or equivalent
(ii) Extensive (3+ years) experience of applying and/or developing advanced bioinformatics, data science, image analysis or machine learning methods
(iii) Programming knowledge in Python
(iv) Very good oral and written communication skills in English
(v) Strong skills in cooperation and communication

Additional qualifications

Relevant postdoctoral studies or equivalent industry experience are a strong merit but not a requirement. Other strong merits is experience of one or several of the following:

• Research or development connected to infection biology, immunology or epidemiology
• Advanced integration of multiple layers of molecular data sets
• Programming knowledge in R and/or other programming languages for statistical computing and data visualization
• Deep learning frameworks, such as PyTorch or Tensorflow and data science tools such as Numpy, Pandas and Matplotlib

Experience in machine learning management systems, as well as databases and data structures for large data volumes is also a merit. “Reproducible research” and “FAIR data” are central concepts to us, and expertise in the development of reproducible code by using code sharing platforms, version control, workflow languages and container solutions is a merit.

Terms of employment

The employment is full-time and until further notice. Probationary employment up to 6 months may be applied. Starting date according to agreement.

Application

Your application should contain

• A personal letter, max 2 pages, including a motivation for why you want to join this effort
• CV with publication list
• Doctoral degree certificate

You apply via our recruitment system Varbi. Last application date is 2025-08-31.

Contact

Björn Nystedt, NBIS Support Manager, tel +46 18 471 44 13, bjorn.nystedt@scilifelab.se
Johan Trygg, UmU DDLS Data Science Node, tel +46 730 647 137, johan.trygg@umu.se
Johannes Hanson, Head of department at the Department of Plant Physiology, tel +46 722 243 283, johannes.hanson@umu.se