Senior Software Engineer - Full Stack Web Developer

Are you looking for a challenging and rewarding career in software engineering? Do you want to work with cutting-edge technologies and solve real-world problems?

The Babu group seeks a full-time fullstack web developer to build and deploy React web apps for interactive display of biological data to track viral pathogen evolution through time, across the world. This is a joint project between the Webby and Babu Labs at St. Jude, and is fully supported by a three-year grant from The Flu Lab. St. Jude is a world leader in influenza research and surveillance. Dr Webby is the Director of the World Health Organization (WHO) Collaborating Center for Influenza, and a National Institutes of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) Center of Excellence for Influenza Research and Response (CEIRR). Their work places them at the unique and critical interface between basic research and public health. Dr. Babu is a world-renowned leader in the application of data science to biological discovery and is the Director of the Center of Excellence for Data-Driven Discovery, and is the Chief Data Scientist, Senior Vice President for Data Science, and Director of the Office of Data Science at St. Jude. The Babu group has recently introduced the concept of “variant accessibility,” in the Influenza A virus, developing a computational tool that predicts the likelihood of a viral genomic sequence reaching different parts of genotype space that might confer resistance to antiviral drugs or evade the human immune system (Science Advances 2023). This prediction tool will be further developed, implemented, and applied to global pandemic preparedness efforts including the response to the emerging avian and bovine H5N1 influenza viruses. Opportunities exist to interact with global public health partners, including the World Health Organization.

Virologists and computational biologists on this project are developing bioinformatic tools to survey currently circulating viruses and predict which are more likely to mutate and acquire resistance. The Senior Software Engineer will build a web interface to share our tools with the world and integrate them into international influenza vaccine and pandemic preparedness efforts to translate our generated models into real-world actions. The ideal candidate will be an expert in the creation of interactive React web apps using D3.js for customized bioinformatic data visualizations. When submitting your application, please include your CV and a cover letter that links to a portfolio of past projects. You must be able to present or provide links to a strong work portfolio that demonstrates your expertise in designing, building, and deploying modern web applications. Relocation to Memphis, TN is required; this is not a remote position.

The candidate should be a curious problem-solver who thrives in a fast-paced research group with diverse expertise. You will have a strong computer science and web development background, exceptional skills in designing interpretable and understandable visualizations to render complex, multi-dimensional biological data, and some understanding or willingness to learn bioinformatics tools in Python. You will be a team player and work as part of an interdisciplinary team of virologists and biological data scientists. Your work will help translate research discoveries into predictive tools to combat infectious diseases.

Tech stack:

JavaScript

React

D3.js

Python bioinformatic analysis tools

Nextstrain for phylodynamics analysis, and interactive visualization

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