Senior Scientist / Associate Director, Omics

The Opportunity

High quality data generation with state-of-the-art technologies that measure multiple cellular aspects is at the heart of Insitro's efforts to accelerate drug development. In particular the omics platform integrates state-of-the-art functional and observational genomics technologies to interrogate the genes, proteins, and signaling networks that characterize individual cellular states.

We are seeking a highly motivated and independent team member with deep expertise in sequencing based readouts. The successful candidate will possess a deep-knowledge of methods for NGS library preparation (RNA-seq, Ribo-seq, ATAC-seq, ChIP-seq, Hi-C, etc.) as well as hands-on experience with various sequencers (Illumina, Nanopore, PacBio, etc). You will work in a fast-paced and highly collaborative environment to address important questions from our research community. Specifically, you will employ the latest genomic tools to interrogate these questions in close collaboration with all teams across insitro. Your expertise will help the team navigate the complexities of generating high quality transcriptomics data and ensure that the protocols being developed are effective, performed to the highest rigor and in line with best practices in the field.

In this role, you will directly impact all target discovery and prioritization efforts, advance our understanding of diseases and aid the development of new treatments. In general, as a staff genomics scientist at insitro, you will be in charge of establishing platforms and workflows to enable the generation of high quality sequencing data, generating large scale datasets paired with other modalities, and enabling multimodal measurements and data integration. You will be part of a cross-functional team of life scientists, data scientists, bioengineers, software engineers, and machine learning scientists that strive to identify therapeutic targets and develop drugs of high efficacy and low toxicity.

You will be joining a vibrant biotech startup that has long-term stability, due to significant funding, and is in a high growth phase, and you will have many opportunities for significant impact. You will work closely with a very talented team, learn a broad range of skills, and help shape insitro's culture, strategic direction, and outcomes. Join us, and help make a difference to patients!

Responsibilities

• Implementing sequencing protocols and platforms (Illumina, PacBio, Nanopore, etc), as well as functioning independently to explore and develop new genomic technologies.
• Leading and participating in collaborative genomic projects.
• Responsible for interfacing with other labs and cores to identify opportunities for research & collaboration
• Responsible for inventing, optimizing and maintaining state-of-the-art approaches in collaboration with scientists.
• Responsible for working with scientists to develop project-specific experimental strategies, techniques, and procedures, and to interpret and model data.
• Overseeing a range of duties supporting and developing laboratory operations and administration for sequencing workflows.
• Writing protocols and presenting research work internally and externally.

About You

• 8+ years of working experience post MSc with sequencing based workflows and readouts. Must have hands-on experience with library quantification with ddPCR/qPCR and with operating various sequencers (Illumina, Nanopore, or PacBio). Must have hands-on experience with NGS library preparation, in particular with single cell sequencing library preparation (10X genomics, SMART-seq2 and Split-and-Pool methods, etc.)
• Ability to work independently and lead projects.
• Hands-on experience with spatial transcriptomics and/or proteomics data generation.
• Some understanding of human physiology or disease biology (e.g. neurosciences, cancer biology).
• Experience with CRISPR-based experiments (i.e. perturb-seq).
• Ability to communicate effectively and collaborate with people of diverse backgrounds and job functions.
• Passionate about troubleshooting, asking questions and learning independently.
• Familiarity with software tools (e.g., bcl2fastq, cellranger) and bioinformatics.
• Passion for making a difference in the world.

Nice to Have

• Working knowledge of large-scale single cell / bulk CRISPR screens in various settings including in vivo, ex vivo, and cell line systems is highly desirable.
• Experience with lab automation is highly desired.
• Publication record of meaningful contributions to high-quality work in relevant computational biology, systems biology, life sciences, or biomedical venues.
• First-hand experience studying diseases using omics data.Experience building