Ensembl Comparative Genomics Project Leader

The Ensembl project seeks a talented and motivated Project Leader to manage its activities in the area of comparative genomics.

Ensembl is a world-leading project that integrates and annotates genomes from thousands of species across the tree of life, and serves them in a number of dynamic ways to the global scientific community. The Ensembl Compara team forms a critical component of this mission, developing and deploying pipelines and tools for comparing genes and genomes, by way of evolutionary trees, orthology/paralogy, multiple alignments and synteny. As global efforts to sequence the genomes of all species on earth begin to gather pace, this position will give you a prominent role in shaping Ensembl’s response to this exciting challenge.
Your role
You be responsible for operational leadership of comparative genomics activities in Ensembl. Under the immediate supervision of the Eukaryotic Annotation Team Leader, you will lead the expansion of Ensembl’s comparative genomics resources to tens-of-thousands of species, with focus on the development of scalable pipelines for (a) inference of orthology and paralogy relationships, and (b) whole-genome pairwise and multiple alignments.
You will also:

Manage and mentor a team 4-5 bioinformaticians/developers
Manage the team’s development and production work for Ensembl releases
Engage with users and other Ensembl teams to develop effective displays and APIs for comparative genomics data
Write reports and papers describing Ensembl comparative genomics resources
Represent the project relevant international consortia (such as the Quest for Orthologs)
Keep up-to-date with current research in comparative genomics tools and methods

You have

Broad knowledge of comparative genomics concepts and methods
Experience with using relational databases for biological data
Experience with designing and deploying complex analysis pipelines on an HPC cluster
Proficiency in at least one programming language (e.g. Perl or Python)

You will ideally hold a PhD or equivalent in Molecular Biology, Bioinformatics or related field with demonstrated experience in comparative genomics. Applicants with a MSc and appropriate experience will also be considered.

You will have excellent verbal and written communication skills to lead within a project where biologists and computer scientists work closely together. You will also be highly organized in order to meet the regular deadlines, reports and procedures across the wider Ensembl project.
You might also have
Although not essential, the ideal applicant might also have:

Experience with formal project management principles and techniques
Experience of working with the Ensembl platform
Expertise specifically in Perl and MySQL
Experience with working in large collaborative genomics projects

Why join us
At EMBL-EBI, we help scientists realise the potential of ‘big data’ in biology by enabling them to exploit complex information to make discoveries that benefit mankind. Working for EMBL-EBI gives you an opportunity to apply your skills and energy for the greater good. As part of the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL), we are a non-profit, intergovernmental organisation funded by 22 member states and two associate member states. We are located on the Wellcome Genome Campus near Cambridge in the UK, and our 600 staff are engineers, technicians, scientists and other professionals from all over the world.

EMBL is an inclusive, equal opportunity employer offering attractive conditions and benefits appropriate to an international research organisation. The remuneration package comprises a competitive salary, a comprehensive pension scheme and health insurance, educational and other family related benefits where applicable, as well as financial support for relocation and installation. For more information about pay and benefits click here

We have an informal culture, international working environment and excellent professional development opportunities but one of the really amazing things about us is the concentration of technical and scientific expertise – something you probably won’t find anywhere else.

If you’ve ever visited the campus you’ll have experienced first-hand our friendly, collegial and supportive atmosphere, set in the beautiful Cambridgeshire countryside. Our staff also enjoy excellent sports facilities including a gym, a free shuttle bus, an on-site nursery, cafés and restaurant and a library.