Research Programmer II University Of Southern California
Los Angeles, CA

Job Description

The Lawrence J. Ellison Institute for Transformative Medicine of the University of Southern California is looking for a Research Programmer II to complement its Data Management and Analytics team. At the Ellison Institute, you will join an interdisciplinary team dedicated to support the institute's mission of transforming cancer treatment by providing cutting-edge solutions for the analysis of biomedical data.

You will directly cooperate with the Institute investigators and outside partners on a variety of projects, tackling among the most significant challenges facing human health. Besides building and running a modern computational infrastructure, members of the Data Management and Analytics group collaborate in highly interdisciplinary teams throughout a project's lifecycle: from the initial design phase to the study publication, data release and subsequent monitoring of the outcomes.

Position responsibilities

The research programmer will contribute to the development and maintenance of the Institute wide computational infrastructure and support the computational needs of individual researchers. This role involves close collaboration with a multi-disciplinary team of clinicians, computer scientists, mathematicians, statisticians, and economists to understand their experiments, data, and project goals with the objective of developing and implementing robust and effective data management and analytics solutions. Data sets may include high-dimensional multi-omic data, time series from live cell microscopy, and complex clinical data from electronic medical records. The ability to communicate successfully with biologists and clinicians on their own terms is essential. Contributions will also be made to current and future development of grant applications, scientific research and scientific manuscripts for the Institute.

Specific responsibilities:

* Serve as lead programmer or technical specialist on research projects: Develop, test, and install new software applications, and enhances functionality of existing applications; Establish project plans and schedules and monitors progress providing status reports as required; Utilize creativity and innovation to solve conceptual programming problems raised by cutting edge research.
* Actively participate in research projects and collaborate with colleagues on research ideas and solutions. Work with staff and students providing guidance in system design and implementation. Recognize opportunities to adapt results for novel applications.
* Support the lab researchers in the development and execution of analytical and computational pipelines.
* Prepare developer and end-user documentation for other programmers and users in accordance with internal and external standards. Participate in the writing of technical and scientific journal articles and conference presentations.
* Review the work of others, as requested.
* Stay informed of new developments and technologies by reading journals and other pertinent publications, maintaining contact with vendors, and participating in professional organizations, meetings and seminars.

Qualifications

Demonstrable Personal Attributes:

* Ability to thrive in a fast-paced, multi-disciplinary environment.
* Strong organizational skills.
* Attention to detail.
* Interest in technological advances and solutions.

Knowledge and Skills:

* Proficiency with at least two programming languages (e.g. Python, Java, C/C++, JS and preferentially R).
* Familiarity with software development processes and tools and with Linux shell scripting, command line tools and administrative tasks.
* Experience with machine learning approaches (SVM, DCNN, …) and technologies (Theano, Tensorflow, PyTorch, …).
* Previous experience in a biomedical research setting, especially using computer vision and image analysis a strong plus.
* Facility with Microsoft Excel, Word, and PowerPoint.
* Good writing and verbal communication abilities.
* Understanding of metadata and ontology usages and reproducible research concepts and practices a plus.

Environment and background

The Ellison Institute aims to provide exceptional clinical care and to engender transformative changes in the management of cancer to significantly impact human health and well-being, and quantity and quality of life. The Ellison Institute's research focuses on the application of proteomics and genomics, mathematical modeling, integrating clinical trials, pre-clinical studies and molecularly targeted therapy, which focuses on molecular and cellular changes specific to cancer. The Ellison Institute uses all of these techniques to determine which cancer therapies are likely to work best for individual patients, allowing physicians to customize treatment for each patient's cancer. Our vision is that a patient's own metrics will determine their most effective treatment. They might include molecular tumor markers, the dynamics of intracellular processes, or the behavior of cells across diverse microenvironments. We investigate a broad range of biological systems, including cell culture, mouse models, and patient-derived tissues. Learn more about us at https://ellison.usc.edu.

Other:

Preferred Education: Master's degree in computer science, computational biology, engineering, information sciences or a related discipline. Combined work experience and education as equivalent.

Preferred Experience: 3 years of experience in software development or data analysis.

Preferred Field of Expertise: Computer science, computational biology, engineering, information sciences or a related discipline.

Posting Salary Range: $98,481 - $122,395

Percentage of Time: 100%

Fixed Term? No

Minimum Education: Master's degree, Combined work experience and education as equivalent

Minimum Experience: 3 years

Minimum Field of Expertise: Relevant work experience to provide strong technical knowledge of programming and analysis as well as senior or lead experience. Demonstrated ability to stand in for researchers as circumstances require. Demonstrated creativity and innovation in solving conceptual programming problems.

USC is an equal opportunity, affirmative action employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, protected veteran status, disability, or any other characteristic protected by law or USC policy. USC will consider for employment all qualified applicants with criminal histories in a manner consistent with the requirements of the Los Angeles Fair Chance Initiative for Hiring ordinance. We provide reasonable accommodations to applicants and employees with disabilities. Applicants with questions about access or requiring a reasonable accommodation for any part of the application or hiring process should contact USC Human Resources by phone at (213) 821-8100, or by email at uschr@usc.edu. Inquiries will be treated as confidential to the extent permitted by law.

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