Organization and Job ID
Job ID: 312624
Directorate: Earth & Biological Sciences
Division: Biological Sciences
Group: Biological Systems Science
Job Description
The Computational Biology Group at the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) is seeking a data scientist with strong expertise in computational chemistry structural biology high throughput screening protein/metabolite function prediction Artificial Intelligence (AI)/Machine Learning (ML) and software development to join our team.
The data scientist will contribute to diverse fundamental science research programs studying DOE relevant systems for biofuels/bioproducts and human health problems such as cancer and infectious diseases as well as microbial communities and environmental microbiology. The candidate will be responsible for computational and data science tool development for fully autonomous design work directly in interdisciplinary teams including chemists bioinformaticians computer scientists data scientists and software developers. The position involves working with high-performance computing platforms statistical analysis and data integration methods that will be used to develop AI tools for high throughput molecule/protein design. The successful candidate must be able to collaborate identify scientific problems and opportunities and leverage concepts and tools including recent advances in deep learning to develop data driven computational solutions. The incumbent will define and carry out the application of existing methodologies as well as perform original research in the field of computational chemistry biophysics and cheminformatics as needed. In addition to technical research this position expects participation in publishing project leadership and business development.
The candidate will help in developing new capabilities for the study of protein and compound chemistry in conjunction with the computational infrastructure for cell/pathway/gene-level mechanistic studies by using advanced data science tools for rapid prioritization of chemical structures with pre-defined functional properties. The ideal candidate should have a strong applied mathematics AI/ML and programming skills with domain knowledge in computational chemistry structural proteomics metabolomics and/or structural biology. The candidate should also have an interest in applying new approaches and knowledge to science problems associated with human health bioenergy biofuels design and carbon cycling. The candidate should have effective communication skills with a demonstrated capability to perform multi-disciplinary collaborative research.
The hiring level will be determined based on the education experience and skill set of the successful candidate based on the following:
Level 2 : Building reputation through application of S&E principles and theories and developing technical approaches to solve challenges. Receives guidance on new assignments making preliminary selections on technical alternatives; independently completes recurring assignments. Defines and leads project work at a small task/project level reporting results on time and on budget. Contributes to proposals. Embraces expectations for quality safety and security. Communicates the importance within the work team.
Level 3 : Established local reputation with specialization in at least one S&E domain. Making key contributions in setting technical direction. Selects and develops technical approaches on assignments with occasional oversight on complex problems. Principal investigator or co-PI on projects or tasks while integrating capabilities of work team members. Supports scoping scheduling and budgeting at a project or major task level. Generates new ideas for proposals and business development opportunities while leading development of technical section of small to medium proposals. Demonstrates ability to acquire funding for self with programmatic impact at the sector and division level. Serves as a role model for quality safety and security.
Minimum Qualifications
BS/BA with 2 years of experience MS/MA with 0-2 years of experience PhD with 0 years of experience
Preferred Qualifications
BS/BA with 5 years of experience MS/MA with 3 years of experience PhD with 1 year of experience
Ph.D. in computational chemistry/biology computer science structural biology medicinal chemistry bioinformatics or a closely related field with some post-doctoral experience in the areas outlined above.
Solid foundation in computational chemistry/biology physics-based modeling (Quantum/Molecular Mechanics and Molecular Dynamics) and computer science with AI/ML expertise for data integration to predict patterns/features that are useful for new experiment design.
Strong expertise in applying machine learning packages (unsupervised/supervised/reinforcement learning active learning neural networks NLP and SVM).
Strong organizational skills with the ability collaborate with internal/external researchers.
Significant experience with professional software development practices such as code standards code reviews source control best practices etc.
Develop software stack for automating a computational pipeline. Experience with Unix/Linux HPC environments and experience with a scripting and programming language (e.g. Python R C/C++ etc).
Expertise in the design execution of algorithmic solutions for curation analysis mining and modeling of chemical and biological data.
Experience with Deep Learning framework such as TensorFlow Keras or PyTorch including parallelism Boltzmann Machines Auto Encoders and Transfer Learning.
Strong record of research accomplishment and publications/presentations
Strong communication skills and enthusiasm for working individually and in an interdisciplinary team environment.
Equal Employment Opportunity
Battelle Memorial Institute (BMI) at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) is an Affirmative Action/Equal Opportunity Employer and supports diversity in the workplace. All employment decisions are made without regard to race color religion sex national origin age disability veteran status marital or family status sexual orientation gender identity or genetic information. All BMI staff must be able to demonstrate the legal right to work in the United States. BMI is an E-Verify employer. Learn more at jobs.pnnl.gov.
If you need assistance and/or a reasonable accommodation due to a disability during the application or the recruiting process please send a request via https://jobs.pnnl.gov/help.stm
Please be aware that the Department of Energy (DOE) prohibits DOE employees and contractors from having any affiliation with the foreign government of a country DOE has identified as a country of risk without explicit approval by DOE and Battelle. If you are offered a position at PNNL and currently have any affiliation with the government of one of these countries you will be required to disclose this information and recuse yourself of that affiliation or receive approval from DOE and Battelle prior to your first day of employment.
Directorate: Earth & Biological Sciences
Job Category: Scientists/Scientific Support
Group: Computational Biology
Opening Date: 2021-08-30
Closing Date: 2021-09-13
