Head of Bioinformatics LMS 1812

The London Institute of Medical Sciences (LMS) is a Medical Research Council funded research institute at the Hammersmith Hospital campus (London W12) of Imperial College London, with around 400 biomedical researchers undertaking multidisciplinary and internationally-competitive science.

For more information, visit www.lms.mrc.ac.uk.

Overall Purpose: 

The Head of Bioinformatics will manage, develop and help create strategies for bioinformatics and computational biology support and associated infrastructure at the LMS in line with current and future requirements.

The Head of Bioinformatics will provide the leadership, oversight and overall control of LMS bioinformatics support. This includes leadership of the core Bioinformatics team, which currently has 4 members in addition to the head. The Head of Bioinformatics will actively engage in data analysis, the development of data analysis, integration and visualisation approaches, and will provide high-level direction, pro-actively determining and monitoring bioinformatics strategy and work plans, and in particular support the demanding and rapidly changing computational biology needs of LMS research programmes. The Head of Bioinformatics will work with researchers at the LMS on a wide range of bioinformatics and informatics research projects, including genomics, proteomics, image analysis and statistics. The Head of Bioinformatics will develop and oversee training of bioinformatics at the LMS.

The bioinformatics team is supported by, and works closely with, the Institute’s dedicated IT team.

Working Relationships: 

• Responsible to the Director and the LMS Academic Advisory Group
• Working alongside the Head of IT services to deliver the overarching objectives of the Computing and Bioinformatics Laboratory
• Working closely with the Director, Heads of Research Groups and Heads of Facilities to develop the Bioinformatics Strategy in support of the LMS Strategy
• Managing a team of Bioinformatics staff in delivering the strategic goals of the LMS
• Collaborating with other Bioinformatics research activities and collaborators such as Imperial College, Max Delbruck Centre (MDC, Berlin), MRC Functional Genomics Unit, MRC Human Genetics Unit and the Centre of Genomic Regulation (CRG, Barcelona) to ensure that bioinformatics at the LMS are competitive and cutting edge

Main Duties:

Management activities:

• Provide thought leadership and identify new opportunities for further development of Computational biology in line with the strategic and scientific goals
• Meet regularly with Heads of Research Groups and Facilities Groups to develop and maintain an understanding of the needs of clinical and research staff the associated informatics and bioinformatics requirements
• Identify and ensure provision of the computational needs of LMS bioinformatics activities
• Maximise opportunities to network with similar organisations to benchmark bioinformatics activities and services and keep the department up-to-date
• Organise developmental opportunities for the team to learn new skills and gain experience from external training and other similar organisations
• Lead and manage a team of efficient and effective professionals in delivering LMS bioinformatics requirements
• Analyse and maximise the team’s ability to deliver the strategic goals of Bioinformatics and the LMS
• Implement and deliver a broadening of the knowledge and skills sets of the team in order to deliver a professional and excellent Bioinformatics provision
• Embed a learning culture focusing on individual competencies and how these contribute to the overall delivery of the services
• Pro-active team leadership and management to ensure all team members are responsible and accountable for the effectiveness, accuracy and quality of their work
• Promote a customer-centric service culture focused on individual ownership and accountability of work, communication with users and attention to detail
• Monitor, measure and report core bioinformatics activities of the department
• Coordinate training with internal and external speakers/trainers to deliver a centre of excellence in the training of computational biology
• Ensure best practices in project management are used for all software development, to ensure projects are aligned with project sponsor goals, and that projects are managed within agreed benefits, timescales, costs, quality and risk management
• Develop and grow a bioinformatics centre of excellence to leverage the rapidly increasing reliance of clinical research on computing services and infrastructure
• Understand and help develop computing strategies to support scientific projects and cutting-edge research that relies on computational power

Technical activities

• To develop and implement bioinformatics and statistical approaches for the analysis of LMS research data to publishable quality, including training in data handling and analysis
• To collaborate with affiliated scientists and other researchers within the MRC, Imperial College and elsewhere in London or abroad, as appropriate
• Conduct bioinformatics analyses in collaboration with LMS research groups
• To present and publish their work where relevant in high quality journals and at related seminars and meetings
• To keep abreast of relevant bioinformatics developments, standards, tools and technologies
• Increasing reliance of clinical research on computing services and infrastructure
• Understand and help develop computing strategies to support scientific projects and cutting-edge research that relies on computational power

Key Accountabilities: 

• Strategically assess bioinformatics requirements in respect of infrastructure and scientific needs via pro-active consultation with Senior Management and the scientific and infrastructure staff
• Review and analyse current services and bioinformatics capabilities, assess requirements over short, medium and longer term, and recommend appropriate and affordable solutions for the future
• Develop and submit expense and capital budgets and manage expenditure against the agreed budgets
• Accountable for the delivery of bioinformatics training
• Team-leading, coaching and mentoring of Bioinformaticians and other Bioinformatics staff as required both individually and as a team
• Providing in-depth expertise in the analysis of large scale biological datasets
• Ensuring adequate documentation of bioinformatics tools and data pipelines
• Keep informed and up-to-date on Bioinformatics developments and apply this knowledge appropriately and cost-effectively in the LMS

Education / Qualifications / Training required (will be assessed from application form):

Essential:

• PhD in Bioinformatics, Computational Biology, Biological Sciences or equivalent research
• Broad scientific background in genetics, molecular and computational biology, statistics and mathematics

Desirable:

• Strong publication record in bioinformatics
• PRINCE2 Practitioner or equivalent project management qualification 

Knowledge and experience (will be assessed from application form and at interview):

People Leadership:

Essential:

• Experience of leading, motivating and coaching a team of staff (current LMS Bioinformatics team is 4)
• Ability to encourage inter-team working with stakeholders and colleagues and encourages the sharing of knowledge and skills
• Proven experience in creating a culture of continuous improvement by identifying training requirements
• Displays ability to build appropriate networks and manage a range of stakeholder interests
• Ensures appropriate engagement of colleagues with relevant stakeholders and issues

Strategic Thinking:

Essential:

• Able to organise and prioritise resources to ensure short and long term targets are met
• Aligns work to overall strategic direction and LMS objectives supporting the MRC brand profile
• Experience of leading strategic debate to identify future opportunities and high performance team development 
• Experience of leading and managing change, both organisation and technical

Customer Focus:

Essential:

• Experience of providing bioinformatics support within a research environment
• A high level of customer service and communication skills when dealing with internal and external stakeholders
• Ability to use stakeholder feedback to make improvements to the delivery and provision of Bioinformatics services
• Experience in resolving customer complaints and conflict resolution 
• Be highly motivated, flexible and innovative in their approach to work with the ability to multi-task
• A high level of customer service and communication skills when dealing with internal and external stakeholders

Financial & Risk Management:

Desirable:

• Experience of budgetary management including capital expenditure and manpower, including reviewing and taking action to achieve value for money
• Evidence of negotiation skills with suppliers of goods and services
• Able to demonstrate a clear understanding of the principles & practices of risk management

Specific Role Competencies:

Essential:

• Understanding of core bioinformatics concepts and methodologies
• Excellent written communication skills with a good command of the English Language
• Broad knowledge of biological and bioinformatics databases resources and tools
• Experience in the analysis of large biological datasets
• Experience with analysing high throughput sequencing and microarray data
• Expertise in functional genomics and analysis of genomic features
• Proficient in the use of HPC to undertake bioinformatics analyses
• Knowledge of at least one object-orientated programming language e.g. Java, C#, C++
• Knowledge of at least one scripting language e.g. Perl, Python, Shell
• Knowledge of R and/or Matlab 
• Advanced Linux user
• Ability to support and train researchers n bioinformatics and informatics topics

Desirable:

• Experience of handling proteomics data
• Experience using machine learning methodologies
• HPC management and configuration. Experience of optimising and refactoring code for parallel computing
• Experience of scripting, programming and database development

Personal skills/behaviours/qualities (will be assessed at the interview):

Essential:

• Awareness and understanding of equal opportunities and diversity and demonstrates respect for other team members and colleagues
• Excellent verbal communication skills with a good command of the English Language
• A high level of customer service and communication skills when dealing with internal and external stakeholders
• Able to self motivate when working independently, as well as part of a team