Bioinformatics Scientist

San Francisco, CA, United States

Job Description - Pioneer Labs - Bioinformatics Scientist

About Pioneer Labs

Pioneer Labs is engineering the first microbes that will be used on Mars. We are building an engineering platform that allows us to cultivate hearty critters that can grow robustly even in extreme conditions. We aim for this research to make biomanufacturing ubiquitous, reliable, and green — on Earth and beyond.

To do so, Pioneer is building a platform for polyextremophile microbial engineering . Our approach combines functional genomics and robotics accelerated evolution to rapidly engineer microbes that are tailored to suit harsh, unusual conditions found in biomanufacturing.

We are a nonprofit startup based in San Francisco, California . We do moonshot marsshot science with an agile, startup-like team. Pioneer is incubated at the Astera Institute , and is a pilot project of Align to Innovate . See https://www.pioneer-labs.org/ for more information.

Bioinformatics Scientist

Pioneer is seeking a Bioinformatics Scientist to join the team as the first dry-lab scientist as we establish our platform for polyextremophile microbe engineering. The wet lab team is located in Potrero Hill, San Francisco. For dry lab roles like this one, we will consider in-person, hybrid, and remote candidates.

Salary and benefits

Pioneer Labs takes a market-based approach to compensation. The candidate's starting pay will be determined based on job-related skills, experience, qualifications, and interview performance. We benchmark salaries based on equivalents in for-profit biotech startups, and location-adjusted for remote employees.

We offer benefits including:health Insurance (inc. medical, dental, and vision) for employee and dependents, family leave (up to 12 weeks), a flexible time off policy, and a 403(b) plan.

Essential experience and competencies Educational Background: M.S. or higher in Bioinformatics, Computational Biology, Genomics, or a related field with 3+ years of professional experience.

Technical Proficiency: Advanced proficiency in Python and Unix/Bash scripting. Familiarity with standard software development practices, including version control and open science publishing.

Infrastructure Setup: Proven ability to set up and manage computational infrastructure, including cloud resources (e.g., AWS) and version control systems (e.g., GitHub).

Bioinformatics Expertise: Mastery of bioinformatics tools and concepts, especially in functional genomics, metagenomics, and microbial engineering.

Collaboration: Excellent communication skills and demonstrated ability to collaborate with scientists, engineers, and software developers.

Initiative: Strong initiative to learn and build new pipelines and tools, with a proactive problem-solving approach.

Problem Solving: Ability to think critically and employ scientific problem-solving and troubleshooting.

Science Communication: Effectively communicate complex scientific concepts through clear documentation, reports, publications, and presentations.

Desirable experience and competencies Experience with bioinformatic analysis of directed evolution and strain engineering

Previous experience in a startup or agile development environment

Evidence of contributing to open-source bioinformatics projects or software

Experience using laboratory automation, e.g. Hamilton Star, Beckman Echo, etcKnowledge of additional languages (e.g., C/C++, R)

Key Responsibilities Set up computational infrastructure: Establish and maintain core infrastructure, including GitHub, AWS, and other essential tools to support bioinformatics operations.

Support BARseq analysis: Collaborate with the engineering team to analyze BARseq (Barcode Analysis by Sequencing) experiments, providing bioinformatics expertise to interpret data and guide experimental design.

Develop functional genomics analysis methods: Adopt and expand methodologies for analyzing functional genomics data.

Automate and streamline workflows: Create and implement automated workflows for processing and analyzing large-scale sequencing data.

Prioritize wet lab work using metagenomic analysis: Develop novel methods for leveraging metagenomic data to prioritize and guide wet lab experiments on non-model microbes.

Publish software on open science platforms: Make the software developed accessible through open science publishing platforms.

Mentorship . Provide mentorship and training to junior research associates, fostering a collaborative and innovative research environment.

Science communication. Lead team meetings and contributing to strategic planning for research projects and laboratory goals.

Collaboration. Collaborate with cross-functional teams to integrate research findings into broader organizational objectives.

Pioneer Labs welcomes everyone

We believe diversity enriches our team and so strive to hire people with a wide range of identities, backgrounds, and experiences.

We are an equal opportunity employer. That means we don’t discriminate on the basis of race, religion, color, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, age, marital status, veteran status, or disability status.

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