Technical Specialist

The Division of Genome Diagnostics within the UHN Laboratory Medicine Program seeks a Technical Specialist to join a new Innovation team that is leading deployment of clinical whole genome sequencing across our hospital. Reporting to Dr. Trevor Pugh, Director of Innovation, the successful candidate will be primarily responsible for deploying software applications for test requisitioning, laboratory information management, automated execution of bioinformatics pipelines, tracking of quality control metrics, interpreting genetic variants, generation of clinical reports, and deposition of large-scale genomics data for research. Secondary responsibilities may include development of new software to integrate multiple systems, provide automated data summaries, or prototype new algorithms. You will work under the auspices of the clinical bioinformatics, laboratory, and geneticist teams within the Laboratory Medicine Program as well as contemporaries in equivalent roles at partner programs including the Ontario Institute for Cancer Research and UHN Genomics Collaborative Centre through the Ontario Joint Genomics Program. In this role, you would support development of a strategy for enterprise application integration, resource planning, and application development to enable access to clinical genome sequencing throughout UHN.

Candidates must have expertise deploying web applications and relational database management systems (e.g. MySQL, PostgresSQL) as well as sound software development practices. We would additionally value expertise liaising with database software vendors and external technical support on issues such as software upgrades, problems and potential solutions. A flair for data visualization and GUI design is a major asset. Preferred, but not required, is a familiarity with cancer and population genome analysis techniques and associated analytic tools including the Genome Analysis Toolkit, the Picard suite of tools, germline variant annotation, and mutation detection algorithms. Applicants should have 3-5 years of software development experience, ideally in an academic hospital environment. The Division of Genome Diagnostics is directly involved in the translation of research tools for genome analysis into clinical practice, and therefore adherence to high standards of ethical conduct, work quality, and professional management are a must. This is an opportunity to play a central role in a growing, fast-paced clinical laboratory community with high potential to positively impact care of cancer patients.

Requirements

Required:

1. Undergraduate Degree required in Computer Science or related field

2. 5-8 years experience in a software applications role

3. Expertise in high-performance computing environments, ideally for analysis of genomic data

4. Demonstrated past successful implementation of a complex software system

Preferred:

1. Masters Degree in Computer Science or equivalent experience

2. Project management certification (e.g. PMP)

3. Experience deploying software pipelines on commercial cloud computing environments

4. Mentorship or team leadership experience (informal or formal)