Senior Statistical Geneticist

Overview

Our Future Health will be the UK's largest ever health research programme, bringing people together to develop new ways to detect, prevent, and treat diseases. Diseases like cancer, dementia, diabetes, and heart disease affect the lives of many people in our communities. Our goal is to create a world-leading resource for health research, to improve our understanding and spot the patterns of how and why common diseases start, so treatments can begin sooner and be more effective.

We're hiring a Senior Statistical Geneticist to join our growing molecular epidemiology division, helping us to build, refine, and expand our genetic data repository and the range of genetic data products we offer to researchers. The successful applicant will apply their methodological and quantitative expertise in genetic data analysis to help deliver UK's largest ever health research programme.

The Senior Statistical Geneticist will work with the Director of Science and Molecular Epidemiology to lead projects in generation, analysis, and downstream use of genetic data, including but not limited to:

• Ideation and development of modifications, methods, and tools to enhance the resource, including development of new types of genetic data products.
• Support in delivery of genetic data related initiatives that require expert-level knowledge and skills in statistical methodologies for genetic data analysis.
• Evaluation of our data repository in human genetics research use cases.
• Support other statistical geneticists and delivery teams managing genotyping operations, developing and releasing data products, and enhancing researcher experience.

This will require you to:

• Own the technical specification and design history of our custom bead chip genotyping array and the end-to-end high-throughput genotyping assay for data collection and downstream processing.
• Act as the senior genetics expert and scientific project lead in delivery of key scientific objectives by the Labs-to-Data (L2D) Working Group and the Genetic Data (GD) squad, collaborating with lab operations, quality assurance, data operations, program managers, product managers, software and data engineers, and other Science team members.
• Lead the design, planning, and execution of research studies in population genetics and genetic epidemiology using Our Future Health genetic data to evaluate, compare, and stress-test the resource, pipelines, platforms, and the research environment.
• Lead adaptation and development of new research methodologies and materials to support genetic epidemiology work by the team.
• Support other statistical geneticists in troubleshooting genetic data results by identifying root causes, proposing mitigation strategies, and recommending pipeline improvements based on deep data insights.
• Support development of externally facing datasets, documents, and tools to guide researchers on the availability and utility of data and samples and to meet relevant quality and regulatory requirements.
• Support Recontact and Engagement teams in evaluating participant genotype data for projects involving recall-by-genotype and feedback of genetics-based health insights.
• Attend national meetings and conferences, both as a representative of Our Future Health and to disseminate research findings.
• Demonstrate support of organisational compliance requirements, including policies, procedures, and controls.

Essential

• A PhD with 5+ years post-doctoral experience (or equivalent) in statistical genetics, biostatistics, bioinformatics, genetic epidemiology, or a closely related subject.
• Significant experience in bioinformatics and analysis of large-scale genetic data, including genome-wide association studies, multi-ancestry analyses, and polygenic risk scoring methodologies.
• Excellent understanding of statistical concepts and methods in genetics and genetic epidemiology.
• Significant experience in designing, planning, and conducting scientific studies, both independently and as part of an interdisciplinary team.
• Experience in in-depth raw genetic data QC analysis.
• Proficiency in standard computational tools of statistical genetics and with programming and scripting languages (e.g., R, Python, bash).
• Excellent prioritisation and workload management skills.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills, including the ability to manage project documentation, present complex research concepts and results to lay audience, and write scientific manuscripts.

Desirable

• Experience in working with genotyping data
• Experience in working with whole-genome sequencing data
• Experience in working in a product-focused iterative development cycle for data products or track record of building data products in a product-focused, agile development environment
• Experience in using Databricks, JupyterLab or other notebook-based analysis environment in the cloud
• Experience in large-scale multimodal molecular epidemiology studies
• Experience in following code best practices; code versioning, code review, GitHub etc
• Experience in writing publications and preparing scientific presentations
• Experience in working closely with external data suppliers to define service requirements
• Experience in working under a Quality Management System

Let's prevent disease together.

Closing date for applications: 4th November

We recommend you apply as soon as possible as occasionally due to high volumes of applications, we need to close our postings early.

At Our Future Health, we recognise the importance of having a diverse workforce and ensuring that all candidates, regardless of their background, have equitable access to our application process. We proactively encourage applicants who identify as having a disability, neurodiversity, or long-term health conditions to let us know if they require any reasonable adjustments as part of their application process.

If you do require any reasonable adjustments, please email us at

Benefits

• Salary from £65,000
• Generous Pension Scheme - We invest in your future with employer contributions of up to 12%.
• 30 Days Holiday + Bank Holidays - Enjoy a generous holiday allowance with the flexibility to take bank holidays when it suits you.
• Enhanced Parental Leave - Supporting you during life's biggest moments.
• Career Growth & Development - £500 per year to spend on Learnerbly, our learning platform, plus regular appraisals and development opportunities.
• Cycle to Work Scheme - Save 25-39% on a new bike and accessories through salary sacrifice.
• Home & Tech Savings - Get up to 8% off on IKEA and Currys products, spreading the cost over 12 months through salary sacrifice.
• £1,000 Employee Referral Bonus - Know someone amazing? Get rewarded for bringing them on board!
• Wellbeing Support - Access to Mental Health First Aiders, plus 24/7 online GP services and an Employee Assistance Programme for you and your family.
• A Great Place to Work - We have a lovely Central London office in Holborn, and offer flexible and remote working arrangements.