Research Fellow, Bioinformatics (Future Medicines Institute)

The Future Medicines Institute (FMI) is a new industry-led research hub for Life and Health Sciences in Northern Ireland, hosted by Queen’s University Belfast (QUB). Life and Health Sciences have been identified as one of the priority commercial sectors by the NI Executive, as well as the broader UK and Irish governments. A consortium of companies, along with both QUB and Ulster University, have developed a model to create this new translational research unit. The FMI will drive collaboration, cluster development and engagement, enhancing research and development opportunities for commercial and academic partners. This multi-million-pound investment in new research infrastructure and research personnel is the first of its kind in NI. The FMI will house over 50 QUB and partner staff and be located adjacent to the Patrick J Johnston Centre for Cance r Research, the Wellcome Wolfson Institute for Experimental Medicine and the School of Pharmacy at QUB.

The FMI will be funded by the Department of Economy, Northern Ireland, for an initial 5 years, and managed as a UKRI Strengths in Places Fund project as part of the existing UKRI Strength in Places Fund programme.  The ambition is to grow and develop the FMI to achieve long term sustainability. It will work collaboratively with other regional investments such as our new clinical research facility iREACH, data science hub Momentum 1.0, the Centre for Digital Healthcare Technologies (CDHT) and the Artificial Intelligence Collaboration Centre (AICC). Collectively, these investments will transform the capabilities and competitiveness of the NI Life and Health Sciences sector here in NI, mapping and collaborating with other clusters in UK and Ireland.

The post holder will develop bioinformatics tools, workflows, and cloud-based infrastructure to support genomics and multi-omics data analysis across FMI projects. Working closely with biologists, bioinformaticians, and software developers, this role focuses on integrating advanced computational methods with scalable cloud platforms to streamline data processing, analysis, and sharing. The successful candidate will have a strong foundation in software engineering, data engineering, and cloud computing, with a proactive attitude and eagerness to collaborate in a multidisciplinary team environment.

About the person:

The successful candidate must have, and your application should clearly demonstrate that you meet, the following criteria:

• Degree in computer science, bioinformatics, data engineering, or a related discipline.
• Have or about to obtain* a relevant PhD. *(must be obtained within 3 months of interview date).
• Specific, relevant research experience.
• Demonstrated experience in designing and deploying scalable cloud-based infrastructures (AWS, Azure, GCP).
• Proficiency in bioinformatics pipeline development (e.g., RNA-seq, single-cell RNA-seq, exomes). An expert level user of HPC infrastructure / Linux systems and Able to implement key R and / or Python packages.
• Track record of publications commensurate with stage of career.

To be successful at shortlisting stage, please ensure you clearly evidence in your application how you meet the essential and, where applicable, desirable criteria listed in the Candidate Information document linked on our website.

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