Job Description

The Garvan Institute of Medical Research brings together world leading scientists and clinicians, collaborating locally and globally, to advance our understanding of disease, particularly cancer, autoimmunity and genetic disorders. Garvan is a global leader in fundamental biomedical research and its translation. Our mission is to make discoveries that will improve health for all.

THE OPPORTUNITY

Garvan’s Data Science Platform (DSP) brings together computational experts working in system administration, DevOps, software engineering, production bioinformatics and computational biology. The DSP works closely with various collaborators at Garvan, across Australia and internationally. The Software Engineer will be based in the National Scale Genomics Infrastructure team and be involved in the design, implementation, integration, testing, documentation, deployment and support of software and systems that enable genomics research. Many of our projects involve open-source software that we officially maintain or actively contribute to. A particular focus for this role will be the integration of multiple software applications to streamline genomic data sharing nationally and overseas for research use. The work is part of the GUARDIANS program, funded through Australian Biocommons. This is a 2-year fixed-term position with salary dependent on candidate skills and experience.

SNAPSHOT OF BENEFITS

• Generous salary packaging to save you income tax on your wages thereby boosting your monthly take home pay (max. $15,900 general expenses + $2,650 meals/accom)

• Ample opportunities for on-going training and development

• Stimulating, diverse and highly international research environment

• Flexible work arrangements e.g. start / finish times

• 18 weeks paid parental leave for both parents including paid superannuation

• A range of additional leave types to meet your personal needs including cultural leave, conference leave, community service and study leave

• Discounted Health Insurance

• Lifestyle discounts with our community partners

WHAT YOU WILL DO

ESSENTIAL DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES

This is a junior/mid-level position. The details of the duties and responsibilities will be set in the individual goals based on experience. In general, the key responsibilities include:

• Implement, test, document, deploy and support software solutions (APIs and web applications)

• Perform deployments (DevOps) both for our projects and for additional open-source tools needed at Garvan.

• Help support our scientific partners with technical issues, progressively taking ownership for relevant projects and areas of expertise.

• Help improve the team’s developer tooling, practices and automations

• Contribute code and features to open-source bioinformatics tools

• Actively participate in the team’s professional growth by sharing one’s special interests and findings

• All staff are required to comply with Garvan’s workplace policies (as amended from time to time) and especially Garvan’s Work Health & Safety (WHS) Policy, including working in accordance with the WHS management system at all times, as safety is Garvan’s number one priority.

ABOUT YOU

KNOWLEDGE, SKILLS AND QUALIFICATIONS REQUIRED

Key skills and experience include:

• A Master degree in Computer Science/Bioinformatics or a related field, or equivalent experience

• Excellent knowledge of one or more programming languages and frameworks such as JavaScript/TypeScript, React, Python, R,Bash

• Experience with cloud computing

• Experience in developing, documenting, testing and using cloud infrastructure

• Experience in developing, documenting, testing web application and REST API

• Full-stack development experience (or a keen interest in learning the missing half stack)

• Knowledge of SQL and experience developing applications that use relational databases

• Experience with GNU/Linux system administration and/or with DevOps on public cloud services

• Experience with widespread developer tools and understanding of their purpose (e.g. version control, linting, auto-formatting)

• Excellent written and oral communication, representation and interpersonal skills essential for interaction with internal and external stakeholders

Desirable:

• Experience with Big Data tools and frameworks (e.g. Spark, Elasticsearch and Redis)

• Experience with Docker and Kubernetes

• Experience with configuration as code (e.g. Terraform)

• Experience with genomics software (e.g. gnomAD, hail, seqr, REDCap) and standards (SAM, CRAM, VCF, GA4GH standards)

• Experience setting up and maintaining CI/CD

• Experience with of NoSQL databases

• Experience with columnar storage file format (e.g. Parquet)

ABOUT GARVAN

Garvan Institute of Medical Research is an independent Medical Research Institute (MRI) in Sydney, delivering scientific and clinical impact on a global basis and in partnership with organisations that share our vision. We are proud to be one of Australia’s largest and most highly regarded MRI’s.

Our vision is global leadership in discoveries to impact and our enduring purpose is to impact human health, by harnessing information encoded in our genome.

We seek to see our world-class discovery research achieve life-changing impacts, not only for individual patients with rare diseases, but for the many thousands affected by complex, common disease.

Garvan promotes a diverse workplace and is committed to the principles of equity, diversity, inclusion and belonging. We are always looking for culture ‘add’, not culture ‘fit’ and are building diverse teams with great sets of complementary styles and skills to help deliver our important work effectively.

HOW TO APPLY

To apply for this position, please submit your application with a CV and cover letter as one document, stating why you are interested in this role. We are reviewing applications as they are received. If you think you’re the right person for this role, we’d love to hear how your capabilities, achievements and experience set you apart. Only applicants with full working rights in Australia are eligible to apply for this role.