Senior Scientist, Oncology Bioinformatics

Key Skills

Biostatistics, Data science techniques, Linux Operating system, Python Programming, R Programming, Unix Operating system

Job Description

Do you have expertise in the analysis and interpretation of multi-omic data from complex immunopathologies? Would you like to apply your expertise to the development of new immuno-oncology therapies in a company that follows the science and turns ideas into life-changing medicines? Then AstraZeneca’s Early Oncology Data Science team might be the place for you!

About AstraZeneca

At AstraZeneca, we put patients first and strive to meet their unmet needs worldwide. Working here means being entrepreneurial, thinking big and working together to make the impossible a reality. If you are swift to action, confident to lead, willing to collaborate, and curious about what science can do, then you’re our kind of person.

Early Oncology Data Science

The vision of AstraZeneca Oncology is to redefine cancer, redefine our solutions to cancer, and restore patients' lives. The Early Oncology Data Science team is an integral part of Oncology Drug Discovery at AstraZeneca, working throughout the research and early development pipeline from new target discovery to translational medicine and clinical trials. Our global group aligns its data science expertise to AstraZeneca’s primary areas of focus in Oncology: Immuno-Oncology, Cell Therapies, DNA Damage and Response, Tumour Drivers & Resistance, Epigenetics, and Antibody-Drug Conjugates.

What you’ll do

You will work in cross-functional teams where you will apply your knowledge of data science methods, capabilities and public or proprietary pre-clinical and clinical studies to produce data-driven actionable insights that accelerate the discovery and development of cell therapies and the next generation of molecules that modify the tumour immune environment.

Responsibilities:

• Working closely with data science, bioscience and translational leaders, you will be responsible for prioritising and delivering data science analysis for multiple drug projects within our immuno-oncology portfolio.

• You will have the opportunity to take responsibility for leading and participating in data science initiatives that deliver outside specific portfolio projects such as identifying new druggable biology, accelerating data science analysis, increasing the accessibility of data science applications in R&D and extracting knowledge about drug resistance across indications.

• You will be responsible for the quality of your analyses, ensuring that they are safely stored, statistically sound, well documented, reproducible and compliant with regulatory and company policy.

• You will also be responsible for communicating about your work and its impact to colleagues in AstraZeneca and externally via conferences, collaborations and publications, including helping other data scientists to learn from your experiences.

Education, Qualifications, Skills and Experience

Essential for the role:

• Relevant PhD (or equivalent graduate degree plus proven applied experience), combining:

• Technical expertise in applied bioinformatics, computational biology, data science or biostatistics.

• Knowledge of immune system biology and its relevance to cancer or other disorders.

• Expertise in the organisation, analysis and interpretation of multi-omic, including single-cell data to reveal drug action and resistance mechanisms, tumor microenvironment subtypes, clinically relevant biomarkers or pan-cancer stratifications.

• Reproducible R or Python programming and visualisation expertise in Unix/Linux compute cluster environments.

• Skilled in effective communication of complex data to non-experts.

• Capable of successfully managing multiple simultaneous projects involving cross-functional teams.

• Experience of contributing to the research community through conferences, peer-reviewed publications and source code.

Desirable for the role:

• Knowledge and experience of working with different immuno-oncology drug modalities like cell therapies and immune cell engagers.

• Prior experience of working in drug discovery.

• Experience of analysing and organising clinical data.