University Health Network (UHN) is looking for an experienced professional to fill the key roles of a Technical Specialist in our Computational Biology & Medicine Department.
Transforming lives and communities through excellence in care, discovery and learning.
The University Health Network, where “above all else the needs of patients come first”, encompasses Toronto Rehabilitation Institute, Toronto General Hospital, Toronto Western Hospital, Princess Margaret Cancer Centre and the Michener Institute of Education at UHN. The breadth of research, the complexity of the cases treated, and the magnitude of its educational enterprise has made UHN a national and international resource for patient care, research and education. With a long tradition of groundbreaking firsts and a purpose of “Transforming lives and communities through excellence in care, discovery and learning”, the University Health Network (UHN), Canada’s largest research teaching hospital, brings together over 16,000 employees, more than 1,200 physicians, 8,000+ students, and many volunteers. UHN is a caring, creative place where amazing people are amazing the world.University Health Network (UHN) is a research hospital affiliated with the University of Toronto and a member of the Toronto Academic Health Science Network. The scope of research and complexity of cases at UHN have made it a national and international source for discovery, education and patient care. Research across UHN’s five research institutes spans the full spectrum of diseases and disciplines, including cancer, cardiovascular sciences, transplantation, neural and sensory sciences, musculoskeletal health, rehabilitation sciences, and community and population health. Find out about our purpose, values and principles here.
We are looking for a Technical Specialist to help grow the CBMP at the Princess Margaret Cancer Centre and further develop our scientific software. Building on the research excellence of the CBMP members and their clinical collaborators, the Technical Outreach Coordinator’s main roles will include:
Software Development:
- Provide technical and software design support to various CBMP labs across a range of research topics in languages such as R, Python, C++ and Java.
- Work with researchers to ensure all CBMP software is computationally efficient, maintainable, easily deployable, well-documented, efficient, and user-friendly.
- Act as a community resource to help troubleshoot and maintain existing CBMP software, especially after the original authors of the software have left PM.
- Develop and implement Standard Operating Procedures for software design and development which can be adopted across all CBMP projects.
Data Management:
- Assist researchers in cleaning, curating and annotating CBMP data, ensuring published datasets adhere to the highest standards of data quality, including the FAIR Data Principles.
- Facilitate secure transfer of large datasets, including those containing Patient Health Information, between both CBMP labs and other domestic or international research institutions.
- Establish and document best practices for data organization, management and archiving.
- Educate staff and researchers with automation of routine data management tasks, both within CBMP HPC clusters and the cloud.
Education:
- Help train new CBMP staff and trainees on software tools and programming best practices..
- Support existing staff and researchers in learning and adopting software development and data management best practices.
- Contribute to the development and implementation of seminars/webinars to help engage the research community with CBMP software tools
- Clearly communicate complex technical information and concepts to CBMP members with varying technical backgrounds, including those new to software development.
QUALIFICATIONS
- Completion of a MSc/PhD program preferably in computational biology, bioinformatics or a related field is preferred
- Minimum 2+ years’ experience in software engineering is required
- Familiarity with all aspects of the software development life cycle.
- Expert in R and/or Python
- Knowledge of software development best practices such as unit testing and Continuous Integration/Continuous Deployment.
- Ability to manage multiple project simultaneously and adapt to changing requirements/timelines
- Strong interpersonal and communication skills.
- Proficiency in Java, C++, Bash is an asset
- Experience with software education (such as Software Carpentry) is an asset.
- Experience in commercial software development is an asset.
For current UHN employees, only those who have successfully completed their probationary period, have a good employee record along with satisfactory attendance in accordance with UHN’s attendance management program, and possess all the required experience and qualifications should apply.
University Health Network thanks all applicants, however, only those selected for an interview will be contacted.
University Health Network has a diverse workforce and is an equal opportunity employer.
UHN is a respectful, caring, and inclusive workplace. We are committed to championing accessibility, diversity and equal opportunity. Requests for accommodation can be made at any stage of the recruitment process providing the applicant has met the Bona-fide requirements for the open position. Applicants need to make their requirements known when contacted.
