Scientist III – Wastewater Virome Genomic Surveillance

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🔥 5 minutes ago

🧀 Wisconsin – Remote

🧀 Wisconsin – Remote

💵 $95k / year

⏰ Full Time

🟡 Mid-level

🟠 Senior

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University of Wisconsin-Madison

WebsiteLinkedInAll Job Openings

10,000+ employees

📚 Education

🏛️ Government

Education • Government

University of Wisconsin-Madison is a public research university and flagship campus of the University of Wisconsin System located in Madison, WI. It is one of the largest research institutions in the United States, investing more than $1 billion annually in research across the humanities, sciences, and applied fields, and emphasizes public service through the long-standing “Wisconsin Idea. ” The university offers undergraduate and graduate programs, community outreach, and extensive campus resources and athletics, while promoting diversity, inclusive excellence, and community engagement.

📋 Description

• Serve as the computational lead for detecting and characterizing known and emerging viruses from complex, low-biomass samples while managing project timelines and partner deliverables. • Attend and assist with the facilitation of scholarly events and presentations in support of continued professional development and the dissemination of research information. • Identify, write, or assist in developing grant opportunities, grant applications, and proposals to secure research funding. • Supervise the day-to-day activities of a research unit and staff and resolve routine personnel issues. • Lead genome-resolved metagenomic characterization of the wastewater and environmental virome, including ultra-deep untargeted (shotgun) sequencing and targeted probe-capture/hybrid-capture enrichment of priority and emerging viruses, and develop and validate the associated low-biomass nucleic-acid recovery and sequencing-library workflows. • Identify research problems and develop highly complex research methodologies and procedures. • Publish and present results to help advance research. • Serve as scientific and project-management lead for the wastewater virome-surveillance program — coordinating sample logistics and timelines across partner sites and funders, and supervising and mentoring a Research Specialist and junior scientific staff. • Serve as an institutional subject matter expert and liaison with key internal and external stakeholders providing expert level information and representing the interests of a specialized research area. • Collect and analyze highly complex research data, conduct experiments and interviews, and document results according to established policies and procedures. • Partner with the lab’s bioinformatics group and external collaborators (including the ORCHARDS team and multi-campus wastewater-surveillance networks) to co-develop and implement improved methods for low-input viral recovery, sequencing, and downstream analysis, and establish SOPs, QC, and standardized data-return systems. • Conduct literature reviews, prepare reports and materials and disseminate information to appropriate entities.

🎯 Requirements

• Demonstrated expertise in genome-resolved metagenomics / metaomics of complex microbial or viral communities, including assembly, binning/classification, and genome-resolved interpretation of high-throughput sequencing data. • The successful applicant will likely have a track record of characterizing at least 5,000 novel viruses from complex samples. • PhD in microbiology, virology, molecular biology, genetics/genomics, environmental microbiology, or a closely related field, with an outstanding track record of peer-reviewed first- or corresponding-author publications, preprints, and conference presentations. • Documented experience developing, benchmarking, and validating both untargeted (shotgun metagenomic) and targeted (probe-capture / hybrid-capture enrichment) high-throughput viral sequencing workflows from low-biomass or environmentally derived samples and using computational tools to assess these benchmarking experiments. • Demonstrated experience developing or substantially adapting bioinformatic pipelines for pathogen detection and characterization in HTS data, including programming in Python and/or R and working in Linux / high-performance computing (HPC/HTC) environments. • Experience with wastewater-based epidemiology or environmental pathogen surveillance, including sample concentration and viral-recovery methods. • Demonstrated independent project leadership: coordinating multi-step laboratory and computational workflows, managing large sample sets, and meeting funder/stakeholder deliverables on defined timelines. • Experience supervising or mentoring junior scientists, technical staff, and/or students. • Track record of securing or substantially contributing to competitive research funding (e.g., lead or co-author on funded grant proposals). • Excellent written and verbal communication and strong organizational skills.

🏖️ Benefits

• generous vacation, holidays, and sick leave • competitive insurances and savings accounts • retirement benefits