University of Tennessee, Knoxville · 1 day ago
Post-Doctoral Research Associate: Department of Microbiology - UTK
Knoxville, TN
Full-time
Onsite
Mid, Senior Level
$50K/yr - $55K/yrThe University of Tennessee, Knoxville is seeking a Post-Doctoral Research Associate in the Department of Microbiology. The role involves leading bioinformatic analyses of microbiome datasets and developing reproducible analytical workflows to generate insights from complex datasets.
Higher Education
Responsibilities
Lead bioinformatic analyses of microbiome datasets, including 16S rRNA, shotgun metagenomics, and metatranscriptomics (e.g., QC, assembly, binning/MAG recovery, annotation, and downstream statistical analyses)
Develop, document, and maintain reproducible pipelines
Integrate multi-omic data with experimental and environmental metadata
Apply rigorous statistical and computational approaches for microbiome community ecology (diversity, ordination, differential abundance, compositional methods, network/assembly modeling as appropriate)
Generate high-quality figures, tables, and reports suitable for manuscripts, conference presentations, and progress reports
Collaborate with PIs, students, and external partners; contribute to manuscript preparation and, as appropriate, proposal development
Mentor graduate and undergraduate trainees
Maintain accurate project documentation, data organization, and analysis provenance consistent with open and reproducible science
Qualification
Required
PhD (or equivalent doctoral degree) in bioinformatics, computational biology, microbiology, genomics, biostatistics, or a closely related field by the start date
Demonstrated experience analyzing microbiome sequencing data, including hands-on work with common microbiome data science pipelines and outputs
Wet-lab experience relevant to microbiome and host-associated systems, including molecular biology workflows (nucleic acid extraction, PCR/qPCR, NGS library preparation)
Strong programming/scripting skills (R and/or Python required; comfort in Linux/Unix environments)
Experience working on HPC or cloud computing environments and managing computational jobs/workflows
Familiarity with microbiome methods and tools for taxonomic/functional profiling, assembly and binning, and statistical analysis
Ability to communicate results clearly (written and oral) and to work collaboratively in a team setting
Preferred
Formal training in advanced statistics, machine learning, or multi-omics integration is a plus
Preference for candidates with training in entomology, microbial degradation, or agricultural science
Experience with metatranscriptomic processing/analysis (e.g., rRNA filtering/depletion strategies, mapping/quantification, differential expression)
Experience recovering and analyzing MAGs (e.g., bin refinement, quality assessment, dereplication, phylogenomics)
Experience integrating metabolomics/chemical profiling or other multi-omics with microbiome sequencing data
Experience building robust, shareable pipelines with reproducible documentation practices
Wet-lab experience in vitro experimentation and/or hands-on work with entomology, decomposition/degradation-focused studies, or other related biological systems
Strong quantitative skills in experimental design and statistical modeling for high-dimensional microbiome data
Interest in microbial ecology and host-microbiome systems (including insect- or decomposition-associated microbiomes) and translating analyses into biological insight
Demonstrated record of peer-reviewed publications and ability to independently drive projects to completion
Company
University of Tennessee, Knoxville
As the state’s land grant, research-intensive institution, the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, is a university that leads.
Founded in 1794
10001+ employees
H1B Sponsorship
University of Tennessee, Knoxville has a track record of offering H1B sponsorships. Please note that this does not
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Funding
Current Stage
Late StageLeadership Team
Bruce Behn
Dean and CEO, Digital Learning
Mark Savage
Chief Technology Officer, Digital Learning at UT
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2023-10-04
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