Data Scientist / Bioinformatician

Job description

SALARY: Competitive salary with excellent benefits including 15% bonus


MAIN JOB PURPOSE

The role sits within Unilever's Safety and Environmental Assurance Centre (SEAC), which is responsible for carrying out safety assessments of all Unilever products. The role primarily involves providing informatics expertise for the analysis of biological and chemical data and the design and development of a novel infrastructure for SEAC. This infrastructure will provide a platform that will incorporate a knowledge management system, data integration tools, models and databases (both internal and external) to enable both expert computational scientists and risk assessors to apply Next Generation Risk Assessment skills and technologies to safety risk and impact assessments for Unilever. The platform will need to be capable of handling biological and chemical assay, omics and high content image data types. The role will also work across R&D to ensure that flexible approaches and resources are built and adopted for a wider R&D user base. The role will be part of team leading the change agenda within SEAC, to ensure that novel approaches for risk and impact assessment are embedded within the organisation.

You will be required to work with a range of scientific experts in many different disciplines, including biologists, toxicologists, eco-toxicologists, computational chemists and mathematical modellers. You will need to be able to communicate effectively with stakeholders and provide training for experts and non-experts within SEAC.


JOB SUMMARY

As a member of the Team the role holder will:

· Analyse large datasets encompassing the biological and chemistry domains in a context dependent manner
· Interface effectively and work closely with scientists across SEAC to identify requirements for data storage, retrieval, analysis and meaningful visualisation
· Drive the advancement of our capabilities in meaningful data management and integration from internal & public sources
· Provide design and development expertise for components of a data science platform; including development and dissemination of user-friendly tools, workflows and databases to a wide group of scientists within the company
· Provide training to both expert and non-expert users to ensure novel approaches are embedded within the organisation
· Work with other scientists in R&D to drive adoption of new informatics infrastructure and approaches
· Liaise with external data providers to ensure data structure aligns to in-house requirements and appropriate meta-data is obtained
· Develop working partnerships with leaders in the informatics field

KEY REQUIREMENTS

· Experience of ontology-based data integration
· Experience/understanding of big data technologies e.g. Hadoop
· Relevant degree in bioinformatics or computational biology or equivalent with significant professional experience in this area
· Strong technical background with demonstrated programming skills in at least one of the following: Perl, Python, R, Java
· Strong problem-solving capability and ability to work autonomously
· Strong written & verbal communication skills
· Ability to lead and motivate others
· Ability to communicate complex concepts to a non-expert audience

COMPANY OVERVIEW

Unilever is a global Fast-Moving Consumer Goods company in the UK and Ireland. We are already on target to achieve our huge ambition to double the size of our business globally whilst reducing our environmental impact. We are growing our business and also doing what is right for our consumers, community and environment. We are developing brands for people's lives today and for the changing environment tomorrow - making sustainable living commonplace.

Working at Unilever means that you get to take part in this exciting journey and work with amazing people who are really passionate about our large portfolio of famous brands. We want to improve billions of lives and you too can join us in making a sustainable difference.

APPLICATION PROCESS

Online Application >> Digital Interview >> Face to Face Interview >> Job Offer

Please note: As part of the job application, you will be asked to complete a brief online application form. Completion of the form is required in order to be considered. Please allow yourself enough time to complete the application form as when filled out partially or not at all it may adversely affect the progress of your application. Please be aware that you will have to complete the form at once as you will be unable to return to it later.