Computational Biology Scientist - Omics

About the Department                                                                                                                                               

The Department of Cohort & Disease Understanding (CDU) under AI & Digital Research (AIDR) Computational Biology focuses on disease understanding and patient stratification based on patient cohort data. The use of cutting-edge computational techniques to subtype patients into groups and understand disease initiation, progression, and mechanism is a key objective for CDU. These activities focus on prioritizing specific research questions about (1) the use of omics and other data from human cohorts to identify patient subtypes and endophenotypes (2) the use of human cohort data to discover molecular disease aetiologies causal in specific patient subtypes.

AIDR Computational Biology is a global department with colleagues in China, Denmark, the United Kingdom and the United States. The AIDR team sits within the wider Digital Science & Innovation (DSI) organization. DSI is supporting the digital journey across all our therapy areas in Novo Nordisk Research and Early Discovery (R&ED). In DSI, we work in multidisciplinary teams – in strong collaboration with all areas across R&ED and R&ED IT. We participate in drug development projects across the value chain, from early discovery to pre-clinical development. We engage in external collaborations to ensure access to the latest research and technology enablers, and we auto-mate our labs and processes, and we focus on developing and retaining top talent.

The Position

We are seeking an experienced Data Scientist with experience in different omics and human cohorts data to drive our disease understanding efforts in cardiometabolic disorders. You will be responsible for (1) delivering analysis of proteomics, metabolomics, RNA-seq and other omics (2) developing/implementing computational methods to leverage large-scale human cohort data for patient subtyping and disease mechanism understanding (3) leveraging human cohort multi-omics data to address emerging research questions from obesity, Type 2 Diabetes(T2D), etc. Experience with epigenomics, imaging, spatial transcriptomics, or other modalities is a plus, as is experience with genetics, epidemiology, clinical trial biomarker analysis. The role will be accountable to early discovery projects initiative in Obesity and Metabolic Disorders, collaborating with scientists from Global Drug Discovery (GDD), other AIDR departments, Global Development and External collaborations. You will play a crucial role in driving human cohort omics data application in research and drug development. 

Relationships

Reports to: Head of Cohort & Disease Understanding. In this role, you will enjoy the opportunity to collaborate with scientists from GDD, Genetics, Precision Medicine, Machine Intelligence, Research Engineering, Data & Knowledge Discovery, Global Development, and others across US, UK and Denmark. External relationships include commercial and academic collaboration partners.

Essential Functions

• Independently perform analysis, visualization, and interpretation of large human cohort multi-omics data (including but not limited to proteomics, metabolomics, RNA-seq data).
• Collaborate with cross-functional teams across R&ED to provide human cohort omics evidence support, translating biological insights into pipeline progressions and peer-reviewed publications.
• Development of computational methods/technology (including but not limited to machine learning / deep learning methods) to understand disease mechanism and progression in obesity, T2D and other related metabolic disease area.
• Derive insights from internally generated and publicly available cohort and omics datasets and help generate testable hypotheses.
• Collaborate with computational biologists / geneticist / epidemiologist to integrate human cohort data analysis.
• Drive cross-functional collaborations across R&ED to provide human cohort evidence support, translate biological insights into pipeline progressions and peer-reviewed publications. 
• Summarize, visualize, and communicate analyses and findings to internal and external stakeholders.
• Generate technical reports, prepare presentation slides, and improve existing analytic tools.
• Maintain thorough documentation, version control of methods and tools. 
   

Physical Requirements

0-10% overnight travel required.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree required. Ph.D. preferred in Computational Biology, Bioinformatics, Biostatistics, Systems Biology, Genetics, Computer Science, or another quantitative field, with 1+ years post-graduation experience in industry (preferred) or in academia.
• A Bachelor’s degree with 3+ years’ relevant experience required or Master’s Degree with 1+ years’ relevant experience can be considered
• Experience with proteomics, metabolomics, transcriptomics analysis is highly desirable.
• Hands-on experience with common bioinformatics tools and workflows and major public omics databases.
• Experience with one or more of the following: machine learning, longitudinal data modeling, network biology, Bayesian reasoning, learning from semi-structured data. 
• Outstanding written and verbal communication skills.
• Commitment to quality, attention to detail, and team player mentality is a must.
• Hands-on experience on the computational analysis and interpretation of multi-omics datasets is preferred.
• Experience with different types of human cohort data, such as clinical trial data, population cohort data, and consortium data. 
• Experience with high-performance computing (HPC) or cloud computing platform is a plus.
• Fluency in Python and/or R, version control, web-app development, 
• Ability to work independently and drive projects forward
• Preferred experience includes:
  • Background in chronic diseases such as obesity, type 2 diabetes, cardiometabolic disease, neurological disease, or inflammation research 
  • Experience in machine learning / deep learning development and deployment
  • Experience in data integration, data visualization
  • Experience in data management, information system

We commit to an inclusive recruitment process and equality of opportunity for all our job applicants.

At Novo Nordisk we recognize that it is no longer good enough to aspire to be the best company in the world. We need to aspire to be the best company for the world and we know that this is only possible with talented employees with diverse perspectives, backgrounds and cultures. We are therefore committed to creating an inclusive culture that celebrates the diversity of our employees, the patients we serve and communities we operate in. Together, we’re life changing.

Novo Nordisk is an equal opportunity employer. Qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, ethnicity, color, religion, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, national origin, disability, protected veteran status or any other characteristic protected by local, state or federal laws, rules or regulations.

If you are interested in applying to Novo Nordisk and need special assistance or an accommodation to apply, please call us at 1-855-411-5290. This contact is for accommodation requests only and cannot be used to inquire about the status of applications.