Associate Computational Biologist, Balla Group (Biohub SF)

The Chan Zuckerberg Biohub San Francisco (CZ Biohub SF) (https://www.czbiohub.org/sf/) is an independent nonprofit research institute that brings together three powerhouse universities - Stanford, UC Berkeley, and UC San Francisco - into a single collaborative technology and discovery engine. CZ Biohub SF itself supports some of the brightest, boldest engineers, data scientists, and biomedical researchers to investigate the fundamental mechanisms underlying disease and develop new technologies that will lead to actionable diagnostics and effective therapies. We are guided by our values of scholarly excellence; disruptive innovation; hands-on engineering/hacking/building; partnership and collaboration; open communication and respect; inclusiveness; and opportunity for all.

Our Vision

• We pursue large scientific challenges that cannot be pursued in conventional environments
• We enable individual investigators to pursue their riskiest and most innovative ideas
• The technologies developed at CZ Biohub San Francisco facilitate research by scientists and clinicians at our home institutions and beyond

Diversity of thought, ideas, and perspectives are at the heart of CZ Biohub Network and enable disruptive innovation and scholarly excellence. We are committed to cultivating an organization where all colleagues feel inspired and know their work makes an important contribution.

The Opportunity

The Balla group is an interdisciplinary group combining tools in high resolution imaging and computational image analysis and systems immunology in zebrafish to develop the first quantitative systems wide atlas of the immune system. As part of this effort, we are searching for an enthusiastic Associate Computational Biologist to accelerate our imaging and pipeline tool building efforts. The endeavor is a highly collaborative effort between various research groups at CZ Biohub and requires excellent communication skills, teamwork and problem-solving skills. The ideal candidate will have both strong computational skills related to developing analysis pipelines for imaging data as well experimental experience related to microscopy.

The application requires a cover letter that describes

• Your interest in this role, the contributions you are excited to make, and skills you want to strengthen on the job
• Your professional goals and how this role can help you achieve them
• Any hobby projects relevant to the work

We seek to recruit individuals with foundational skills, the ability to learn quickly, and the ability to pursue ambitious projects through collaborations. Prior experience related to the projects mentioned above is nice to have, but not required

This role will be based in San Francisco initially, with a planned transition to Redwood City in two years.

You will

• Work with scientists and engineers from diverse backgrounds to develop and apply pipelines for very large (10s of TBs) zebrafish immune system imaging datasets.
• Acquire data by performing live-imaging experiments with zebrafish on state-of-the-art custom-built microscopes
• Use existing image reconstruction, analysis, and visualization pipelines to facilitate biological interpretation.
• Troubleshoot and improve upon existing analysis methods
• Maintain systematic records of experiments and outcomes
• Discuss work at weekly group meetings, internal seminars, and external seminars
• Participate in publishing the work through software repositories, data repositories, and peer-reviewed papers

You have

Essential –

• Bachelor’s degree in physics, engineering, computer science, or life science
• Candidates with a Master’s degree are also welcome to apply, however the role is not suitable for candidates with a doctoral degree
• 2+ years of coding experience (e.g. Python, MATLAB, or C++) with the ability to write clean, maintainable, and well-documented code
• Prior research experience (internship experience is considered)
• Exposure to working with microscopes (preferably custom-built)
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills
• Team player who can also work independently

Nice to have -

• Prior experience developing pipelines
• Experience imaging in model systems (zebrafish is a plus)
• Experience using slurm, working within HPC environments
• Deep learning and use of existing image segmentation tools such as cellpose, SAM etc. 
• Any experience with cell migration/ morphological characterization from imaging
• Prior experience with image analysis tools and libraries (e.g. scikit-image, OpenCV, pytorch, torchvision, ImageJ)
• Prior experience with biological research 

Compensation

The San Francisco, CA base pay range for this role is Associate Computational Biologist = $80,000.00 - $110,000.00 and Sr. Associate Computational Biologist = $92,000.00 - $127,000.00. New hires are typically hired into the lower portion of the range, enabling employee growth in the range over time. Actual placement in range is based on job-related skills and experience, as evaluated throughout the interview process. 

What We Provide

• Resources to disrupt and innovate at the frontiers of our knowledge of biology and disease
• A collegial and collaborative environment consisting of diverse expertise
• Access to collaborators, resources and facilities at our three partner universities (Stanford University, UC Berkeley, and UC San Francisco) and at partner organizations in the SF Bay Area and beyond
• Competitive compensation and benefits commensurate with the experience

If you’re interested in a role but your previous experience doesn’t perfectly align with each qualification in the job description, we still encourage you to apply as you may be the perfect fit for this or another role.

Benefits

We offer a robust benefits program that enables the important work Biohubbers do everyday. Our benefits include healthcare coverage, life and disability insurance, commuter subsidies, family planning services with fertility care, childcare stipend, 401(k) match, flexible time off and a generous parental leave policy. In addition, we honor our commitment to career development and our value of scholarly excellence through regular onsite opportunities to learn from the world's leading scientists.

The CZ Biohub Network is an equal opportunity employer committed to diversity of thought, ideas and perspectives. We are committed to cultivating an inclusive organization where all Biohubbers feel inspired and know their work makes an important contribution. Therefore, we provide employment opportunities without regard to age, race, color, ancestry, national origin, religion, disability, sex, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, or any other protected status in accordance with applicable law.

Pursuant to the California Fair Chance Act, we will consider for employment qualified applicants with arrest and conviction records.

Headhunters and recruitment agencies may not submit resumes/CVs through this website or directly to managers. The CZ Biohub Network does not accept unsolicited headhunter and agency resumes. The CZ Biohub Network will not pay fees to any third-party agency or company that does not have a signed agreement with the CZ Biohub Network.