Genomics Research Scientist at Helix

You + Helix

Helix is a place where innovators and doers gather in order to drive significant progress in population genomics. We have come together to work at the intersection of clinical care, research, and genomics.  

If you’re excited by the idea of making a meaningful impact and joining a team where we pride ourselves on driving innovation through fostering an environment with an emphasis on empowering one another to grow, Helix might be the place for you!

Helix + The World

Our end-to-end population genomics platform enables health systems, life sciences companies, and payers to advance genomic research and accelerate the integration of genomic data into routine clinical care. We support all aspects of population genomics from recruitment to translational research and help our partners use genomics to improve health outcomes, increase patient engagement, and lower costs.  Leading health systems, including Renown Health, AdventHealth, and Mayo Clinic, use our population genomics platform to power some of the world’s largest and fastest-growing population genomics initiatives.

For the COVID-19 public health crisis, Helix has built one of the nation’s largest COVID diagnostic labs and has been on the leading edge of national viral surveillance efforts tracking B.1.1.7 and other viral strains.  

What is special about this role:

The mission of the Helix Research team is to conduct and publish cutting-edge genomics research, to collaborate with and support our clinical, health, and life science partners in population-based genomic studies, and to demonstrate the capabilities of the Helix Exome+ platform and suite of bioinformatics products and services.  We are also responsible for the analysis and interpretation of genomic, phenotypic, and clinical information obtained from EMRs, self-reported health outcomes, claims, biomarkers, COVID-19 tests, and other digital phenotypes. We believe that everyone will be sequenced as part of routine medical care in the not-too-distant future, and our fast and nimble team helps generate the evidence to turn that faith into fact.  

As a Research Scientist, you will:

• Push genomic medicine forward by assessing clinical impact and utility of polygenic risk scores, pharmacogenomics, HLA types, rare variants, CNVs and other genomic applications in various health conditions across diverse clinical cohorts
• Implement creative solutions to research problems, and be eager to learn and apply cutting-edge tools to questions.
• Work collaboratively with internal and external teams to conduct research on genomic and phenotypic data to replicate published studies in new cohorts and discover novel associations
• Communicate your findings internally to key stakeholders and externally to partners and scientific peers at conferences and in publications
• Have the opportunity to shape how Helix partners think about and integrate genomics into their business model and clinical care pathways

About you:

• A PhD in genomics, medical informatics, bioinformatics, computer science, biostatistics, computational biology, or a related field 
• Experience with GWAS and PheWAS of large human genomic datasets, such as UKBiobank, TOPmed, etc.
• Demonstrated track record of executing research projects using real world evidence (RWE) from claims, electronic health records, registries, biobanks, or digital applications, including publications
• Experience with open-source bioinformatics tools / packages (Hail, PLINK, SKAT, Bioconductor, GATK, etc.)
• Outstanding communication skills as well as broad biological interests that will enable them to facilitate interactions between clinicians, bioinformaticians, scientists, and business and learn new areas easily.
• Strong programming and scripting abilities in languages (Python, R, etc).
• Entrepreneurial spirit -- eager to jump in, define, and refine projects as needed

Pluses:

• 2+ years post-doc experience and strong publication record
• Experience performing functional studies of variants to assess underlying biology (expression, protein folding, signaling, saturation mutagenesis)
• Working knowledge of OMOP and/or other CDM
• Experience working with cloud-based analytical platforms (AWS, etc.)
• Experience working with health systems, payers, diagnostic testing
• Experience with remote teams/consortia/group collaborations
• Experience with Health Economics and Outcomes Research
• Experience with Natural Language Processing

What’s important to us:

• Curiosity — we are all passionate about the possibilities enabled by having access to your own genome
• Responsibility — we have an obligation to people and our partners to operate with highly credible research guided by well respected advisors, with clear and effective communication about our products
• Agility — flexibility and a desire to be nimble, smart, and effective are important to the Helix culture
• Follow-through — we’re building a diverse team with amazing track records of achievement in multidisciplinary environments

What Helix has to offer you:

Aside from working alongside brilliant, dedicated, passionate, down-to-earth, curious, warm, and thoughtful people, we also provide great benefits:

• Competitive compensation, Comprehensive Health insurance package including employer sponsored HSA 
• 12 weeks of Maternity or Paternity leave
• 401(k) with employer matching and 100% vested on first day
• Corporate fitness rate (?)
• Comprehensive Well Being benefits
• Catered meals 
• Flexible PTO

Helix is proud to be an equal opportunity employer, and committed to providing employment opportunities regardless of race, religious creed, color, national origin, ancestry, physical disability, mental disability, medical condition, genetic information, marital status, sex, gender, gender identity, gender expression, pregnancy, childbirth and breastfeeding, age, sexual orientation, military or veteran status, or any other protected classification, in accordance with applicable federal, state, and local laws.