Job Description Summary

The Romano Lab at the University of Pennsylvania’s Perelman School of Medicine is seeking a full-time programmer / Data Analyst to act as a developer for the lab’s open-source software and data infrastructure applications. We are a group of researchers who use artificial intelligence and translational bioinformatics to gain new insights into toxicology and environmental health. Our mission is to use advanced computational approaches to predict and explain the clinical effects resulting from exposure to specific chemicals, including environmental toxins and pharmaceutical drugs.

The Data Analyst will be responsible for ongoing development of biomedical knowledge bases and interfaces for interacting with those knowledge bases, with applications in artificial intelligence (AI) and biomedical ontology research. In most cases, these software products will be open-source and publicly available, and they will support infrastructure in Penn’s Center of Excellence in Environmental Toxicology (CEET) and the Institute for Biomedical Informatics (IBI). The Data Analyst will be a full-time member of the Romano Lab and will work with team members to advance biomedical informatics data infrastructure and cutting-edge techniques in AI and machine learning.
Job Description

The Romano Lab at the University of Pennsylvania is seeking candidates for a Data Analyst who will aid in the development and maintenance of open-source data infrastructure tools and knowledge representations to support artificial intelligence (AI) research in translational bioinformatics and environmental health science. These include knowledge graphs, graph databases, biomedical ontologies, and tools that allow various stakeholders to interact with them, such as web APIs, code libraries, and data standards. The Data Analyst will also work with other lab members to implement and evaluate machine learning models (including graph neural networks) that will be applied to these knowledge representations to answer exciting questions in environmental toxicology. In addition to the public and open-source knowledge representations mentioned above, there will also be opportunities to interact with clinical data collected through the Penn Medicine health system and elsewhere.

Responsibilities:

Work closely with the lab principal investigator (PI) and other members of the lab to design and implement biomedical knowledge graphs and data interfaces for interacting with those knowledge graphs.
Lead data acquisition, data cleaning, and data quality assessment for data collected from public biomedical databases.
Implement AI and machine learning solutions for research questions in translational bioinformatics and computational toxicology.
Build and maintain schemas for complex-structured biomedical data.
Use knowledge of software architecture and modern software frameworks to collaboratively determine code modifications and updates to ongoing software projects.
Maintain lab databases (SQL and NoSQL), manage database permissions, and perform user access control.
Maintain code documentation and track bug reports.
Perform code review of code contributed by other lab members and the open-source community.
Contribute to peer-reviewed scientific research papers authored by members of the lab, especially regarding computational methods and data analysis.
Other duties and responsibilities as assigned
Qualifications

Required:

Bachelor’s Degree in Computer Science and 2 to 3 years of experience or equivalent combination of education and experience is required.
2+ years of computer programming experience with a BS
Experience working with one or more modern front-end web frameworks (e.g., React, Angular, Vue)
Experience working with modern database technologies (e.g., SQL, MongoDB, etc.)
Experience programming in Unix-based operating systems
Ability to work independently and apply critical thinking and sound judgment
Excellent organizational and time management skills
Ability to communicate effectively with team members
Preferred:

Familiarity with graph databases (e.g., Neo4j)
Experience with cloud computing via AWS
Experience with version control software (e.g., Git)
Experience with data science a plus
Experience with artificial intelligence (AI) / machine learning (ML) a plus
Position is contingent upon continued funding.

Job Location - City, State

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Department / School

Perelman School of Medicine
Pay Range

$51,824.00 - $80,000.00 Annual Rate
Salary offers are made based on the candidate’s qualifications, experience, skills, and education as they directly relate to the requirements of the position, as well as internal and market factors and grade profile.