Senior Bioinformatics Scientist

Title: Senior Bioinformatics Scientist

Location: MA-Cambridge

Job Description: Do you want to be part of an inclusive team that works to develop innovative therapies for patients? Every day, we are driven to develop and deliver innovative and effective new medicines to patients and physicians. If you want to be part of this exciting work, you belong at Astellas!

Astellas Pharma Inc. is a pharmaceutical company conducting business in more than 70 countries around the world. We are committed to turning innovative science into medical solutions that bring value and hope to patients and their families. Keeping our focus on addressing unmet medical needs and conducting our business with ethics and integrity enables us to improve the health of people throughout the world. For more information on Astellas, please visit our website at www.astellas.com .

**Purpose and Scope:**

Responsible for providing bioinformatics expertise to drug target selection, translational research, patient selection strategy for multiple I-Lab drug discovery programs from inception to early clinical stage. Develop bioinformatics analysis plans, perform hands-on analyses, and generate reports on internal and external data sets related to Astellas/partner discovery programs. Responsibilities also include developing new bioinformatics capabilities to support new modalities and therapeutic focus areas.

**Essential Job Responsibilities:**

+ A leader / expert that makes strategic recommendations that guide key I-Lab decisions.

+ The selected candidate will lead bioinformatics strategy and develop analysis plans to address I-Lab functional and project teams to address target discovery and validation questions.

+ Utilizes state of the art bioinformatics methods, internal and external data to address target discovery and validation questions related to target and biomarker identification and indication selection.

+ Supports data ingestion and conducts analysis using target discovery and biomarker data management platforms.

+ Selects the appropriate human genetics, omics, RWD and other data sets and analytical approaches for drug target identification and validation to support drug research.

+ Develop new analysis tools and databases to meet the current and future portfolio needs as needed.

+ Identifies, evaluates and champions external science (biotech/ academic collaborator) to complement internal capabilities.

+ Establishes a strong network internally with I-Lab, EDTS, and R&DX colleagues across Astellas primarily in the US and Japan and is recognized as one of the key Bioinformatics & AI leaders in Astellas.

**Qualifications Required:**

+ Ph.D. in computational biology, bioinformatics, or other biomedical sciences with a minimum of 7yrs' experience in applying bioinformatics approaches to drug discovery/development, preferably in a biopharma setting and deep knowledge in at least one area of mechanistic or disease biology

+ Strong publication record in peer reviewed journals

+ Demonstrated experience in human genetics and multi-modal omics data analysis, including experience with developing pipelines for next-generation sequencing data analysis.

+ Strong capability in designing and performing bioinformatics analyses to address target discovery and translational questions to obtain insight on target and biomarker selection and patient segmentation

+ Excellent programming skills (including R, Python, SAS) and deep knowledge for statistical analysis and machine learning

+ Experience with data visualization using web applications such as Shiny/plotly

+ Experience with highly parallel, clustered, or supercomputing systems.

+ Ability to work independently project level bioinformatics support, from planning to execution and reporting

+ Flexibility is required combining independent decision-making in certain areas and providing expert advice where final decisions are made collectively.

+ Strong communication skills and demonstrated ability to influence and lead in a multi-cultural, global matrix environment with a collaborative win-win mindset.

**Preferred:**

+ Experience in analyzing single cell sequencing data and proteomics data

+ Experience with AI agentic frameworks

+ Experience with Electronic Lab notebooks (ELNs) and meta-data organization

+ Experience evaluating external companies and solutions in the bioinformatics and Lifesciences AI space.

+ Administration experience of clustered-computing systems

**Working Environment:**

+ The primary work location for the successful candidate will be onsite in Cambridge, MA. At Astellas we recognize the importance of work/life balance, and we are proud to offer a hybrid working solution allowing time to connect with colleagues at the office with the flexibility to also work from home. We believe this will optimize the most productive work environment for all employees to succeed and deliver.

+ Hybrid work from certain locations may be permitted in accordance with Astellas' Responsible Flexibility Guidelines.

**Benefits:**

+ Medical, Dental and Vision Insurance

+ Generous Paid Time Off options, including Vacation, Sick time, plus national holidays including Heritage Days, and Summer and Winter Breaks

+ 401(k) match and annual company contribution

+ Company paid life insurance

+ Annual Corporate Bonus and Quarterly Sales Incentive for eligible positions

+ Long Term Incentive Plan for eligible positions

+ Referral bonus program

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Astellas is committed to equality of opportunity in all aspects of employment.

EOE including Disability/Protected Veterans