Ensured Consideration Date: 17 Jul 2026
Michigan Technological University is an R1 technological research university founded in 1885 in Houghton. Our rural campus is situated just miles from Lake Superior in Michigan's scenic Upper Peninsula and is home to nearly 7,500 students from more than 60 countries around the world. Consistently ranked among the best universities in the country for return on investment, Michigan's flagship technological university offers more than 185 undergraduate and graduate degree programs. Research focus areas include defense, health, energy, automotive, environment, and aerospace.
The area's waters, forests, and snowfall support year-round recreation, including skiing, snowboarding, hiking, biking, and paddling. The University is an integral part of the region, supported by a friendly and welcoming community that takes pride in being a true college town. We embrace our size, climate, sense of adventure, and originality.
Summary
The Great Lakes Research Center (GLRC) at Michigan Technological University (Michigan Tech) aims to advance freshwater and coastal ocean research as a foundation for health, economic prosperity and global sustainability through interdisciplinary research cutting across Michigan Tech's academic programs. The GLRC institute includes collaborative faculty from twelve disciplines within the Colleges of Engineering, Computing, Sciences and Arts, Business, and Forest Resources and Environmental Sciences. The GLRC seeks a Research Scientist II or III to fill a gap in computational genomics across campus.
The Research Scientist will be involved in many current and upcoming research projects and would also be expected to lead new projects specific to methods development, generating and analyzing new data to address environmental questions around biodiversity, environmental degradation, etc., or leveraging the increasing availability of publicly available genomic datasets to ask novel questions across large temporal and spatial scales. Building reproducible data analysis pipelines using machine learning and large language models is the future of computational bioinformatics and this researcher would be expected to build collaborations with faculty in the College of Computing and Mathematical Sciences as well.
Responsibilities and Essential Duties
1. Evaluate and apply bioinformatics approaches to environmental data.
2. Contribute technical expertise to sponsored research as both a project lead and team member.
3. Successfully grow a funded research program, to become self-supporting into the future.
4. Prepare and deliver reports or presentations of research projects/analysis results to project sponsors as appropriate.
5. Lead and contribute to the generation of proposals and external funding.
6. Apply safety-related knowledge, skills, and practices to everyday work.
7. Apply research security knowledge to data, facilities, and personnel.
8. Commit to learning about continuous improvement strategies and applying them to everyday work. Actively engage in University continuous improvement initiatives.
9. Apply safety-related knowledge, skills, and practices to everyday work.
Required Education, Certifications, Licensures
* Ph.D. in bioinformatics, computational biology, biological sciences, or similar related field.
* U.S. citizen or permanent resident with ability to obtain and maintain necessary government clearances and access.
Required Experience
* Experience developing reproducible bioinformatics analysis pipelines for environmental data.
* Successful track record of working in multidisciplinary teams.
* Strong record of scholarly productivity, including peer-reviewed publications, technical reports, or other research outputs.
Desirable Education and/or Experience
* Demonstrated leadership, project management, and mentoring experience in a research environment.
* Track record of successful major grant proposal authorship and execution.
* Rigorous graduate-level coursework in one or more programming languages and statistical courses, particularly with environmental or ecological data.
* Industry experience in the areas of interest, or similar areas.
Required Knowledge, Skills, and/or Abilities
* Strong programming skills with experience in one or more of the following programming languages/software: python, R, metagenomic pipelines such as DADA2, basic handling of high throughput sequencing data such as Samtools, GATK, statistical analysis tools for genetic associations, including mixed model platforms, multivariate models, and Bayesian approaches.
* Excellent communication and interpersonal skills, with the ability to engage diverse partners and represent the organization externally.
* Commitment to advancing Michigan Tech's research mission and supporting a collaborative, inclusive research environment.
Desirable Knowledge, Skills, and/or Abilities
* Demonstrated ability to translate research into applied outcomes, including technology development, policy engagement, or industry partnerships.
* Demonstrated success in, or potential future contributions to, working with persons with a wide variety of backgrounds and viewpoints.
Work Environment and/or Physical Demands
WORK ENVIRONMENT: The work environment characteristics described here are representative of those an employee encounters while performing the essential functions of this job. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions.
The noise level in the work environment is usually low to moderate.
Required Training and Other Conditions of Employment
Every employee at Michigan Technological University will receive the... For full info follow application link.
Michigan Technological University is an Equal Opportunity Educational Institution/Equal Opportunity Employer that provides equal opportunity for all, including protected veterans and individuals with disabilities.
