Senior Scientist I/II, Genomic Technology - Assay Development Lead

About AbbVie
AbbVie’s mission is to discover and deliver innovative medicines that solve serious health issues today and address the medical challenges of tomorrow. We strive to have a remarkable impact on people’s lives across several key therapeutic areas: immunology, oncology, neuroscience, eye care, virology, women’s health and gastroenterology, in addition to products and services across its Allergan Aesthetics portfolio. For more information about AbbVie, please visit us at www.abbvie.com. Follow @abbvie on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube and LinkedIn.

AbbVie is actively harnessing the power of human genetics and genomics to drive drug discovery and development. In the past several years, we’ve made multiple investments in internal capabilities and external partnerships with leading academic groups and technology companies. In 2016 we created an internal research group, the AbbVie Genomics Research Center (GRC) within Discovery R&D. The GRC is a single organization that supports and drives genomics and genetics research across AbbVie R&D. The GRC has core capabilities and research efforts in Genomic Technologies, Functional Genomics, Computational Genomics, Human Disease Genetics, Pharmacogenetics, and has dedicated support for IT infrastructure. The core mission of the group is to apply genomics and genetics research to target discovery, target validation, translational research, and design and analysis of clinical trials.

The GRC Genomic Technologies Group (G-Tech) supports AbbVie preclinical and clinical research teams by applying genomic profiling technologies with the goal of improving the success rates for drug discovery and development. We apply genomic profiling technologies to identify and validate targets and biomarkers, improve understanding of preclinical models and candidate drug molecules, select/stratify patients and understand patient responses in AbbVie clinical trials. The GRC is seeking to hire a technical and scientific expert in genomic technology assay development to support and drive new genomic profiling pipelines and to also expand genomic profiling capabilities.  The successful candidate will be responsible for being a technical lead, carrying out the development of new genomic profiling experiments and integrate those assays with LIMS and automation In addition the successful candidate will perform and communicate highly custom NGS research projects to stakeholders and collaborators and assist in driving efforts to expand genomic profiling capabilities to serve unmet needs.

Key Responsibilities:

• Act as a technical lead and independent contributor to investigate, identify, develop, optimize, and validate new genomic profiling assays and technologies in G-Tech with the expectation of LIMS and automation integration. Partner with bioinformatics engineering specialists and disease area scientists to interpret results and define acceptance criteria and QC metrics for new workflows. Troubleshoot and optimize existing G-Tech assay workflows.
• Closely work with G-Tech Group Leader to oversee day-to-day Assay Development team of G-Tech and provide advice and technical expertise to other scientists in the team. Highly autonomous and productive in performing laboratory research, requiring only minimal direction from or interaction with supervisor. Has the potential to be a people manager based on the team’s future need and experience level.
• Interact with AbbVie GRC stakeholders and AbbVie therapeutic area (TA) scientists to meet the needs of highly custom genomic profiling projects. Effectively communicate and collaborate with stakeholders on experiment design, execution, analysis, and troubleshooting to deliver high quality results under agreed upon timelines.
• Stay current on rapidly evolving NGS and other genomic profiling workflows including but not restricted to:  RNAseq, whole genome or targeted DNAseq, single cell, and long-read sequencing, array and qPCR protocols.  Contribute to and support G-Tech’s NGS Operations team for high-throughput NGS projects as needed. Prepare written summaries of experimental results and verbally present at team or external meetings.

Qualifications

Position will be hired based on level of experience and education.

• Bachelor’s Degree or equivalent education and typically 10 years of experience, Master’s Degree or equivalent education and typically 8 years of experience, PhD and no experience necessary in molecular biology, genomic sciences or a related field.
• Demonstrated record of high proficiency across a wide range of hands-on experience and deep technical knowledge of genomic profiling technologies with emphasis on next generation sequencing platforms and library preparation workflows including: WGS, WES, targeted DNAseq, RNAseq, single cell, long-read sequencing, and related QC technologies.
• Expert and detailed knowledge of genomic sample processing, sample and data QC, analytical methods and workflow optimization, LIMS integration, and automation programing is highly desired.
• Experience being part of a centralized technology group is desirable. Industry experience is desired but willing to consider individuals with equivalent years of experience in academic or non-industry research settings.
• Pervious lab, project, and people management experience is desired.
• High attention to detail, self-motivated, critical thinking, strong written and verbal communication skills, ability to work independently and as part of a team, passion to train, assist, and mentor junior staff.
• Ability to work in fast-paced, dynamic environment and to independently and help other team members carry forward multiple projects in parallell

Significant Work Activities
N/A
Travel
No
Job Type
Experienced
Schedule
Full-time
Job Level Code
M
Equal Employment Opportunity
At AbbVie, we value bringing together individuals from diverse backgrounds to develop new and innovative solutions for patients. As an equal opportunity employer we do not discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion, national origin, age, sex (including pregnancy), physical or mental disability, medical condition, genetic information gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, marital status, protected veteran status, or any other legally protected characteristic.