BACKGROUND:
Organization Summary:
Public Health Ontario (PHO) is a Crown corporation dedicated to protecting and promoting the health of all Ontarians and reducing inequities in health. As a hub organization, PHO links public health practitioners, front-line health workers and researchers to the best scientific intelligence and knowledge from around the world.

PHO provides expert scientific and technical support relating to infection prevention and control; surveillance and epidemiology; health promotion, chronic disease and injury prevention; environmental and occupational health; health emergency preparedness; and public health laboratory services to support health providers, the public health system and partner ministries in making informed decisions and taking informed action to improve the health and security of Ontarians. For more information about PHO, visit http://www.publichealthontario.ca.

RESPONSIBILITIES:
Position Summary:
To provide scientific oversight and strategic leadership for the applied microbial bioinformatics program at Public Health Ontario, and to set the standards and provide leadership for the development and application of bioinformatics in clinical public health microbiology programs and applied public health research.

Key Responsibilities:

• Supports the implementation of leading-edge, sophisticated bioinformatics research program within PHO's laboratory to support disease diagnosis, prevention and treatment of infections and disease of public health relevance
• Provides scientific oversight, expert advice and support for the translation and implementation of highly specialized, complex and integrated bioinformatics for genomic and public health epidemiology, detection and real time analysis of outbreaks of public health importance, identification of emerging pathogens through the development of a pathogen discovery pipeline, antimicrobial resistance prediction, and other sequence-based analytics for diagnostic, research and public health purposes
• Ensures rigorous scientific methodology guides all decision making in the development and implementation of bioinformatics capacity, pipelines and tools as it relates to lab methodologies and research activities
• Recommends improvements in bioinformatics methods, equipment and new testing technology, and introduces advanced approaches & protocols for bioinformatics analysis for diagnostic and public health laboratory response when required
• Provides technical guidance and professional expertise in proposing laboratory guidelines, procedures and evaluation criteria that apply to bioinformatics applications
• Assesses existing and proposed laboratory procedures, standards, policies and plans as it relates to bioinformatics capacity and deliverables
• Acts as a PHOL resident expert on bioinformatics services. Prepares detailed, well-focused technical reports, laboratory manuals and scientific papers for approval by management and/or scientific staff
• Develops & provides oversight for educational capacity and programs for bioinformatics at Public Health Ontario in collaboration with the Director of Laboratory Information and Research Operations, the Director of Informatics, the Computational Biologist, and other bioinformatics personnel lending expertise where needed in building strategy and delivery of high quality informatics tools, research and education
• Works closely with Information Technology to align business needs with planning, prioritization and delivery of the bioinformatics program
• Provides consultation and specialized advisory services to PHO's officials, regional staff, physicians, other health care providers, physicians, hospital and private laboratories, medical and clinical microbiologists, Medical Officers of Health, health units and regional laboratories, on the application of methodologies, the interpretation of laboratory results/analyses, the identification of organisms and the interpretation of laboratory results. Identifies matters of potential public health importance e.g. unusual or emerging pathogens and informs the supervisor. Responds to sudden events and circumstances
• Develops an independently funded research program, and maintain a scholarly portfolio by authoring peer-review publications, presenting papers at conferences, and giving seminars
• Facilitates and collaborates on research projects with provincial, national, and international organizations, universities, and other academic centres
• Represents PHO at internal and external meetings, on task forces and advisory committees, and build linkages with University and College academic health science centres
• Supports the Chief, Medical Microbiology, the Deputy Chief, Research, the CLOO and other Directors of Operations in the management of emergency and exigent situations. Identify matters of potential public health importance e.g. unusual or emerging pathogens and informs the Medical Director and or other members of the senior leadership team as appropriate. Respond to sudden events and circumstances
• Demonstrates and support the core values of PHO thereby ensuring that the goals, objectives and strategic priorities of PHO are met

REQUIREMENTS:
Knowledge and Skills:

• Knowledge of and experience with algorithms and programs for DNA sequence analysis, gene prediction, genome annotation, identification of sequence polymorphisms (SNP) analysis, and construction of phylogenetic trees, analysis of genome assembly and realignment, in consultation with medical and scientific staff
• Knowledge of and implementation experience with use of relational databases of important biological sequence databases and database formats, and how to retrieve information from these databases and skills in designing and implementing bioinformatics software programs, databases, web sites and data sets
• Experience, proficiency and knowledge in Unix/Linux operating system environments; programming/scripting in bioinformatics applications in Perl, Java, C/C++, Python and SQL
• Knowledge and experience integrating and analyzing large datasets including genomic data, or other big data initiatives
• Eligible for (or currently holding) an academic appointment (assistant professor status or higher) at an Ontario University within a relevant academic discipline and capable of the clinical and academic supervision of graduate and other students.
• Demonstrated ability to design, plan, execute, and troubleshoot an independent research program
• Demonstrated experience working in a public health laboratory, academic laboratory or equivalent collaborative research environment
• Demonstrated experience with establishing microbial genomics analyses and program development
• Demonstrated experience with the development, validation and implementation of bioinformatics for application purposes

Education and Experience:

• PhD from a recognized educational institution, and post-doctoral training in bioinformatics, computational biology or equivalent health sciences discipline

Your cover letter and resume must clearly indicate how you meet the qualifications and competencies of the position.

TERMS:
Duration: Permanent Full Time
Reports to: Chief, Medical Microbiology

LOCALE:
Location: 661 University Avenue, Toronto
Department: Toronto Public Health Laboratory

HOW TO APPLY:
If you are interested in applying to this position, please go to http://www.publichealthontario.ca/en/About/Careers/Pages/default.aspx and click on "View Our Current Job Opportunities" and then click on the job title. You should receive a response to your job application.

Thank you for your interest in this position, however, only qualified candidates will be contacted for an interview. Please continue to view our website for new career opportunities with the Public Health Ontario.

Job ID: 16-0208
Position Title: Bioinformatics Scientist
Competition Status: OPEN
Posting Date: June 21, 2016

DEADLINE:
Closing Date: July 6, 2016