BACKGROUND

The Joint Centers for Systems Biology at the Columbia University Medical Center is seeking an experienced Java programmer to lead the continued design and development of geWorkBench, a flexible, open-ended platform for bioinformatics data integration and analysis. The platform being developed allows programs or algorithms, which may be written with no knowledge of each other, to exchange data and to call on or provide visualization and data management services. This open-source platform distributes computations across client, server and grid components, scaling from small local calculations to major cluster-based calculations. Development of geWorkbench is conducted under two national level programs(1) MAGNet, the National Center for the Mulitscale Analysis of Genomic and Cellular Networks (NIH NCBC), and (2) caBIG, the Cancer Biomedical Informatics Grid, a large scale technology infrastructure initiative sponsored by NCI.

RESPONSIBILITIES

The candidate will act as the technical lead of the in-house development team and will have the overall technical oversight in the development of the geWorkbench platform. The candidate will participate in defining use cases for the system, building out the architecture, implementing new algorithms, integrating existing programs, troubleshooting problems, and producing technical documentation. The types of data and algorithms encountered include sequence and microarray gene expression analysis, metabolic and regulatory network inference, and pattern detection and evaluation. This is a period of major growth for this project and the candidate will be able to make a significant contribution. The candidate may also server as technical lead/advisor on other projects as they arise. Perform other related duties as assigned.

REQUIREMENTS

Bachelor's degree (Master's preferred) in Computer Science, Engineering, Mathematics, Physics, Bioinformatics or a similar field. At least 4 years experience programming with Java is requested. Also required is experience with program architecture, J2EE, UML, structured programming, database driven projects using MySQL or a similar database system, SQL, JDBC, Linux, and use of appropriate IDEs and project management tools. The candidate should have experience with the full software development cycle from writing Use Cases to implementation, testing and documentation. Incumbent must have excellent written and spoken English, as well as strong organizational skills and the ability to work as a member of a team.

PREFERENCES

Knowledge of general bioinformatics principles and experience in programming bioinformatics related software would be very helpful. The candidate should be familiar with n-tier application/server architectures and the use of frameworks such as Struts or Spring. . Working experience with Hibernate, Perl and C++ would be very valuable. Experience with cluster architecture and computing is strongly desired, and any experience numerical computing, especially in a cluster environment, would be a plus. The group stresses production of well-documented, tested, maintainable code.

LOCALE

Manhattan, New York City, NY. (Inwood Heights neighborhood, upper Manhattan)

COMPENSATION

Commensurate with experience. Substantial benefits are provided, including 23 days vacation.

HOW TO APPLY

Visit the Columbia University HR website with this quicklink:

http://jobs.columbia.edu/applicants/Central?quickFind=103335