Biostatistician

$98,000 - $130,000/Yr

Westat - Rockville, MD

Full-time - Mid Level

Remote - Rockville, MD

1,001-5,000 employees

Religious, Grantmaking, Civic, Professional, and Similar Organizations

About the position

Westat is seeking a Biostatistician/Bioinformatician to perform statistical analysis on large genomics and clinical datasets. The role involves collaboration with external investigators and internal project teams to design and execute analyses on various omics data. The position also includes providing bioinformatics support for projects aimed at contributing to scientific publications, presenting results, and ensuring robust and well-documented outcomes.

Responsibilities

• Communicate and collaborate with external investigators using various platforms, tailoring communication to varying skill levels.
• Manage large datasets, including survey data, genomics and epigenomics data.
• Generate analytic variables, codebooks, and data dictionaries.
• Design, develop, and deploy robust high-throughput genomic data processing, quality control, and analysis pipelines.
• Conduct advanced statistical analyses, genotyping analysis, genetic imputation, and machine learning applications in genetics and genomics, creating visual representations of data using R or Python software.
• Run statistical tests for genome-wide association studies (GWAS), epigenome-wide association studies (EWAS), proteomic studies, principal component analysis (PCA), and meta-analysis on high-performance computing (HPC) clusters.
• Use genomics/epigenomics analysis tools such as PLINK, METAL, SmartPCA, RVTEST, and BioConductor packages.
• Contribute to report results for publication in peer-reviewed and technical journals.

Requirements

• A Ph.D in bioinformatics, computational biology, biostatistics or related field with 2 years of relevant experience, or a Master's degree in the same fields with 4 years of relevant experience.
• Research experience in genetics and genomics.
• Demonstrated expertise with regression modeling.
• Programming experience in R, SAS, Python, or comparable.

Nice-to-haves

• Experience with genotype imputation and a comprehensive understanding of biology.
• Experience with Shell script writing.

Benefits

• Employee Stock Ownership Plan
• 401(k) Retirement Plan
• Paid Parental Leave
• Vacation Leave (15 days per year)
• Sick Leave (10 days per year)
• Holiday Leave (7 Government Holidays and 2 Floating Holidays)
• Professional Development
• Health Advocate
• Employee Assistance Program
• Travel Accident Insurance
• Medical Insurance
• Dental Insurance
• Vision Insurance
• Short Term Disability Insurance
• Long Term Disability Insurance
• Life and AD&D Insurance
• Critical Illness Insurance
• Supplemental Life Insurance
• Flexible Spending Account
• Health Savings Account