(Senior) Computational Biologist/Chemist

ABOUT BRIGHTSEED

Plants have played a vital role in human health for thousands of years, and we have yet to realize the full potential. Brightseed is a data company with the technology to do just that. We identify the hidden compounds in plants that can impact health and we bring these bioactives to market across industries at a rate that was previously impossible.

ABOUT YOU

You are an expert computational biologist/chemist with a passion for exploring the chemical diversity encoded in organismal genomes and how that diversity can be harnessed for the betterment of human health. At Brightseed, you will be responsible for building out an innovative computational platform that integrates machine learning, metabolomics technologies, and high-throughput screening data, to elucidate the natural products space found in major domains of life including plants, fungi, and microbes. As part of your work, you will build-out our internal capabilities to perform data analysis and visualizations in collaboration with our interdisciplinary team. Ultimately, your work will result in computational pipelines as a crucial part of our Forager® platform to make novel discoveries. This role will report to the Senior Director, Discovery and is based in South San Francisco.

In particular, you will:

• Lead computational investigations that apply computational approaches to in-house biological data resources, resulting in novel natural product discoveries that enable a healthier, more nutritious food industry.
• Design, develop, and implement algorithms across a range of application objectives, including molecular bioactivity prediction, de novo elucidation of plant metabolomes, and metabolic network reconstruction, among others.
• Design, build, and operate data pipelines that perform core scientific analyses.
• Capture, curate, and manage data sets, including creating data analysis tools and databases.
• As part of a team, assist in building and maintaining the R&D computational infrastructure, including apps, pipelines, servers, databases, and cloud services.
• Integrate with the in-house chemistry and medical teams to build a seamless group spanning multiple scientific disciplines.

During the first year at Brightseed, we would expect you to:

• Successfully deliver a major project (internal or external) by joining the computation team in launching an initiative to identify natural plant compounds that address major areas of focus in human health
• Collaborate with a group of metabolomics scientists, chemists, biologists, engineers, business personnel and computational scientists to identify and solve data analysis problems in order to address project needs
• Build data infrastructure by designing and implementing automated data pipelines for computational investigations including statistical analysis, model-based predictions, and visualizations
• Capture and keep institutional knowledge by maintaining a clear codebase and documentation

Requirements

• Ph.D. in Computational Biology, Computational Chemistry, Bioinformatics, Cheminformatics, Biostatistics, Biophysics, Chemistry, Computer Science, or related discipline
• A track record of achievements in designing and performing computational investigations
• Excellent data science skills with hands on data wrangling and visualization expertise
• Capable of planning and delivering results within a predefined project timeline
• Experience in statistics and machine learning applications is highly desirable
• Strong collaborative and oral and written communication skills

Additional experience with one or more of the following is a plus:

• Molecular biology
• Natural product chemistry
• Metabolomics
• HPC and/or Cloud computing

THE BENEFITS YOU'LL ENJOY

As a lab based company, where in person collaboration is key to drive innovation, we encourage all team members to be in our office most days each week. However we appreciate and honor the need and desire for flexibility and have implemented a hybrid working model. We have a fully stocked healthy kitchen, a gym onsite, plenty of free parking, weekly team events and a state-of-the-art lab and office.

We offer a competitive total rewards package with team-first benefits programs for full-time employees, including medical, dental and vision coverage, unlimited paid time off, life insurance, disability coverage, employee assistance programs, 401(k) plan, a mental health platform, employee discounts, payroll credits for cell phone and commuter costs and a paid parental leave program.

JOIN US, AND BE YOU

We are committed to making transformative discoveries with a team-first mentality. Successful team members are truth-seeking and trusting, with the tenacity required to trail blaze in uncharted territory. We are a collaborative team that actively seeks input and values differing perspectives. And we produce tangible results, holding ourselves accountable in the process.

We are also committed to cultivating and preserving a culture of connectedness and inclusion. We grow and learn together, respecting professional and personal experiences, areas of expertise, and types of self expression.

In recruiting for our team, we welcome the unique contributions that each one of us brings in terms of education, opinions, culture, color, ethnicity, race, sex, gender identity and expression, nation of origin, age, languages spoken, veteran's status, religion, different abilities, sexual orientation and beliefs.