The Center for Biomolecular Science & Engineering offers unique opportunities for research, teaching, learning, and satisfying careers in bioinformatics and related fields—a rich working and learning environment at UC Santa Cruz.
CBSE Staff Positions
We have these open positions:
CGHub Operations Manager
CGHub Researcher Technical Support Specialist (Programmer/Analyst 2)
CGHub Senior System Administrator (Programmer/Analyst 4)
CGHub System Administrator (Programmer/Analyst 3)
CGHub Systems Application Engineer (Programmer/Analyst 3)
CGHub Security Compliance Manager (Programmer/Analyst 3)
Assistant Research Scientist, Comparative Genomics
Biological Database Testing and User Support Technician (Programmer/Analyst I)
Molecular Biology/Immunology Research Specialist (Associate Specialist–Specialist)
You can search and apply for additional jobs online at the UCSC Staff Employment web site and the UCSC Academic Employment Opportunities web site.
UCSC is an affirmative action/equal opportunity employer.
We recommend that you include the following in your application:
- A cover letter describing why you are interested in and qualified for this particular job
- A curriculum vita or resume
- Your salary history
Descriptions of open positions:
CGHub Operations Manager
Rank: Manager (Functional Area)
Application review date: 03/01/12
The UCSC Cancer Genomics Hub (CGHub) benefits the cancer genomics projects supported by the National Cancer Institute and the cancer research community—comprising more than twenty-five types of human cancer—by creating a data portal where the genome sequence data—a comprehensive characterization of the genomic changes—are made available in a powerful, efficient, and secure manner.
ESSENTIAL FUNCTIONS: Under the direction of the CGHub Program Director, the Operations Manager is responsible for the execution of the CGHub operations plan, managing the activities of the System Administrators, the Security Compliance Manager, and the Research Support Specialist. The Operations Manager also works with various campus units that play a role in the operation of the hub as a contractual asset of UCSC. Responsible for the collection of auditable artifacts as required in the system security plan, in collaboration with the Security Compliance Manager, and chairs the change and onfiguration management work group. The incumbent participates in planning, development, maintenance, and documentation of the CGHub's computing and information technology (IT) resources. The Operations Manager will serve as team leader, providing leadership and ensuring a high-performing team. In addition to management of the duties of technical staff, incumbent provides oversight and process management responsibilities for non-IT operations such as procurement, facilities, and human resources.
RESPONSIBILITIES include Bachelor's degree (BA or BS) in computer information sciences or equivalent work experience; demonstrated experience with securing and reporting on IT systems in compliance with the Federal Information Security Management Act (FISMA); demonstrated experience successfully managing technical staff in the areas of programming, system administration, and network engineering; demonstrated experience in technical project management, including developing and managing technical project timelines, prioritizing and assigning project tasks, and assessing progress; demonstrated in-depth knowledge of computer systems design and architecture with an underlying understanding of the integration of systems hardware, software and networks; advanced verbal and written communication skills; strong interpersonal skills and ability to lead effective teams; demonstrated values of excellence, innovation, and integrity; demonstrated competency to manage and lead with people of different skills, backgrounds, and experiences.
CGHub Researcher Technical Support Specialist
Rank: Programmer/Analyst 2
Application review date: 02/23/12
The UCSC Cancer Genomics Hub (CGHub) benefits the cancer genomics projects supported by the National Cancer Institute and the cancer research community—comprising more than twenty-five types of human cancer—by creating a data portal where the genome sequence data—a comprehensive characterization of the genomic changes—are made available in a powerful, efficient, and secure manner.
ESSENTIAL FUNCTIONS: Under supervision from the IT Operations Manager, the Researcher Technical Support Specialist is the responsible point of contact for end users (researchers), their IT support staff, and other genomic research centers nationwide. Support duties include recording prospective end user inquiries; supporting client-side software installation, testing, and troubleshooting; troubleshooting throughput issues, administration and customization of the trouble ticket system, maintaining CGHub web site assets, and maintaining end-user and operational documents.
QUALIFICATIONS include a Bachelors degree (BA or BS) in Computer Information Sciences or equivalent work experience; extensive knowledge of Linux software installation; experience troubleshooting network issues; experience recording work in a ticketing system and other compliance-related documentation; advanced verbal and written communication skills; demonstrated experience delivering effective end-user technical support; strong interpersonal skills and ability to work effectively in a team environment; demonstrated competency to work and interact with people of different skills, backgrounds and experiences.
CGHub Senior System Administrator
Rank: Programmer/Analyst 4
Application review date: 02/16/12
The UCSC Cancer Genomics Hub (CGHub) benefits the cancer genomics projects supported by the National Cancer Institute and the cancer research community—comprising more than twenty-five types of human cancer—by creating a data portal where the genome sequence data—a comprehensive characterization of the genomic changes—are made available in a powerful, efficient, and secure manner.
ESSENTIAL FUNCTIONS: The Senior System Administrator under direction of the Operations Manager is responsible to implement, test, and deploy the CGHub infrastructure and data management application, working with software vendor(s). Responsible for executing the day-to-day duties of the system administrator as called for in the CGHub operations plan, which includes infrastructure life cycle, data integrity, security compliance, and researcher services. Serves as a key member of the configuration management work-group as specified in the CGHub system security plan. The position may involve travel to the data center to perform hands-on installation and maintenance.
QUALIFICATIONS include a Bachelors degree (BA or BS) in computer information sciences or equivalent work experience; extensive experience managing unix servers in a large technical environment; extensive experience with Linux and cluster file systems; extensive experience with storing large data sets, delivering them, and backing up TB (terabytes) or PB (petabytes) of data; extensive knowledge of networks, preferably 10G; experience working with identity management and authentication technologies (LDAP, Shibboleth); experience with securing and reporting on IT systems in compliance with the Federal Information Security Management Act (FISMA); demonstrated in-depth knowledge of computer systems design and architecture with an underlying understanding of the integration of systems hardware, software, and networks; knowledge of existing and emerging application software technologies; advanced verbal and written communication skills; strong interpersonal skills and ability to work effectively in a team environment; experience recording work in a ticketing system and other compliance-related documentation; demonstrated competencies to work and interact with people of different skills, backgrounds and experiences.
CGHub System Administrator
Rank: Programmer/Analyst 3
Application review date: 02/23/12
The UCSC Cancer Genomics Hub (CGHub) benefits the cancer genomics projects supported by the National Cancer Institute and the cancer research community—comprising more than twenty-five types of human cancer—by creating a data portal where the genome sequence data—a comprehensive characterization of the genomic changes—are made available in a powerful, efficient, and secure manner.
ESSENTIAL FUNCTIONS: The System Administrator, under general supervision of the Operations Manager and technical direction of the Senior Systems Administrator, shares responsibility for executing the day-to-day duties of the system administrator as called for in the CGHub operations plan, which includes infrastructure life-cycle, data integrity, security compliance, and researcher services. Serves as a key member of the configuration management workgroup as specified in the CGHub system security plan. The position may involve travel to data center to perform hands-on installation and maintenance.
QUALIFICATIONS include a Bachelor's degree (BA or BS) in computer information sciences or equivalent work experience; experience managing a UNIX servers in a large technical environment; experience with Linux and cluster file systems; experience with large data sets around delivery of data and backing up TB (terabytes) or PB (petabytes) of data; experience with networks, preferably 10G; experience working with identity management and authentication domains (LDAP, Shibboleth); demonstrated in-depth knowledge of computer systems design and architecture with an underlying understanding of the integration of systems hardware, software, and networks; knowledge of existing and emerging application software technologies; advanced verbal and written communication skills; strong interpersonal skills and ability to work effectively in a team environment; experience recording work in a ticketing system and other compliance-related documentation; demonstrated competencies to work and interact with people of different skills, backgrounds, and experiences.
CGHub Systems Application Engineer
Rank: Programmer/Analyst 3
Application review date: 02/23/12
The UCSC Cancer Genomics Hub (CGHub) benefits the cancer genomics projects supported by the National Cancer Institute and the cancer research community—comprising more than twenty-five types of human cancer—by creating a data portal where the genome sequence data—a comprehensive characterization of the genomic changes—are made available in a powerful, efficient, and secure manner.
ESSENTIAL FUNCTIONS: Under general supervision of the Operations Manager, the Systems Application Engineer automates, enhances, and maintains the CGHub. Primarily responsible for the troubleshooting, maintenance, and enhancement of the system software and interfaces. Point of contact to the software vendor for assessment of issues, risks, enhancements, testing, evaluation and reporting. Works with the System Administrators to review system performance monitoring and incident reporting, primarily responsible for managing and tracking software application issues to resolution. Point of contact to the Researcher Support Specialist for application incident escalations, and point of contact to the System IT Security Compliance Manager with respect to technical system risks under the various controls of the CGHub system security plan (SSP). Works with all members of the team to remediate findings in security assessments.
QUALIFICATIONS include a minimum 5 years experience as a software engineer; demonstrated experience working with Python and C programming languages in a Unix development environment; demonstrated experience programming against a database (MySQL,PostgreSQL, Oracle, or Sybase); demonstrated experience programming object-oriented software; working knowledge of current software engineering methodologies; ability to be creative and flexible while learning new programming languages and maintaining legacy systems; ability to build robust and maintainable software and to learn existing software; ability to communicate effectively with software vendors for collaboration and creation of interdependent software code; advanced verbal and written communication skills; strong interpersonal skills and ability to work effectively in a team environment; experience recording work in a ticketing system and other compliance-related documentation; demonstrated competencies to work and interact with people of different skills, backgrounds, and experiences; working knowledge of system and internet security; working knowledge of web application development; working knowledge of transactional databases and data integrity.
CGHub Security Compliance Manager
Rank: Programmer/Analyst 3
Application review date: 02/16/12
The UCSC Cancer Genomics Hub (CGHub) benefits the cancer genomics projects supported by the National Cancer Institute and the cancer research community—comprising more than twenty-five types of human cancer—by creating a data portal where the genome sequence data—a comprehensive characterization of the genomic changes—are made available in a powerful, efficient, and secure manner.
ESSENTIAL FUNCTIONS: The Security Compliance Manager, under general supervision of the IT (Information Technologies) Operations manager, develops, maintains, updates, and executes the CGHub system security plan (SSP) in order to vouchsafe and protect the CGHub's FISMA compliant status. Ensures that all aspect of CGHub operational activity conforms to the requirements of the SSP controls. Serves as a key member of the configuration management workgroup as specified in the SSP. Updates the security plan and associated documentation as needed. Point of contact to Program Director as system owner under the NCI information steward, and point of contact to the SAIC security assessment team. Serves as liaison to campus IT Services and CISCO, manages internal audits, assessments, and security-related committee activity.
QUALIFICATIONS include a bachelors degree (BA or BS) in computer information sciences or equivalent work experience; extensive knowledge of IT security assessments such as described by NIST 800 publications, or audits, such as ISO9001; working knowledge of the integration of systems hardware, software, and networks; advanced verbal and written communication skills; experience recording work in a ticketing system and other compliance-related documentation; strong interpersonal skills and ability to work effectively in a team environment; demonstrated competencies to work and interact with people of different skills, backgrounds, and experiences.
Assistant Research Scientist, Comparative Genomics
Rank: Assistant Research Scientist 1
Posted 1/31/12, application review date 3/1/12
The Center for Biomolecular Science & Engineering (CBSE) at UC Santa Cruz invites applications from outstanding scientists for the position of Assistant Research Scientist in Comparative Genomics. We seek a self-motivated, creative scientist experienced in biological data analysis and having extensive programming knowledge to maintain an independent research program serving as principal investigator on federal grant awards and contracts and on privately-funded projects in the areas of molecular evolution, human variation, cancer genomics, and immunogenomics. The incumbent will be expected to publish in top-tier scientific journals and present findings in scientific meetings. In the course of research, the incumbent will create algorithms, applications programming interfaces, and software systems used for comparative genomics by both the UCSC group and external groups. It is expected that the incumbent, as part of the UCSC comparative genomics group, will work with research groups at other institutions to set standards in the field. Our exceptional collegiality and interdisciplinary collaborations make UCSC an excellent environment for an innovative scientist who can benefit from and contribute to the rapid growth in the sciences and engineering at UCSC.
Specific projects in which the candidate may play a significant role include the following, all of which have a substantial comparative genomics component: the Genome 10K project, an effort to sequence a reference genome for each of 10,000 vertebrate species to understand how complex animal life evolved through changes in DNA and use this knowledge to become better stewards of the planet; the UCSC reference human genome project, associated with the UCSC Genome Browser, to map the world’s biomedical data to a common reference human genome, unleashing the power of the Internet for biomedical research; the UCSC cancer genomics project, a collaborative effort with The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA), which is the National Cancer Institute's flagship cancer genomics project, a Stand Up to Cancer Dream Team involved in finding targeted therapies for breast cancer subtypes, the International Cancer Genome Consortium, and other groups to completely map the genetic changes that occur in different cancers; and the UCSC immunogenomics project, a new effort to map human genetic variation in the MHC region and other regions of the human genome that are important in immunology, including T-cell receptor sequences and B-cell antibody sequences associated with immune response. The ideal candidate would lead a team building fundamental comparative genomics infrastructure that is applied in all four areas and have experience collaborating with national and international scientific research consortia. In addition, candidates with current knowledge of the fields of cancer genomics, epigenomics, and immunogenomics; experience developing efficient methods for multiple-genome alignment; experience mapping, assembling, aligning, and analyzing large-scale next-generation sequencing data are highly desired.
MINIMUM QUALIFICATIONS: Ph.D. in bioinformatics, computational biology, genomics, or a related discipline with at least 2 years relevant postdoctoral research experience; experience designing algorithms and developing software tools or computational resources for genomics research; experience working in and coding for a UNIX or Linux environment with large clusters, large databases, and large code bases; record of scientific publication in the area of comparative genomics in peer-reviewed research journals and at major scientific meetings; fluency with mathematical theories in genetics and comparative genomics and with current bioinformatic methods and research. The successful candidate will be highly articulate and have demonstrated ability to lead software engineers and students in developing novel computational tools or resources.
Biological Database Testing and User Support Technician
Rank: Programmer/Analyst 1
Posted 1/26/12, application review date 2/9/12
The Center for Biomolecular Science & Engineering (CBSE, http://www.cbse.ucsc.edu/) at UC Santa Cruz seeks a customer-oriented individual with strong analytical skills and a commitment to quality to test biological software and data and to research and answer user questions. The successful candidate must be articulate, organized, detail-oriented, and adaptable. The position requires independence and self-motivation in a team environment.
OVERVIEW OF THE ORGANIZATION: The UCSC Center for Genomic Sciences, part of the CBSE, operates an important scientific web site for use by researchers worldwide, http://genome.ucsc.edu. Thousands of scientists use the site every day to access the fruits of the human genome project. The site combines cutting-edge research in genomics with solid software engineering and maintains a simple but flexible user interface.
ESSENTIAL FUNCTIONS: Under close supervision of the quality assurance manager, the selected candidate will systematically test software, data, and databases before public release and research answers to user questions regarding underlying biological assumptions and computational methods in the genome software and databases. This position works as part of a team of people performing similar work alongside a group of software developers. It interacts extensively with the manager, software developers, other team members, and genome researchers from throughout the world. The work is fast-paced and varied and requires both great attention to detail and a broad understanding of the entire genome browser.
QUALIFICATIONS include a BA or BS in either a biological science or computer science plus coursework or experience in the other or an equivalent combination of education and experience; general knowledge of UNIX; broad knowledge in biology; working knowledge of genomic sequence organization, genome maintenance, and gene expression and regulation in eukaryotes; ability to search the Internet to find answers to scientific questions.
Molecular Biology/Immunology Research Specialist
Rank: Associate Specialist–Specialist
Posted 11/18/11, application review date 12/19/11
Applications are invited for an Academic Research position within the Department of Biomolecular Engineering focused on HIV vaccine development. Under the direction of the principal investigator, the selected candidate will join a well-funded research program focused on the development and testing of antigens that could be included in candidate AIDS vaccines. The individual's primary responsibilities will involve cloning, mutagenesis and expression of the HIV envelope gene and the characterization of antibodies to HIV-1 envelope proteins. Cloned genes will be expressed in transfected mammalian cells. Mutant proteins will be used for monoclonal and polyclonal antibody production, virus neutralization assays, and epitope mapping studies. Besides molecular biology, the individual will be expected to take responsibility for monoclonal and/or polyclonal antibody production, and immunoassays of plasma and serum to characterize the magnitude and quality of antibody responses. The position also requires writing skills necessary for the authorship of technical reports, scientific publications, and SOPs. Experience with scientific data analysis and research software tools such as sequence analysis software (e.g., MAFFT, Jalview, Geneious, Genbank), statistical analysis software (e.g., GraphPad, SAS), and bibliographic software (e.g., Endnote) is essential. The successful candidate will be expected to work regular hours, be self-directed, able to design their own experiments, keep complete and accurate records in laboratory notebooks, and be able to trouble-shoot technical problems. A willingness to provide training to students and colleagues is essential. The candidate will be expected to work safely with human blood products and common laboratory chemicals. Previous experience in one or more of the following areas: monoclonal antibody production, B-cell biology, protein purification, epitope mapping, receptor binding assays, isolation of monoclonal antibodies by phage display, flow cytometry, or Biacore binding assays is desired.
MINIMUM QUALIFICATIONS: A Ph.D. and two years of postdoctoral training in a relevant area, or an undergraduate science degree, two years of postgraduate studies in a relevant field, and five years of relevant post baccalaureate lab experience. A high level of hands on laboratory expertise in the construction and analysis of plasmids for bacterial and mammalian cell expression, primer design and the use of PCR for in vitro mutagenesis, and the analysis of nucleic acid sequences by restriction mapping, and DNA sequence analysis is required. Also required a high level of immunology expertise including the characterization of monoclonal and polyclonal antibodies by enzyme linked immunoadsorbtion assay (ELISA) and by western blotting. Excellent communication and organizational skills including experience writing scientific reports using standard software including Microsoft Word, Excel, and Powerpoint. A demonstrated record of research accomplishment as indicated by authorship/co-authorship of scientific papers published in peer reviewed, scientific journals. Ability to read, write, and communicate effectively in English.
Phone: 831-459-1477 • Fax: 831-459-1809 • E-Mail:
Questions about the UCSC Genome Browser? E-Mail
© 2012 CBSE. All rights reserved. • Last Modified On February 6, 2012 At 1:23 PM