Informatician – Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning DevOps – Drug Discovery

About Us

VIB is a world-class life sciences research institute in Flanders, Belgium, with more than 1800 scientists across 5 universities. VIB has a long and successful history of translating scientific breakthroughs into impactful societal innovations and new innovative biotech companies.

The current position is within the VIB Discovery Sciences (VIB DS) unit, a group of around 20 translational research scientists and technicians with a strong industry background.  VIB DS focuses on the validation and translation of VIB's scientific breakthroughs into drug, biomarker and diagnostic discovery projects to support new ventures and licensing opportunities as part of the VIB Innovation & Business team. This position is to provide development and operation (DevOps) support to our VIB-DS unit, with the main focus on our Computer-Aided Drug Discovery (CADD) platform. The successful candidate will work with a highly multidisciplinary team at VIB DS in close collaboration with a team of IT experts at VIB Data Core, and explore synergies across multiple VIB data-driven labs. He/she will be exposed to and learn from experts in related fields such as Artificial Intelligence (AI), High Performance Computing and CADD, contributing to the translation of novel scientific discoveries into early-stage small molecule drug candidates and spin-off companies.

Position Overview

VIB DS is looking for a creative, energetic and self-motivated Informatician/DevOps to strengthen our team. The successful candidate will work in a small team of people and will play a key role in the expansion of our CADD platform, through implementation of automated workflows using tools like Python programming, Nextflow and Dask. This is an exciting opportunity for a recent graduate who is passionate about programming and IT support applied to computational drug discovery and who wants to make a meaningful contribution to cutting-edge projects in the development of novel therapeutics for diseases with high unmet medical needs. The candidate will also work directly with VIB's Data Core facility and benefit from VIB's large and diverse ecosystem of research centers, laboratories, core facilities, including the Switch lab, VIB.AI and VIB Technologies.

Responsibilities

• Develop, implement, optimize and maintain automated workflows and software architecture for CADD processes, making use of resources like Bash, Python and R programming, Nextflow and Dask.
• Collaborate on the deployment, updating, optimization of virtual environments (e.g. conda/mamba) and containerized applications (e.g. Docker, Kubernetes), supporting AI and ML packages like as PyTorch, TensorFlow, Keras, etc.
• Troubleshoot computational workflows built on Python, Bash, R, occasionally on C/C++ and CUDA.
• Develop user-friendly interfaces to democratize the use of selected CADD workflows across VIB-DS and close collaborators.
• Stay up-to-date on the latest advancements in informatics, computational systems, structures and hardware, AI and GPU technologies.

Qualifications

• Recently graduated Bachelor's or Master's degree in Informatics, Computer Science, Computer Engineering or a related field;
• First working experience would be nice-to-have but not mandatory;
• Strong proficiency in Unix/Linux systems and programming (Python at least, others also valued);
• Excitement, willingness to learn and motivation to work in the application of computing and automated workflows applied to the field of drug discovery;
• Knowledge of computational hardware and GPU technologies will be highly valued;
• Strong interpersonal and communication skills;
• Meticulous, independent and self-motivated;
• Solution-driven mindset;
• Proactive, eager to learn new techniques and expand knowledge;
• Excellent problem-solving, troubleshooting and communication skills;
• Sense of humor highly recommended;
• Fluency in English (verbally and in writing) is mandatory.

We offer

• Candidate will be offered an open-ended contract;
• Competitive salary, full benefits including pension scheme and healthcare programme.
• Opportunities for career development;
• Collaborative and innovative working environment;
• We offer a supportive, stimulating and international environment with an entrepreneurial mindset and a clear focus on drug development; 
• Candidate will be working from our site in Leuven, Belgium. Remote and/or part-time working conditions may be negotiable;

How to apply?

Interested candidates should submit their resume, a cover letter highlighting their relevant experience and motivation for applying, and any relevant code samples or projects online through the VIB application tool.

For inquiries about the position, please contact carlos.simoes@vib.be.

Application Deadline: June 21, 2024

Note: Candidates selected based on their resume and cover letter will be invited for an interview (remote or on site). The most promising candidates might be asked for a second interview.