An excellent opportunity is available for a Research Data Engineer to join the ITS Department at Australia's pre-eminent biomedical research institute.

About the Position

Under the direction of the Senior Project Manager, the Research Data Engineer (RDE) will play a significant role in uplifting research data management through the creation and improvement of technologies, processes and underlying IT infrastructure to maintain WEHI's commitment to deliver world-class research.

This dynamic role will work directly with researchers and IT staff to help them make informed decisions about data. The role will sit within a small multi-disciplinary project team and will be critical in the process of structuring, collecting, and storing biomedical research data (including metadata) at the Institute. The role will contribute to the design, development and implementation of researcher-centric data management tools and services aimed to maximise time for research across the Institute's variety of research disciplines.

Primary responsibilities include, collaborating with data scientists to enable the integration of data from disparate sources, designing, implementing, and maintaining pipelines to manage data through its lifecycle and integration processes that support the implementation of data management tools.

The RDE will make recommendations on technical matters, guiding implementation of various solutions, driving user acceptance testing, and providing general support to the team. The RDE will be critical to ensuring interoperability of agreed upon solutions to the identified needs of our researchers.

Key Responsibilities

• Foster productive relationships with researchers across a variety of research domains and IT staff (e.g., database administrators and infrastructure team) and vendors
• Enable the integration of data from disparate sources ensuring its consistency, accuracy, and reliability across systems
• Profile and model data, develop or enhance existing schemas, develop data pipelines and ETL solutions for omics data and other large or sensitive data types
• Actively contribute to the selection and implementation of research data management tools, driving interoperability of existing and new tools within institute infrastructure
• Establish and maintain technical documentation for how data is, or will be used, and its implications on people, processes, and technology
• Provide subject matter expertise and a practical approach and/or a methodology to make development more efficient
• Champion knowledge sharing, enrolment in modern technologies and approaches and support change initiatives

Selection Criteria

Essential Knowledge and Skills:

• A postgraduate degree in a data science, bioinformatics, software engineering, computer science, or analytics or equivalent experience in research
• Minimum 3 years demonstrated experience as a RDE (or equivalent), ideally in a medium to large research organisation; successfully designing and implementing complex data solutions and applications
• Ability to learn complex concepts across multiple research domains and demonstrate that to a domain-specific Audience
• Knowledge with research data repositories such as Zenodo, NCBI SRA, and dbGAP,
• Knowledge of research data collection tools such as LabArchives and REDCap
• Knowledge of research data platforms such as OMERO, cBioPortal, and Mediaflux
• Knowledge of research data sharing tools such as FileSender and Globus
• Understanding of omics data types and their roles including fastq, fasta, bam, etc.
• Understanding of best practices for managing research data, ensuring alignment with industry standards
• Must have a keen business sense with the ability to provide technically superior solutions that meet business requirements
• Demonstrated ability to maintain a high level of confidentiality, exercise judgment and initiative to identify and rectify problems

Personal Qualities:

• Excellent communication and stakeholder skills, including the ability to communicate across academic disciplines
• Highly collaborative by default with an ability to leverage skills and knowledge outside an organisation and
• translate those skills into benefiting the organisation.
• Strong analytical skills, data analysis and mining skills
• High level of energy, enthusiasm and initiative including a commitment to continuous improvement
• Proven ability to thrive in a changing and fast-paced environment
• Demonstrated experience of learning and adopting unfamiliar technologies

​​​​​​Terms of Appointment

This fixed term position is available for a period of 2 years for the term of the project (which is due to end towards June 2026) in a full-time capacity. The role may be converted to ongoing depending on the nature of the project.

Salary is Professional Services Employee - Level 8 -9 dependent on experience ($110,249 - $139,222). Up to 17% superannuation and very attractive salary packaging options are available.

General enquiries can be directed to Carlo Diaz [email protected], using the subject line: Research Data Engineer enquiry via EthicalJobs.

A position description is available here.

How to Apply

Please apply by uploading your CV, cover letter and a document addressing the key selection criteria in pdf format.

WEHI - Brighter together

WEHI is where the world's brightest minds collaborate and innovate to make discoveries that will help us to live healthier for longer.

Our medical researchers have been serving the community for more than 100 years. We bring together people with different skills and experience who are committed to long-term discovery. Our teams of researchers are committed to solving the most complex health problems, making transformative discoveries for cancer, infectious and immune diseases, developmental disorders and healthy ageing.

WEHI is a place where people are able to shine. People who are inquisitive, who are committed, who are passionate. People who want to make a difference. And we are committed to ensuring they have the tools to flourish, personally and professionally. We are a community of researchers, students and professional service staff who work towards achieving discoveries that improve human health.

We are driven by collaboration, curiosity and creativity. We are committed to making a positive difference to the lives of people in Australia and around the world. We are WEHI. We are brighter together.

WEHI's commitment to diversity and inclusion

At WEHI we strive to foster a flexible working environment that encourages individual differences and promotes collaboration and creativity. We recognise that talent does not sit within a single identifiable group in our society and that WEHI's ability to shape contemporary scientific thinking and deliver leading professional services relies on a diversity of thought within our organisation.

Our action to promote gender equality has been recognised with an Athena SWAN Bronze Award from Science in Australia Gender Equity (SAGE) and we offer a range of support for women researchers.

Our commitment to celebrating diversity and addressing inequities is further demonstrated through our Diversity and Inclusion Strategy, Gender Action Plan, Reconciliation Action Plan and our WE-Pride network for LGBTQIA+ staff and students.

We actively encourage applications from, people with a disability, culturally, religiously and linguistically diverse people and people with diverse genders and sexualities. Should you require support during the recruitment process due to special needs or consideration, please contact the People and Culture team.

WEHI's commitment to Indigenous employment

WEHI is working to create a future where Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples will be engaged at the scientific frontier, making exciting discoveries and decisions about the future of health in this country, and part of a leading professional services workforce supporting the realisation of these discoveries.

We are committed to creating a culturally safe workplace and offering career development and leadership opportunities to First Nations staff and students. We strongly encourage any Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples to apply.