Senior Data Scientist - Systems Genetics

Who we are:

Calico (Calico Life Sciences LLC) is an Alphabet-founded research and development company whose mission is to harness advanced technologies and model systems to increase our understanding of the biology that controls human aging. Calico will use that knowledge to devise interventions that enable people to lead longer and healthier lives.

Position description:

Calico is seeking a Senior Data Scientist to join our efforts in advancing novel therapies from target discovery to clinical development.

Observations gleaned from the expansive high-dimensional phenotyping efforts of large human cohorts will increasingly advance our understanding of human aging and disease. Human genetics serves a critical role in linking observational phenotypes to their genetic roots but to act on such findings we often want a better understanding of the mechanism underlying a gene’s modulation of a phenotype of interest. Having such knowledge provides both a way to triage genetic associations that impinge on common pathways, but also could lead to other drug targets where natural variation may be highly constrained. To help fill this gap, an ideal candidate in this role will collaborate with our human genetics, translational and systems biology teams to develop and apply a systems genetics strategy for target discovery. This will involve representing genetic associations based on curated mechanistic pathways and exploring both experimental and statistical ways of testing how genetic perturbations are mechanistically transmitted.

As a member of the Calico’s Computing team, you will work closely with a cross-functional group of computational biologists, machine learning engineers, data scientists, translational project leads, scientists, and biostatisticians to advance Calico’s pipeline. This role offers a unique opportunity to innovate at the leading edge of data science and quantitative systems pharmacology.

Responsibilities:

• Lead the integration of our human genetics and systems biology platforms
• Plan, prioritize, and execute on high-value systems genetics projects aimed to support both target identification and indication selection
• Establish a process for testing genetic variants with experimental perturbations in cellular systems
• Communicate clearly and effectively in verbal, visual, and written form to stakeholders with varying levels of technical knowledge

Position requirements:

• PhD. /MS and four years of work experience in a quantitative field such as Computer Science, Bioinformatics, Computational Biology, Statistics, Biological Sciences, Genomics, or equivalent preparation
• Experience in human genetics including analysis of rare and common variation, variant prioritization, analysis of multivariate phenotypes (e.g., colocalization) and causal inference
• Familiarity with modeling mechanistic pathways using molecular data
• Fundamental understanding of statistics and machine learning
• Fluency with Python (pandas, numpy, jupyter) and/or R (tidyverse)
• Track record of effective cross-functional collaboration

Calico requires all new hires to be fully vaccinated for COVID-19 prior to the first date of employment.  As required by applicable law, Calico will consider requests for Reasonable Accommodations.