Bioinformatician (m/f/d) in the field of Natural Language Processing (NLP)

Job offer

03/24

The Leibniz Institute DSMZ-German Collection of Microorganisms and Cell Cultures GmbH, Braunschweig offers an open position for a

Bioinformatician (m/f/d) 
in the field of Natural Language Processing (NLP).

The position has a salary level up to TV-L 13 according to the qualification. It is offered as full-time position (39.8 hours per week) and is limited to 3 years. The job is located in Braunschweig (Germany) and is not suitable for fully remote work.

Making microbial data accessible for future 
biotechnological applications
 

Within the EU project Bioindustry 4.0 (https://bioindustry4.hub.inrae.fr/) innovative approaches for accessing, mobilizing, and integrating microbial data are developed. BacDive and MIRRI-IS are the largest microbiological strain databases worldwide and join forces to create a new strain discovery database for assembling data in a new common format. The major aim is to provide access to information required for improving biotechnological processes and thereby to create novel opportunities for bioeconomy.

Your Tasks:

You will apply your experience in Natural Language Processing to make microbial strain data available for the strain discovery database. You will use text mining approaches and NLP to process scientific publications for intelligent information retrieval. As a member of a dynamic team, you will build an annotation platform. Your work will help annotators to capture data sets faster and in a more targeted manner, thus forming an important foundation for the large-scale integration of so far inaccessible research data. You will also use the experience gained in this project in other projects and in knowledge transfer within the institute.

Your Profile:

• Degree in bioinformatics, computational linguistics, computer science, or a similar qualification
• Practical programming experience in Python or Julia, knowledge of JavaScript and database systems is beneficial
• Methodological knowledge in the preparation of text data (normalization, tokenizing, POS tagging, parsing) and first experiences in the use of common NLP frameworks (e.g. CoreNLP, spaCy, Flair, huggingface)
• Methodological knowledge of Machine Learning/ Deep Learning for NLP, practical experience with corresponding frameworks (e.g. Tensorflow, pyTorch) is beneficial
• Git is no foreign word to you
• Fluent in English / knowledge of German is beneficial
• You are communicative, able to work in a team and willing to learn
• You are interested in interdisciplinary work in a dynamic team

We offer:

• The chance to contribute to the development of a global research infrastructure, to contribute own ideas and conceptions, and to work in a young and dynamic team
• An interdisciplinary working environment with frequent exchange of experience
• Motivated colleagues and a pleasant working atmosphere in the scientific area
• Participation in the selection of personal hardware
• Flexible working hours, possibility of home office
• Opportunities for further education and training
• An employer certified according to audit berufundfamilie®, therefore flexible possibilities to combine work and family life

The DSMZ is funded by the State of Lower Saxony and the German Federal government and is a member of the Leibniz Association. The DSMZ strives to increase the proportion of female scientists and encourages female candidates to apply. Disabled applicants with identical technical and personal qualifications will be preferentially selected. In the case of degrees obtained abroad, proof of equivalence with a German degree must be enclosed. For further information, please refer to the website of the Central Office for Foreign Education (ZAB).

The DSMZ is an equal opportunity employer, supports balanced work-life career development, and holds the certificate of the audit berufundfamilie®.

For further information please contact Lorenz Reimer (lorenz.reimer@dsmz.de). Please send your complete application documents including a CV, motivation letter, copies of certificates, possible references with application number 03/24 as a single pdf file to bewerbung@dsmz.de (max 10 MB). Applications are welcome in English or German and will be accepted on a rolling basis so early applicants are encouraged! The deadline for this application is March 1st, 2024, but we may continue to review applications until the position is filled.