Bioinformatics Data Analyst at Ellison… · Oxford

Join us at EIT:

At the Ellison Institute of Technology (EIT), we’re on a mission to translate scientific discovery into real world impact. We bring together visionary scientists, technologists, engineers, researchers, educators and innovators to tackle humanity’s greatest challenges in four transformative areas:

• Health, Medical Science & Generative Biology
• Food Security & Sustainable Agriculture
• Climate Change & Managing CO₂
• Artificial Intelligence & Robotics

This is ambitious work - work that demands curiosity, courage, and a relentless drive to make a difference. At EIT, you’ll join a community built on excellence, innovation, tenacity, trust, and collaboration, where bold ideas become real-world breakthroughs. Together, we push boundaries, embrace complexity, and create solutions to scale ideas from lab to society. Explore more at http://www.eit.org.

Welcome to the Plant Biology Institute:

The Plant Biology Institute, headed by Professor Steve Kelly, is a key part of the Ellison Institute of Technology (EIT) Oxford. The institute aims to develop impactful and commercially sustainable solutions for improving global food production and planetary health through pioneering plant science research.

The Plant Biology Institute will unite world-class researchers who are focused on expanding the frontiers of plant science. Our research is focused on enhancing our ability to feed the planet while simultaneously improving the climate and ecosystem outcomes of food production. By embedding cutting-edge plant science research within an organisation that is focused on solving global challenges at scale, we aim to accelerate the timeline from discovery to global impact.

Areas of exploration include:

• Improved plant productivity, both indoors and outside.
• Reduced reliance on inputs including water, fertilisers, pesticides, and herbicides.
• Novel decarbonised plant-based production platforms for food and medicines.
• Advanced technologies that speed up discovery and deployment in plants.

Researchers will have access to state-of-the-art laboratory and plant growth facilities and have opportunities to collaborate with experts at the forefront of research on AI, automation, and generative biology across the EIT ecosystem. They will also work with global leaders in market development, commercialisation, and impact creation. The Plant Biology Institute has long-term substantial funding to support the unique scale and ambition of its vision.

Your Role:

We are seeking a highly motivated Data Analyst to join the Bioinformatics platform team, which builds computational tools for plant biology in close collaboration with the phenotyping platform and research teams.

The successful candidate will work at the intersection of multi-omic analysis and software development, to accelerate plant science research. By developing and implementing robust data analysis pipelines, interactive visualisation tools, and preparing inputs for agentic workflows, your work will directly shape how we make data driven decisions to accelerate plant science research. The role will require working closely with bioinformaticians, research scientists and AI engineers, to design and deliver enterprise-level analytical approaches that meet the evolving needs of the institute.

The ideal candidate will have a strong background in statistics, data analysis and visualization and the ability to translate complex, multi-omic datasets into clear, actionable insights that inform research and decision-making across the institute.

Your Responsibilities:

• Apply statistical methods to analyse complex biological datasets and support data-driven decision-making.
• Design and build interactive dashboards and visualisation tools to communicate data insights to research and stakeholder audiences.
• Apply FAIR data principles and metadata standards to ensure data is findable, accessible, interoperable, and reusable across the institute.
• Prepare and structure data inputs to support agentic workflows.
• Collaborate with bioinformaticians, research scientists, and AI engineers to translate research questions into analytical approaches and deliverables.
• Design and deliver enterprise-level analytical solutions that are scalable, reproducible, and aligned with institute-wide data standards.
• Clean, validate, and structure data from multiple sources to ensure quality and consistency for downstream analysis.
• Communicate analytical findings clearly to both technical and non-technical stakeholders, gathering requirements and feedback to ensure solutions meet research needs.

Essential Skills, Qualifications & Experience:

• BSc/MSc in a quantitative discipline with demonstrable experience in data analysis solution development within life sciences.

• Strong background in statistics and data analysis, with the ability to apply appropriate methods to complex, multi-omic datasets.

• Proven experience with data visualisation tools and techniques to communicate insights effectively (e.g. Plotly Dash, R shiny).

• Strong programming and scripting skills for data analysis (e.g. Python, R).

• Experience working with large, complex data sets from multiple sources, including cleaning, validating, and structuring data.

• Demonstrated ability to translate complex data into clear, actionable insights for research and business decision-making.

• Understanding of FAIR data principles and metadata standards, with experience applying these to research data.

• Proven ability to engage stakeholders, gather requirements, and present analytical solutions to non-technical audiences.

• Good understanding of relational and/or non-relational databases for storing and querying data.

• Ability to work collaboratively with bioinformaticians, research scientists, AI engineers, and other technical teams to deliver analytical outcomes.

Desirable Knowledge, Skills, and Experience:

• Familiarity operating within Linux environments, including operating within HPC and/or cloud environments (e.g. SLURM, OCI).
• Familiarity with bioinformatics tools, file formats, and databases (e.g. FASTQ, BAM/VCF, reference genomes).
• Experience preparing data or structuring pipelines to support AI/ML or agentic systems.
• Experience mentoring or guiding junior team members or collaborators.

Our Benefits:

• Salary dependent on experience + travel allowance + bonus
• Enhanced holiday + options to buy additional days
• Pension
• Life Assurance
• Income Protection
• Private Medical Insurance
• Hospital Cash Plan
• Therapy Services
• Perk Box
• Electric Car Scheme
• Childcare benefit

Working Together – What It Involves:

• You must have the right to work permanently in the UK with a willingness to travel as necessary. In certain cases, we can consider sponsorship, and this will be assessed on a case-by-case basis.
• You will live in, or within easy commuting distance of, Oxford (or be willing to relocate).