Molecular Microbiologist

Job description

COMPANY: Unilever, Port Sunlight
JOB TITLE: Molecular Microbiologist

SALARY: Competitive + Excellent company benefits

COMPANY OVERVIEW

At Unilever we are committed to ensuring that all our packaging is fully reusable, recyclable or compostable by 2025, and that we are using more recycled content. Find out more here: https://www.unilever.co.uk/news/news-and-features/2019/our-five-point-plastics-plan.html

We are on a mission to not only meet these commitments but to create consumer and brand experiences that last, through packaging that leaves no footprint in the world.

We are looking for inquisitive passion and disruptive thinkers to join us in the creation and development of even better, more sustainable and more innovative packs which will shape the way people buy, consume and recycle, all over the world.

MAIN JOB PURPOSE:


Recent years have seen massive advances in microbiological sciences, such as next-generation sequencing, multi-omics technologies and high-throughput screening, that are offering unprecedented insights into how fundamental microbiology and related Biochemistry affects key consumer conditions relevant to Unilever.

Working as a research molecular microbiologist / bioinformatician, as part of the Biotechnology and Biosourcing programme within the global Science & Technology team, the successful candidate will join a multi-disciplinary team of researchers responsible for translating biological insights; from the mechanisms of action of novel technologies, to the home associated microbiome, into winning innovations supporting Unilever's Homecare (HC) business and to help deliver novel techniques in microbiology bio-informatics to advance the capability of Unilever's applied science base.

JOB SUMMARY

· Work with S&T Leaders and other Microbiology research scientists to define and implement new techniques and ways of working and to develop the OMICS skill base, aligned to business needs.
· Making recommendations in the development and optimisation of molecular techniques, pipelines, visualisation tools and database selection/curation. Validation and roll out new informatics pipelines, including novel methods and analysis tools.
· Utilise a range of bioinformatic approaches to analyse large biological Next Genome Sequencing datasets. A combination of statistical analysis and programming responsibilities.
· Use of open-access bio-informatic anlaysis and visualisation tools; Aligning supplimentay meta-data with microbiomics data; Assessment of 16s data in comparison to metagenomics; Data processing and analysis, delivering insights and study design.
· Helping develop and apply novel computational and statistical methods.
· Collaborating with complementary partners, academics and scientists (internal and external).
· Liaising with researchers on aspects such as experimental design and future work and provide training to lab scientist on data analysis, genome scale metabolomic models to interrogate bacteria and their communities.
· Work with core internal functions such as Patents, Regulatory, Safety as required.


KEY REQUIREMENTS

· BSC, MSc or PhD in Microbiology or closely related discipline,
· The applicant must have hands-on working experience in molecular microbiology, bioinformatics and data analysis; Analysing and interpreting sequencing / NGS data (e.g. DNA-seq, RNA-seq, WGS)
· Experience with bioinformatic software and pipeline or workflow optimisation and development. Experience in delivering bioinformatic training programmes. Utilising and demonstrating use and benefits of digital packages for data management and mining.
· The candidate should be able to generate hypotheses, apply critical thinking to experimental design and data analysis. Compile results, prepare presentations and technical reports and present conclusions clearly to various stakeholders.
· Good communication skills and problem solving ability, ideally gained from working within multi-disciplinary teams and should possess good interpersonal skills
· Strong desire to increase skills and awareness, keeping up to date with advances in the area, pro-active implementation.


APPLICATION PROCESS

Please note: As part of the job application, you will be asked to complete a brief online application form. Completion of the form is required in order to be considered. Please allow yourself enough time to complete the application form as when filled out partially or not at all it may adversely affect the progress of your application.