Staff Scientist or Research Consultant in Bioinformatics and Genomic Reference Catalogue Development at Globe Institute

Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences

University of Copenhagen



We are looking for a highly motivated informatician to join our team and play a central role in developing large-scale genomic reference catalogues for environmental and ancient DNA research. The position is available from 1 November 2026 or as soon as possible thereafter.



Workplace
The Centre for Ancient Environmental Genomics (CAEG) and AEGIS is an interdisciplinary research centre specializing in the sequencing and analysis of ancient environmental DNA (aeDNA). Our international research team collects samples from ice, soil, and lake sediments and uses advanced sequencing technologies to extract and analyse ancient DNA from these materials.

By reconstructing ancient environments, our research provides important insights into ecological and evolutionary processes, including the effects of climate change and human activity. The team brings together researchers with backgrounds in geology, genetics, ecology, evolutionary biology, computer science, statistics, and related fields. We place a strong emphasis on providing excellent onboarding and integrating new staff into both the Centre and the Institute.



Your job
You will play a central role in developing large-scale genomic reference catalogues that capture the genomic diversity of life on Earth. The primary objective of the position is to identify, acquire, curate, and continuously expand collections of genomes and other relevant FASTA resources from public repositories, scientific initiatives, and other openly available sources worldwide.

You will establish automated and reproducible workflows for discovering newly available genomic resources, retrieving and organizing sequence data, and integrating them into versioned catalogue releases. The work will involve handling very large and heterogeneous collections of sequence data in high-performance computing environments.

A major part of the position will be the scientific curation and quality assessment of the collected resources. This includes assessing genome and assembly quality, identifying contamination, detecting redundancy, evaluating taxonomic assignments, and selecting suitable reference sequences. You will develop and apply procedures that ensure the resulting catalogues are comprehensive, traceable, reproducible, and scientifically robust.

Existing software might not address every challenge encountered in this work and you will therefore curate, adapt, and develop small bioinformatic programs and computational methods for tasks such as contamination detection, sequence-quality assessment, taxonomic validation, reference selection, and scalable processing of large genome collections.

Although the development and curation of genomic reference catalogues will be your primary responsibility, you will also be an integral member of the informatics group. You will contribute to the broader activities of the group by supporting ongoing research projects, collaborating on computational analyses, developing bioinformatic software and workflows, and helping maintain and further develop the computational infrastructure used across the Centre.

You will work closely with bioinformaticians, evolutionary biologists, ecologists, and other researchers to create reference resources that enable next-generation analyses of ancient environmental DNA, metagenomics, and biodiversity.



Key responsibilities

● Systematically identify and acquire genomes and other relevant FASTA resources from public repositories and scientific initiatives.

● Build, curate, document, version, and continuously expand large-scale genomic reference catalogues.

● Develop automated and reproducible workflows for resource discovery, download, processing, quality control, and catalogue construction.

● Assess sequence and assembly quality and identify contamination, redundancy, taxonomic inconsistencies, and other potential problems.

● Curate, adapt, and develop small bioinformatic programs where existing tools are insufficient.

● Process very large sequence collections using high-performance computing systems.

● Collaborate with researchers to ensure that the catalogues meet the scientific needs of environmental DNA, ancient DNA, metagenomic, and biodiversity research.

● Contribute to software development, computational analyses, workflows, and other activities within the informatics group.



Profile
We are seeking an independent, motivated, and forward-thinking academic with a strong scientific and computational background. The successful candidate will be able to take responsibility for a technically ambitious long-term task, work systematically with very large data collections, and contribute effectively to collaborative research projects.



Essential experience and skills

● Master's degree or PhD in bioinformatics, computer science, computational biology, genomics, data science, or a related field.

● Strong programming skills in Python and Unix shell scripting.

● Experience working with genomic sequence data and FASTA-based resources.

● Experience developing automated and reproducible computational workflows.

● Experience with version control systems such as Git.

● Familiarity with HPC environments and queue-management systems such as Slurm.

● Ability to work independently and effectively in interdisciplinary teams.

● Strong written and spoken English.



Desirable skills

● Experience working with public genomic repositories and large-scale sequence resources.

● Experience with genome assembly assessment, contamination detection, or sequence-quality control.

● Knowledge of taxonomy, taxonomic classification, or the curation of taxonomic reference resources.

● Experience with metagenomic, environmental DNA, or ancient DNA data.

● Experience developing workflows using tools such as Snakemake or Nextflow.

● Knowledge of low-level programming languages such as C, C++, or Rust.

● Experience processing and organizing very large biological datasets.

● Experience developing and maintaining scientific software.



Personal attributes

● Analytical and systematic mindset.

● Curiosity and a strong ability to troubleshoot complex technical and scientific problems.

● Excellent attention to detail and strong organizational skills.

● Ability to take long-term ownership of a large computational resource.

● Strong collaborator who thrives in an interdisciplinary environment.

● Ability to adapt to new challenges, data sources, and technologies.



Place of employment
The position is based at the Centre for Ancient Environmental Genomics (CAEG), Section for GeoGenetics, Globe Institute, University of Copenhagen, physically located at the geological museum. We offer supportive, creative, and stimulating working conditions within a dynamic and international research environment.

Globe Institute is committed to creating an inclusive and diverse environment where employees and students can thrive. All qualified applicants are encouraged to apply.



Terms of employment
The average weekly working hours are 37 hours.



The position is a fixed-term position limited to a period of 4 years.



The position will be either as an Academic employee or Special Consultant, depending on the successful candidate’s background, qualifications, and experience. Salary and employment conditions will be in accordance with the collective agreement between the Ministry of Finance and Akademikerne (the Danish Confederation of Professional Associations). The monthly salary will be based on seniority. There will be an opportunity to negotiate supplements based on qualifications. You can read more about salary levels in the state sector www.loenoverblik.dk (in Danish).



Questions
For further information regarding the position, please contact Thorfinn Sand Korneliussen at tskorneliussen@sund.ku.dk.



Application
Your application should be in English and include:

● Letter of application addressing the requirements, maximum one page.

● Curriculum vitae.

● Certified or signed copy of educational certificates.



Please submit your application by clicking "Apply Now" below. Only online applications will be accepted.



Application deadline: 8 September 2026, 23:59 CET



We reserve the right not to consider material received after the deadline and not to consider applications that do not meet the above requirements.



The University of Copenhagen seeks to reflect the diversity of society and encourages all qualified candidates to apply regardless of personal background.