Head Translational Bioinformatics Neurology

Make your mark for patientsWe are looking for a talented and experienced Translational Bioinformatics Leader who is passionate and agile to join us in our Data Science and Analytics leadership team, based in Braine, Belgium.About the roleIn this role, you will lead a dynamic and highly motivated team of Bioinformatic scientists to generate actionable insights from multi-omic profiling of patient samples and in vitro / in vivo translational models, in partnership with the local biology focus areas. Participate in setting the function strategy, develop the team and progress state of the art in Bioinformatics in strict cooperation with other data science leaders. By helping to better understand the pathways that drive disease, your work will directly support UCB’s Neuroscience research portfolio, spanning areas such as Epilepsy, Neurodegeneration and Neuroinflammation.Who you’ll work withA key focus of the role is the close integrationof team members into drug discovery project and platform teams, where they will collaborate with multidisciplinary scientists to design, execute, and interpret omic studies, driving the discovery and validation of therapeutic targets and translational research.What you’ll doLeads and develops a bioinformatics function with strong ties with the local biology and translational functionsDefines the team’s bioinformatics strategy and contribute significantly to both the DSA and the overall R&D digital strategy in collaboration with other digital leaders, working closely with other bioinformatics functions across Research.Provide scientific leadership, mentorship, and guidance to a team of bioinformatics scientists, fostering a collaborative and innovative work environment.Assist UCB’s therapeutic ambitions in neurological diseases by unlocking mechanistic insight from molecular profiling of patient samples, analysing perturbations of patient-derived cell systems and in vivo / ex vivo disease models, and enriching our knowledge of disease aetiology to inform new targets and drug mechanism of action.Maintain close relationships with focus areas and platform leads as well as with the overall research leadership, promoting team’s capabilities, identifying collaboration opportunities and expanding the overall impact of the team.Initiate (and participate in) collaborations with external parties, academic, commercial and industry consortia to expand access to human level data, develop state-of-the-art-defining methods, and provide novel insight, analysis and strategic steerDrive innovation in bioinformatics methods, data visualization, generative and predictive modelling to enhance the impact of data-driven research and help build the global bioinformatics tools and data infrastructure, in close collaboration with other Data Science functions.Provide authoritative scientific input in drug discovery projects and scientific governance meeting.Embed team members within therapeutic project teams to align bioinformatics efforts with project objectives. Foster clear communication of insights to influence project decision making and translational packages.Interested? For this role we’re looking for the following education, experience and skillsPh.D. or equivalent in Bioinformatics, Computational Biology, Neuroscience, Genomics, or related field with 10+ years of industry experience.Proven ability to lead and mentor groups of 5-10 scientists, manage multiple priorities, and foster a collaborative work environment. Ideally in the context of pharmaceutical R&D.A passion for leveraging bioinformatics to accelerate drug discovery and understanding disease biology, with experience in Neuroscience insight generation being a qualifying requirement.Expertise in multi-omics data processing, analysis, and interpretation, with a strong preference for single cell RNA-seq, spatial transcriptomics and methods for integrating genetic data to ID causal biology.Experience in supporting the translation of drug discovery projects into human clinical trials, enabling pre-clinical assessment, biomarker strategies and back translation.Exposure to multiple drug modalities including gene therapy would be a plus.Experience with HPC, cloud computing platforms, and containerisation technologies (e.g., Docker) for reproducible and portable bioinformatics workflows. Recent hands-on experience preferred.Are you ready to ‘go beyond’ to create value and make your mark for patients? If this sounds like you, then we would love to hear from you