Senior Investigator Scientist in Cambourne

Key responsibilities:

• Undertake cutting edge research aimed at key questions within the remit of the research group.
• Provide the intellectual energy and independent thinking necessary to deliver the research and shape the overall aims and success of the group.
• Act independently in solving problems, requiring novel approaches.
• Integrate different activities to ensure the successful delivery of research projects.
• Introduce and apply new techniques across a wide range of disciplines.
• Interact effectively with staff, students, and others to ensure the smooth running of the research group.
• Set an example in the effective use of resources, train others in methods and equipment, and take responsibility for communal facilities.
• Manage equipment and write scientific papers.
• Present at internal meetings and conferences.
• Ensure research is conducted in accordance with good practice and compliance with local policies and legal requirements.
• Recognise opportunities for the creation of intellectual property and cooperate in patent protection and exploitation.
• Secure appropriate external funding, prepare grant applications, and develop protocols.
• Manage existing collaborations and establish new ones within the division, LMB, and with external establishments.
• Maintain a broad perspective of current scientific issues, especially in software engineering and systems administration related to neuroscience research.
• Agree on the overall strategic direction of research and take managerial and budgetary responsibility for research projects.
• Undertake line management responsibilities, including staff development and performance management, in accordance with UKRI's policies and procedures.

Working relationships:

• Report to Dr Albert Cardona and liaise with other Research Support staff, Postdoctoral Scientists, and students across the LMB and with external collaborators.

Person Specification:

• PhD in a relevant biological subject, or MSc/MPhil plus substantial experience in computer vision and machine learning.
• Extensive research experience in analysing imagery of neurons and handling large collections of confocal microscopy stacks.
• Experience in registering multi-terabyte series of electron microscopy images and setting up cluster computing routines for automated data analysis.
• System administration skills in monitoring and managing petabyte-scale data storage servers and databases.
• Expertise in programming languages such as Python, JavaScript, SQL, and others.
• Experience developing novel algorithms and publishing them in scientific journals or conferences.
• Familiarity with modern machine learning libraries like PyTorch and their execution in GPUs.
• Experience in developing new machine learning approaches to object boundary segmentation and quantitative methods for software performance monitoring.
• Ability to demonstrate or learn Linux or *BSD operating systems and perform system administration tasks on servers.

Technical skills and expertise:

• Significant experience in cutting edge research relevant to the project.
• Background in bioimage informatics with expertise in signal processing and instance segmentation.
• Experience writing custom software for image processing and analysis tasks.
• Knowledge of the development and application of cluster computing pipelines for processing large sets of image volumes.
• Familiarity with open-source software platforms for handling neuroscience imagery.
• Knowledge of Drosophila larval neuroanatomy and the use of NBLAST.
• Managing large datasets using system administrator skills in Linux and *BSD servers.
• Use of databases such as PostgreSQL and cloud computing with AWS or similar vendors.
• Ability to write scientific manuscripts and travel to present at scientific conferences.
• Track record of research including discoveries, significant achievements, and published papers preferably as first author.