Associate Director, Swiss-Prot Group

The SIB Swiss Institute of Bioinformatics is an internationally recognized non-profit organization, dedicated to biological and biomedical data science. Its data scientists are passionate about creating knowledge and solving complex questions in many fields, from biodiversity and evolution to medicine. They provide essential databases and software platforms as well as bioinformatics expertise and services to academic, clinical, and industry groups. SIB federates the Swiss bioinformatics community of some 900 scientists, encouraging collaboration and knowledge sharing. The Institute contributes to keeping Switzerland at the forefront of innovation by fostering progress in biological research and enhancing health.

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The SIB Swiss Institute of Bioinformatics is seeking an exceptional leader in the field of bioinformatics and biocuration to join as Associate Director of the Swiss-Prot group, an internationally renowned team dedicated to the development of high-quality knowledge resources for the life sciences.

In this senior leadership position, you will play a pivotal role in guiding the development and curation of global biodata resources such as the UniProt Knowledgebase (UniProtKB) and the Gene Ontology (GO). You will collaborate closely with the Director to manage the group, develop and shape the group’s vision, strategy, and funding portfolio, and drive collaborations with other knowledge resources, the institutes and consortia that develop them, and the global scientific community at large.

Knowledge resources like UniProtKB and the GO are among the most widely used in the world and provide a trusted and FAIR ground truth for the development of AI methods. As Assistant Director of Swiss-Prot you will have a unique opportunity to steer their development and shape the future of protein annotation and the life sciences.

Key Responsibilities

• Lead the strategic and operational leadership of the group.
• Proactively secure funding through competitive grant applications and partnerships.
• Oversee budgets and financial planning, management and deployment of resources.
• Mentor a dynamic team of biocurators, bioinformaticians, and software developers.
• Oversee the annotation of protein sequences, ensure data quality, and guide the development of new methods, tools, and standards to enhance annotation.
• Build collaborations with key national and international stakeholders and partners from academia and industry, including international institutes such as EMBL-EBI and NCBI and consortia such as UniProt and the GO.
• Work to develop and implement strategies to ensure long-term sustainability of UniProt and other resources with partners such as ELIXIR and the Global Biodata Coalition.

• PhD in biology, bioinformatics, or a related discipline
• Strong expertise in protein function annotation, ontology development, or related areas
• Proven track record in leading and managing biological data and/or knowledge resources and international consortia
• Demonstrated ability to secure and manage competitive research and/or infrastructure funding from national and international agencies
• Excellent capacity for strategic thinking and organisational skills
• A collaborative spirit, exceptional interpersonal, diplomatic and negotiation skills, the ability to find consensus and compromise and a solution-oriented attitude
• Outstanding writing and communication skills in English; knowledge of French and/or German a plus
• Ability to work to tight deadlines