Program Manager, Bioinformatics.ca

Position: Program Manager, Bioinformatics.ca
Site: MaRS Centre, Toronto
Department: Adaptive Oncology
Reports To: Associate Director, Adaptive Oncology
Salary: Commensurate with level of experience
Hours: 35 hours/week
Status: Full-time, Temporary (2-year contract with renewal option)

Bioinformatics.ca currently hosted at the Ontario Institute for Cancer Research (OICR) is seeking a Program Manager to take over leadership and management of Bioinformatics.ca and its Canadian Bioinformatics Workshop (CBW) series. As Canada’s national bioinformatics training initiative, this high-profile position involves engaging with key opinion leaders, stakeholders and expert faculty across Canada and beyond to realize CBW’s mission to accelerate the use of bioinformatics as a tool in health and life sciences through education, networking, and outreach. The role involves community outreach and engagement, as well as representing Bioinformatics.ca internationally to ensure it remains globally competitive. This role will champion the Bioinformatics.ca brand and participate in reimagining what Bioinformatics.ca can become over the coming years.

New employees who may be required to work on-site are required to be fully vaccinated for COVID-19 subject to the duty to accommodate on the basis of protected grounds pursuant to the Ontario Human Rights Code.

Fully vaccinated is defined as having received all of the required doses of a Health Canada approved vaccine and having received the final dose at least 14 days before your employment start date.

As described above, the requirement to be fully vaccinated is subject to the Ontario Human Rights Code. If the candidate is unable to receive the COVID-19 vaccine for a reason protected by the Code, requests for accommodation from the vaccine policy will be assessed on a case-by-case basis.

To learn more about working at OICR, visit our career page.

The responsibilities include:

• Lead, enhance and grow the Bioinformatics.ca brand and activities from a centralized resource into a distributed high impact model.
• Maintain current and develop new Bioinformatics.ca Canadian Bioinformatics Workshops (CBW), monitoring emerging research technologies, and stakeholder and community needs for new training opportunities.
• Manage the logistics and facilitate the delivery of the CBW series across Canada, whether in-person or virtual.
• Maintain Bioinformatics.ca website and brand as the top source for high-quality bioinformatics training materials, workshops, jobs, and resources in Canada. Oversee website upgrades.
• Oversee the Bioinformatics.ca social media accounts (Twitter, Facebook, YouTube) and grow the communities engaged to include underserved communities.
• Coordinate an annual educational board meeting with key stakeholders from across Canada, ensuring Bioinformatics.ca accountability, educational leadership and impact.
• Manage the Bioinformatics.ca budget in keeping with stakeholder and OICR fiscal requirements.
• Seek, author and submit funding applications to enhance the activities Bioinformatics.ca can offer. Seek and establish agreements with sponsors of Bioinformatics.ca activities.
• Seek and determine fit of innovative learning and networking approaches to enhance the participant experience at Bioinformatics.ca workshops and expand the bioinformatics community.
• Represent Bioinformatics.ca and ensure competitiveness at the Global Organisation for Bioinformatics Learning, Education and Training (GOBLET), ISCB and other standard setting or best practice organizations through participation in committees, working groups, and conferences.
• Perform other activities that arise over the course of reimagining what Bioinformatics.ca can become over the coming years.

Required Qualifications:

• At a minimum a Master’s degree in bioinformatics, computational biology, genomics or computer science, or recognized equivalent.
• You have excellent English communication skills, written and verbal, both to facilitate effective communications with Bioinformaticsc.ca stakeholders, collaborators and CBW participants.
• You are highly self-motivated, able to work independently, and work well as a part of a team.
• You should be very comfortable facilitating and hosting training events, delivering presentations and workshops to scientific audiences.
• You have excellent organizational and time management skills.

Bonus (Nice-to-Have) Skills:

• Any experience in adult learning, teaching, training, public outreach, or planning events in science, would be a strong asset to your application. Ability to foresee learner needs, plan ahead and provide a welcoming, supportive learning environment is key.
• CIHR, Genome Canada and/or NSERC grant writing knowledge and experience.
• Self-reliance, resourcefulness, and ability to multitask well.
• Team player open to cooperation and collaboration. Building trusting relationships to be able to reciprocally influence contributions is key to the role.
• Excellent computer skills, specifically in Windows, MacOS and Unix/Linux, but also with conferencing and communication apps, as well as spreadsheet, word processing and presentation software.
• Experience with R/Rstudio and GitHub is also an asset.