Assistant Research Technologist

Dedicated exclusively to children and their families, The Hospital for Sick Children (SickKids) is one of the largest and most respected paediatric healthcare centres in the world. As innovators in child health, we lead and partner to improve the health of children through the integration of healthcare, leading-edge research and education. Our reputation would not have been built - nor could it be maintained - without the skills, knowledge and experience of the extraordinary people who come to work here every day. SickKids is committed to ongoing learning and development, and features a caring and supportive work environment that combines exceptionally high standards of practice.

When you join SickKids, you become part of our community. We share a commitment and determination to fulfill our vision of Healthier Children. A Better World.

Don't miss out on the opportunity to work alongside the world's best in paediatric healthcare.

• Please do not apply directly to the lab.
  
  

We are recruiting an Assistant Research Technologist to facilitate daily laboratory operations and provide support on a new computational project. Our laboratory is part of the Developmental, Stem Cell and Cancer Biology at SickKids Research Institute and focuses broadly on the role of mRNA translation in tissue development, regeneration and disease. The laboratory utilizes axolotls, mice and in vitro models as well as patient data. We are looking for a highly qualified computer scientist, computational biologist or bioinformatician to assist with a new project that aims to establish a predictive model of genotype-phenotype relationships in a rare disease (Tuberous Sclerosis Complex, TSC) with the aim of improving patient stratification and treatment. The project is support by the Precision Child Health Program Catalyst grant and our goal is to (1) combine molecular findings from in vitro studies with patient phenotype and outcomes data from the SickKids TSC database and the Canadian TSC cohort as well as internal and public database and literature information and create a framework for efficient integration of diverse data types in the future. The data will be used by the applicant to develop predictive models of genotype-phenotype relationships in TSC.

The successful applicant is a recent or imminent graduate with a BSc or MSc in computer science, applied computing, bioinformatics or a related field or is a senior student in this area seeking an internship or co-operative education placement through a recognized Canadian university program. The applicant has hands-on experience with Machine Learning, Data Science and Large Language Models and is eager to work alongside basic and clinical scientists to leverage patient data to develop a new analytical framework for modelling disease outcomes.

The job requires a highly organized and responsible individual who can work independently and as a member of a team and is able to interface with key stakeholders across the organization to connect data to platforms and resources. The position is causal, hybrid or fully remote. Contract extension depends on attainment of milestones and ends upon successful implementation of the program. This project will provide an excellent opportunity for a highly motivated graduate to make a significant impact on children's health outcomes and to implement their newly developed skills in on real-world data and state-of-the-art infrastructure at the world's leading children's research hospital.

Here's What You'll Get To Do

• Implement a natural-language interface to enable basic and clinical scientists with limited data science experience to extract and analyze the relationship between specific parameters in patient data
• Interface with the Enterprise Data & Analytics team to implement the Expedition data analytics platform for the Zhulyn lab and TSC Clinic
• Facilitate integration of data from multiple sources and types (including patient data sets, molecular and structural data)
• Leverage your skills in Machine Learning, Large Language Models, SQL, Python and R to link multiple data sources and enable development of new analytical models
• Work with the Centre for Computational Medicine to develop streamlined data analysis pipelines
• Assist with integration of biostatistical analysis into analysis pipelines
  
  

Here's What You'll Need

• Bachelor or Master of Science degree in computer science or related field
• Excellent organization and communication skills
• Ability to work independently
• Ability to communicate challenges and milestones to those without computational experience
• Willingness to work as an intermediary between the lab and computational/data scientists at SickKids to enable basic and clinical scientists to effectively access and utilize data with existing tools
• Substantial experience implementing ML and LLM approaches to complex questions
• Expertise with SQL, Python, R
• Understanding of basic biology and willingness to learn
• Willingness to learn and comply with all data security requirements to safe-guard patient data
• Demonstrates commitment and actions in advancing equity, diversity and inclusion objectives
  
  

Preferred Requirements

• Applied ML or LLM approaches to detect and extract key information from complex data sources
• Hands-on experience with training and evaluating models (i.e. random forests, logistic regression)
• Experience with phenotypic data analysis (i.e. MRI, EEG) using computer vision techniques
  
  

How To Apply

Please provide a resume and a cover letter describing your interest in this position and provide a point-form summary of your specific qualifications for this position.

Employment Type

• Casual
  
  

SickKids is committed to championing equity, diversity and inclusion in all that we do, fostering an intentionally inclusive and culturally safe environment that reflects the diversity of the patients, families and communities we serve. Learn more about workplace inclusion.

If you require accommodation during the application process, please reach out to our aSKHR team. SickKids can provide access and inclusion supports to eligible candidates to support their full engagement during the interview and selection process as well as to ensure candidates are able to perform their duties once successfully hired. If you are invited for an interview and require accommodation, please let us know at the time of your invitation to interview. Information received related to access, inclusion or accommodation will be addressed confidentially.

Technical difficulties? Email [email protected] with a short description of the issues you are experiencing. We will not accept resumes sent to this inbox but we are happy to respond to requests for technical assistance.

Tip: Combine your cover letter and resume into ONE document of 20 pages or less as you cannot upload multiple documents as part of your application.