Senior Team Lead – Genome Informatics

Listing Info Division: Biotechnology Function: Bioinformatics City: Durham State/Province: North Carolina [NC] Country: United States [US] Position Title: Senior Team Lead – Genome Informatics Job ID: 5036 Role Purpose/Accountabilities Syngenta is one of the world’s leading companies with 28,000 employees in over 90 countries dedicated to one purpose: bringing plant potential to life. We contribute to addressing some of the planet’s most critical issues such as the rising demand for food from a growing population. Working for Syngenta offers you the opportunity to play a part in addressing one of the most urgent challenges facing global agriculture today where we need to feed 200,000 more people every day.* Come be part of our good growth plan: one planet, six commitments: Make crops more efficient, rescue more farmland and help biodiversity flourish; empower smallholders, help people stay safe and look after each worker. * Our work matters. There has never been a better time to join Syngenta! Role Purpose

• Manage and lead a team of bioinformaticians responsible for enhancing and maintaining a set of tools and databases that enable scientists to integrate, explore and analyze genomics and related datasets
• Work closely with molecular biologists, geneticists and other researchers engaged in agricultural product discovery to understand their needs; design and implement approaches to meet their needs in an effective and cost-efficient manner, leveraging both internal and external resources and skills
• Provide scientists with expert knowledge on computational biology tools and how these can be used to address the answering of scientific questions
• Work to identify suitable external partners and external capabilities that can be incorporated into our set of bioinformatics capabilities and tools
• Contribute strongly to the design and selection of approaches for storing, organizing and working with rapidly increasing volumes of biological data
• Guide efforts to design and implement selected new bioinformatics analysis, annotation and integration capabilities
• Work to design and implement enhanced capabilities for integrating bioinformatics datasets with breeding datasets
• Provide leadership to, and participation in, key projects both within Bioinformatics and across multiple R&D functions

Accountabilities: :

• Lead a team to provide effective computational tools, databases and capabilities to R&D projects in collaboration with researchers and bioinformaticians from diverse disciplines and across global sites
• As a member of the Bioinformatics Leadership Team, contribute to the development of our strategy for advancing our capabilities for data integration and for enhancing our ability to interpret complex, multi-dimensional data
• Contribute to the development, enhancement and evolution of the bioinformatics platform, a collection of tools and datasets that enable computational biology analyses
• Interface effectively with diverse stakeholders and team members to identify opportunities to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of our delivery of capabilities and high quality analyses to our R&D clients
• Continually expand skill set by staying on top of key advances in bioinformatics, agricultural biotechnology and the application of biotechnology and genomics to agricultural product discovery and development.

Knowledge, Skills & Experience Critical knowledge: :

• M.S. or Ph.D. degree, or a B.A. degree with equivalent experience, in Bioinformatics, Molecular Biology, Genetics or a related field
• Strong understanding of biotechnology research and product development
• Strong computational skills including knowledge of available bioinformatics tools, data sets and computational and data management strategies to solve genomics and genetics problems
• Demonstrated ability to work successfully within a global interdisciplinary team

Critical Experience

• 10 years professional experience in bioinformatics or computational biology
• 5 years direct experience in software development, architecture, and information/data management
• 5 years management experience leading teams

Critical Technical, Professional And Personal Capabilities

• Excellent communication, organization and presentation skills
• Extensive understanding of bioinformatics and professional experience carrying out bioinformatics analyses to answer biological questions
• Deep understanding of HPC environments and common bioinformatics programing languages, scripting tools, and relational databases, including information and data management strategies
• Knowledge of the life sciences, particularly genomics and/or genetics
• Experience with agricultural biotechnology, marker development and plant genetics/genomics is highly desirable
• Experience in negotiating and budgeting time between competing cross-functional demands for resources is desirable

Critical Leadership Capabilities

• Communicates with impact and gains commitment of individuals and stakeholders in a compelling way
• Is able to effectively motivate direct reports, ensuring quality of delivery is high
• Identifies and mitigates cross functional barriers to enable better collaboration
• Establishes and maintains a network of colleagues and utilizes this network to accomplish goals, build expertise and share information
• Involves many individuals in brainstorming sessions, shows good judgment about which creative ideas and suggestions will work and suspends judgment until ideas are fully explained and vetted
• Listens carefully and gains trust and loyalty
• Scans the environment to look for needed change and anticipates need for change

Critical Success Factors & Key Challenges

• Establish enhanced understanding of the challenges and opportunities associated with the convergence of biotechnology and traditional breeding
• High level of negotiation, motivational and influencing skills
• Establish productive working relationships with key scientific users and informatics professionals across a number of functional groups and sites within a matrix organization.

Additional Information

• All applicants must be eligible to work in the US.
• Travel, including internationally, required for this position. Up to 10% per year.

EEO Statement Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO) Employee Polygraph Protection Act (EPPA)