"Postdoctoral Research Scholar - Animal Science"

Postdoctoral Research Scholar - Animal Science

Company: North Carolina State University

Job Location: Raleigh, NC

Category: Animal Science

Type: Full-Time

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Position Number: 00111684

Essential Job Duties:

We invite applications for a postdoctoral research fellowship to lead and contribute to method development and applied analyses in statistical genomic fine-mapping. The successful candidate will work closely with a multidisciplinary team to develop and apply statistical approaches to locate causal variants and genomic regions responsible for animal productivity, using large-scale genomic and phenotypic datasets.

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Duties and Responsibilities:

• Prepare manuscripts for peer-reviewed publication, present findings at group meetings and conferences, and contribute to grant or fellowship proposals.
• Develop and apply statistical and computational methods for fine-mapping causal variants, including but not limited to Bayesian fine-mapping, mixed models, haplotype and ROH-based analyses, and genomic language models.
• Integrate varied data types where available (whole-genome sequence or high-density genotypes, pedigree records, phenotypes, transcriptomics/functional annotation) to prioritize candidate loci and interpret biological mechanisms.
• Perform simulations to validate methods and assess power, false-discovery, and effect-size estimation under realistic demographic and genomic scenarios.
• Collaborate with lab members and external collaborators; potentially supervise or mentor graduate/undergraduate students on project components.

Departmental Required Skills:

• PhD in statistical genetics, quantitative genetics, biostatistics, computational biology, population genetics, bioinformatics, or a closely related discipline (must be completed by start date).
• Strong background in statistical modeling and quantitative methods (linear mixed models, Bayesian inference, likelihood methods).
• Proven experience working with large genomic datasets (GWAS, sequence or high-density SNP arrays), and familiarity with runs of homozygosity (ROH), identity-by-descent (IBD), genotype imputation, and genomic relationship matrices.
• Proficiency in at least one programming language commonly used in computational biology (e.g., R, Python, Julia, or C++).
• Excellent scientific communication skills and a record of peer-reviewed publications or strong manuscripts in preparation.
• Experience with simulation frameworks for genetic/genomic data.
• Familiarity with high-performance computing environments.
• Prior work in animal genetics or agricultural genomics.

Preferred Experience, Skills, Training/Education: n/a

Necessary Licenses or Certifications: n/a

Department: 110701 - Animal Science