Project Manager_Scientific Iii (Senior)

Actual Job Title: Project Manager, Genetics

Job Location: Cambridge, MA 02141

Work Type: Remote role

Contract Duration: 12 Months Assignment (Possibility of extension)

Job Details:

The Data, AI & Genome Sciences (DAGS) group sits within Merck Research Labs, leveraging genomics data to aid Therapeutic Areas from identifying new targets all the way through the drug development process. These efforts rely on large volumes of RNA and DNA sequencing data, new single-cell and functional genomics laboratory technologies, along with developing AI/ML approaches to maximize the value this genomic data can provide. We are looking for an experienced Genomics Project Manager who can nimbly help support the wide array of preclinical sequencing experiments and data processing needs. Our team is committed to continual process improvement, leveraging templates and scripts to accelerate routine work, standardizing, and clarifying workflows, and consolidating key information for quick and easy access. This position will report to the Director of Project Management, and is a remote opportunity. The ideal candidate should have hands-on experience in Next Generation Sequencing and demonstrate success in supporting a high volume of active projects. You will help support scientific teams in their sequencing experiments, working closely with vendors, IT Operations and Data Analysts to ensure that requirements are clearly captured, logistics kept smooth, issues flagged and resolved quickly, and data moving quickly to support the next round of scientific hypotheses. Alongside NGS data management support, there are a number of other areas requiring occasional assistance including interfacing with Finance, Procurement, and Legal in the support of scientific work.

In this role, you will:

• Communicate effectively and support working relationships with wide range of external and internal stakeholders to facilitate issue resolution.
• Contribute to process improvement efforts on every front.
• Lead stakeholder review meetings to survey work in progress and upcoming forecasts
• Work with finance systems to support outsourcing activities, generating Purchase Orders and tracking invoices to provide financial snapshots.
• Support Next Generation Sequencing outsourcing: coordinate samples, assay requirements, metadata harmonization and data transfers; communicating instructions and priorities.
• Work with Data IT and Data Analysts to track and shepherd genomic data through pipelines and workflows to enable downstream analysis.
• Leverage and further develop templates and scripts to streamline and automate routine operations – decreasing processing time and enabling at-a-glance summaries.
• Accurately track a range of kinds of information, maintaining and building dashboards to use to communicate status, timelines, and issues to project teams
• Maintain tracking dashboards for clear visibility and accessibility to project data.

Minimum Educational Requirement:

• MS or higher degree in a scientific or technological field of study with 6 plus years of scientific related job experience.
• BA/BS in a scientific or technological field of study with 8 plus years of scientific related job experience.

Required Experience and Skills:

• Advanced and fluid Excel skills are also a must have.
• This role will require strong verbal and written communication skills, the ability to operate in a highly collaborative and matrixed environment, and to be able to re-prioritize work as the landscape changes.
• Familiarity with Next Generation Sequencing and Data
• Advanced Excel skills
• Project Management experience within the science realm

Preferred Experience and Skills:

• Drug discovery experience
• Hands on lab experience
• Computational data science experience is nice to have.
• PMP certification is nice to have.
• AutoHotKey experience a plus
• Python coding experience