Senior Research Scientist – Artificial Intelligence and Bioinformatics

Overview

Sidra Medicine is seeking an outstanding and highly motivated Senior Research Scientist in Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Bioinformatics to join the Genome Medicine and Biomedical Informatics Lab in Doha, Qatar, led by Prof. Younes Mokrab.

The role will help drive translation-oriented research in the lab, with a focus on genome-phenome correlations in Middle Eastern populations, with emphasis on translational neuroscience, integrating molecular, imaging, and clinical endophenotypes to enable precision diagnosis, patient stratification for clinical management and therapy, and target identification. This work will involve the analysis of large-scale, multi-modal datasets, including genomic/multi-omic data (short- and long-read based), imaging and health records, using state-of-the-art data science, bioinformatics and statistical methods.

The Senior Research Scientist will contribute to study design and execution, scientific presentation, and publication in line with the department’s research program. They will also participate in laboratory management and research grant applications and are expected to work productively and collaboratively with other research personnel while providing training and mentorship to undergraduate and graduate students.

Organizational profile

Sidra Medicine is a state-of-the-art academic medical center, built to the highest international standards, with a clinical mission focused on providing exceptional specialty care for women and children.

Sidra’s strategy is centered on Patients and Families, Health Education, and Biomedical Discovery.

The Research Branch at Sidra Medicine is home to hundreds of researchers working across a broad spectrum of pediatric and maternal health, encompassing basic, translational, clinical trials, and biomedical informatics research. The branch includes over 10,000 m² of dedicated research space, together with numerous laboratories and core facilities equipped with cutting-edge technologies for high-throughput sequencing, informatics, deep phenotyping, advanced imaging, and biobanking.

The Translational Neuroscience Research Program is a key initiative at Sidra, directed by Prof. Younes Mokrab and Dr Ruba Benini. It serves as a fostering umbrella for multidisciplinary clinical and research efforts, bringing together clinicians, scientists, and data experts to build a comprehensive knowledge base on priority neurological diseases affecting children and young individuals from Middle Eastern populations. It aims to transform diagnosis, clinical management, and the development of tailored therapeutic strategies, with a focus on epilepsy, autism, brain malformations, neurodevelopmental and neuromuscular diseases.

Key roles and Responsibilities:

• Demonstrate excellence in scientific rigor, analytical skills, efficiency, interpersonal and communication, with strict adherence to ethical conduct, research integrity, and institutional governance policies
• Advance research in the lab through rigorous study design, data processing, and analysis, leading to high-impact scientific publications
• Design, develop, and implement bioinformatics and analytical pipelines to support research objectives across diverse data types, including genomic, imaging, and electronic health record (EHR) data
• Lead and contribute to the preparation of research grant applications, and help catalyze novel scientific ideas and research directions
• Participate in laboratory management and the mentorship of junior researchers and staff
• Collaborate closely with laboratory members, clinical collaborators, and end users to ensure translational relevance
• Deliver oral presentations at internal meetings and national and international conferences on research progress and outcomes
• Travel occasionally to collaborating institutions as required for research activities
• Adhere to Sidra Medicine’s institutional standards and policies

Required experience/qualifications:

• PhD in a relevant discipline, preferably Bioinformatics, Data Science, Computational Biology or Computer Science
• Strong background in programming and algorithm development, with proficiency in Python, Perl, C/C++, or Java, and statistical computing using R
• Demonstrated experience in designing, training, validating, and deploying machine learning and deep learning models for biomedical applications
• Solid understanding of AI model architectures, including supervised and unsupervised learning, ensemble methods, deep neural networks, convolutional and recurrent architectures, and transformer-based models, as applicable to biological, imaging, and multimodal data
• Hands-on experience with machine learning and deep learning frameworks (e.g. PyTorch, TensorFlow, Keras, scikit-learn)
• Familiarity with model evaluation, interpretability, reproducibility, and bias assessment, particularly in clinical or translational research contexts
• Experience applying AI and statistical models to large-scale, multi-omics, imaging, and clinical datasets
• Familiarity with Linux-based environments, shell scripting (e.g. bash), and high-performance or cloud computing infrastructures
• Experience working with relational databases, SQL, and structured data formats
• Experience applying established computational methods for the analysis of high-throughput biomedical data, including next-generation sequencing technologies (e.g. Illumina, PacBio, Oxford Nanopore) and medical or human imaging
• Web programming experience (PHP, JavaScript, JSON, RESTful APIs) is an advantage
• Strong track record of publications in high-impact, peer-reviewed journals and presentations at international scientific conferences
• Excellent grounding in scientific methodology, with a high capacity for critical evaluation of literature and data, and the ability to rapidly acquire new skills
• Excellent written and oral communication skills, with the ability to collaborate effectively in multidisciplinary teams
• Experience in a clinical research laboratory, hospital-affiliated institution, or biotechnology/pharmaceutical industry is an advantage
• Fluency in written and spoken English

How to apply:

Interested applicants should email their curriculum vitae, a personal statement (maximum one page), and the names and contact details of three referees to rfarhad@sidra.org, addressed to Mr. Radi Farhad, with the subject line:
SIDRA-12-2025 Senior Research Scientist – Bioinformatics and Artificial Intelligence