Jobs at International AIDS Vaccine Initiative (IAVI)

Key Responsibilities:

• Stay up to date with new sequencing tools, platforms, and data analysis tools that can be incorporated into the ADVANCE program, ensuring the program maintains and easily accommodates new innovations and technologies
• Build and integrate cloud-based/on-premise architecture to facilitate the analysis pipelines

• Support analysis of sequencing data sets obtained by Sanger, Illumina NGS, and 10x
• Support development and improvement of computational pipelines to analyze antibody, virus, and HLA/TCR sequences
• Write software for curating, modeling, and maintaining large datasets
• Maintain and further develop the Laboratory information management system (LIMS)
• Integration and analysis of large scale clinical, epidemiological, and genetic datasets to gain new insights into disease susceptibility, disease progression, and vaccine response – particularly within the context of HIV infection

• Build a knowledge base of existing bioinformatics capacity and future research aspirations for each CRC site, informing capacity building plans at the individual and cross-network levels
• Garner a detailed understanding of ongoing projects in ADVANCE and suggest computational tools to accelerate outputs for different research projects
• Understand the long-term portfolio of ADVANCE’s medium and long-term projects, particularly those related to capacity building and clinical trials, and co-develop computational and statistical tools to support future activities

Education and Experience:

• An advanced degree in bioinformatics, computational biology, computer science, data science or a related field is required; PhD is desirable
• Minimum 4 years of experience in bioinformatics and data science is required.

Qualifications and Skills:

• Experience and knowledge of cloud computing administration or on-premise network administration and application deployment (GCS or AWS) is required
• A strong track record in published research and/or directing research programs is required
• Experience with capacity building or strengthening in LMICs is required
• Experience programming in Python and software development stacks is required
• Experience in the use of JuPandas Data Library and Jupyter Software Ecosystem is required
• Excellent verbal, written, and presentation skills are required
• Excellent planning, project management, and organizational skills are required.
• Knowledge of Web APIs, REST/GraphQL is highly desirable
• Experience in continuous deployment/continuous integration (CI/CD) is highly desirable
• Experience with No-SQL database modeling is highly desirable
• Experience in managing multi-centre research projects is desirable
• Previous work experience in the field of Global Health and/or HIV is desirable

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Key Responsibilities:

Clinical Trials and Observational Studies

• Ensure that all activities are integrated into an overall program for the preparation and execution of clinical research studies and clinical trials as well as preparation for eventual vaccine access and delivery.
• Develop strategic and detailed implementation plans and procedures for clinical research studies/trials. Provide oversight of clinical protocols, consent forms, data collection instruments, and preparation of suitable educational materials and regulatory documents.
• Provide advice on clinical trials and epidemiological studies, particularly to the preclinical groups on the design of studies and their relationship to the overall clinical development plan, as appropriate.
• Yield data required for design of efficacy trials appropriate to the populations for which vaccine candidates are designed, and/or which yields specimens for research that may elucidate the natural history, pathogenesis and immune control of infection relevant for vaccine design.
• As a member of Project Team, contribute to scientific assessments of novel IAVI candidate vaccines and provides the expert medical opinion and risk assessment that is required for prioritization and selection for further development.   
• Lead selected Protocol Teams for clinical studies.
• Lead communication with the Principal Investigators and with the medical representatives of vaccine developers for assigned projects.
• Design analysis plans with attention to endpoint selection and measurements, adverse event management and data collection, selection of Data and Safety Monitoring Board (DSMB) Members, preparation of the Safety Monitoring Committee Charter and conduct of the interim and final analysis meetings.
• Monitor the conduct of clinical trials, including safety of data.
• Prepare interim and final reports in collaboration with the site investigators and other members of IAVI Clinical Development. Collaborate with site investigators to collect, analyze and report the data from studies in scientific meetings and publications.
• Design Clinical Development Plans, in collaboration with other members of Clinical Development and clinical investigators, including later phase clinical trials, if candidates are successful.
• Work with other members of the Clinical Development team and other IAVI colleagues to support strategic planning for portfolio expansion and clinical trials to evaluate novel products.

• Participate in the development and implementation of training activities with African and Indian clinical partners and supports publication activities in the region.

Other duties 

• Develop work plans and budgets for clinical research studies, and monitoring/reporting achievement of work plan milestones.
• Represent IAVI with external agencies to develop collaborations or seek funding.
• Contribute to development of grant applications and reports for donors and granting agencies, in collaboration with the IAVI Development group.
• Contribute to development and reviewing of scientific and medical content of IAVI documents such as the IAVI Report and other IAVI educational materials.
• Represent IAVI in scientific, regulatory and other capacities.
• Maintain in-depth medical/scientific knowledge about the assigned therapeutic area or product, including any unique properties involving both disease and products for which the incumbent is responsible.
• Attend appropriate outside meetings and courses to maintain competency and awareness in assigned area, worldwide activities, and the vaccine community at large. Other national and international duties as assigned.

Education and Work Experience:

• A Medical degree is required.
• Minimum 6 years of experience in clinical research is required.
• Board certification or equivalent in Medicine, Pediatrics, Infectious Diseases or pharmaceutical medicine is highly desired.

Qualifications and Skills:

• Proven experience in preparing for and executing clinical trials or studies in international resource constrained settings is required.
• Knowledge and experience with implementation of Good Clinical Practices (GCP) in clinical trials conduct is required.
• Proven experience leading and managing Medical and Clinical teams in clinical trial research is required.
• Proven ability to operate within a scientific, social, medical, or clinical research program is required.
• Understanding of ethics and regulatory landscape in Africa is required.
• Relevant experience working in developing countries, especially Africa region is required.
• Proven success in the development and implementation of site preparation activities for clinical trials, particularly in developing countries is required.
• Diplomatic skills, excellent judgment, proven ability to present programs to all audiences ranging from high level political to lay community groups are required.
• Strong organizational skills, resourceful, and mature self-starter, with proven experience in building a strong, coherent program and operations in resource poor settings with limited infrastructure are required.
• Ability to work in a decentralized system and maintain close working relationships with various departments at Headquarters and global locations is required.