Postdoctoral Scholar in Wastewater Metagenomics and Computational Biology at Stanford University Stanford University in United States

Stanford University is advertising a Postdoctoral Scholar in Wastewater Metagenomics and Computational Biology in the Boehm Lab, within the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering and the Woods Institute for the Environment. The project is part of WastewaterSCAN, a national infectious disease monitoring program that tracks pathogen nucleic acids in wastewater solids across the United States and publishes data on a public dashboard.

The successful candidate will serve as the primary bioinformatician and computational biologist for the program’s prospective metagenomic sequencing arm. The role combines operational stewardship of weekly sequencing pipelines with independent, first-author research using one of the largest prospective wastewater metagenomic datasets assembled to date.

Research themes and keywords: wastewater metagenomics, computational biology, bioinformatics, viral genomics, virology, pathogen surveillance, public health, genomics, Python, R, Unix, reproducible workflows, high-performance computing.

Core duties include quality control of weekly metagenomic data, anomaly detection and communication, in silico primer/probe checks, screening for emerging agents, pipeline development and maintenance, bioinformatics support for lab and program projects, communication with public health stakeholders, and leading innovative research projects as lead author.

Eligibility highlights: applicants must have a PhD completed by the start date in bioinformatics, computational biology, genomics, microbiology, virology, environmental engineering, or a closely related field. The post is not a training role; the lab seeks someone who can take ownership of established pipelines with minimal ramp-up and contribute independent judgement on data quality and biological plausibility.

Required experience includes high-throughput sequencing analysis, strong programming in Python and/or R, Unix command line fluency, version control, reproducible workflows, large-scale data handling, HPC or cloud computing, and working knowledge of virology and viral genomics. Strong assets include metagenomic sequencing, hybrid capture or target-enrichment methods, wastewater/environmental matrices, pathogen genomic surveillance, assay design, and tool-building experience.

Funding and terms: the appointment is for 1 year, starts as soon as possible, and pays at least the Stanford postdoctoral minimum salary (FY27 minimum $79,056) with comprehensive postdoctoral benefits.

Application deadline: 1 December 2026. Apply by email to Alexandria Boehm with a motivation letter, CV and publication list, a public code repository link if available, and three references. Use the subject line “Metagenomics postdoc.”