THE ORGANIZATION

The Alliance of Bioversity International delivers research-based solutions that harness agricultural biodiversity and sustainably transform food systems to improve people’s lives. Alliance solutions address the global crises of malnutrition, climate change, biodiversity loss, and environmental degradation.

The Alliance works with local, national and multinational partners across Latin America and the Caribbean, Asia and Africa, and with the public and private sectors. The Alliance is part of CGIAR, a global research partnership for a food-secure future, dedicated to reducing poverty, enhancing food and nutrition security, and improving natural resources and ecosystem services.

About the position

The Alliance of Bioversity International and the International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT) is looking for a Statistics and Bioinformatics Internship Student to support the breeding program in Arusha Tanzania.

Main Responsibilities

Support in providing technical assistance in data collection, analysis, interpretation for the breeding lines.
Support in use of computer skills for data analysis using software such as R and SAS.
Assist in organizing data, documentation and developing technical reports and publications.
Support in the development of improved/updated technical, statistical and/or analytical tools, methodologies, systems, and databases.
Any other duties as may be required by the Plant Breeder/Country Coordinator.

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Key duties & Responsibilities

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Developing standards for breeding data management processes.
Developing tools to solve data cleaning management challenges.
Creating unique methodologies for breeding research purposes.
Working alongside other bioinformaticians, biology researchers and tech specialists.
Programming new software or customizing existing systems to align well with the breeding team’s needs.
Analyzing molecular datasets like genomic sequence data.
Consulting with biologists and researchers to analyze problems and determine computational strategies to solve those problems.

Requirements
A MSc degree – recently graduated in a relevant discipline such as Bioinformatics, Statistics, Mathematics, Computer Science, Computational Biology.
Proficiency in R/python (prior experience in performing bioinformatics analyses in R/python would be an advantage).
Experience in performing data analyses using various software tools using R or on high-performance computing platforms.
Experience in genomics and sequencing technologies such as DNA, and RNA-seq, spatial transcriptomics, etc.
Excellent verbal and written communication skills.
Excellent ability to work independently, analyze data, interpret results, and provide summaries on collaborative projects.

Terms of employment

This is an internship position based in Arusha, Tanzania. The contract will be for period of six (6) months and is renewable to a maximum of one year depending on performance and availability of resources. Alliance offers a multicultural, collegial research environment with competitive salary and excellent benefits; we believe that the diversity of our staff contributes to excellence. Alliance is an equal opportunity employer and strives for staff diversity in gender and nationality.