A Guide To Landing Your First Bioinformatics Research Job

Date: 08/01/2025

So you’ve just graduated in bioinformatics, you’re interested in research and you’re wondering where to apply. Just as well, I’ll provide a summary of where to consider applying. Let’s get right to it…

University Staff Positions

Research and the quest for truth is near and dear to my heart! Consider searching and applying for opportunities in universities and research institutions.
The jobs you’re after may not always be referred to as a “bioinformatician” or “research bioinformatician”, but they're obviously good terms to start with.
The job titles could also be:
  • Research assistant (in bioinformatics)
  • Research technician (in bioinformatics)
  • Technician (in bioinformatics)
And here are a couple good places to start:
  • jobs.ac.uk
  • Check individual universities which teach bioinformatics and engage in bioinformatics research, since their jobs may not always be advertised on job boards.

If you still have contact with your university you should consider asking your professors and or PhD researchers for opportunity to shadow them as they undertake their research.
You can try to find out if you can partake in the lab meetings of specific lab groups. Take interest in their research, read about it and enquire, there’s no harm in that.
If you get these opportunities it’s worth learning from the PhD, postdoc and professors, what it is they do and finding out if there are any current or future opportunities. This activity during early unemployment is very good on your resume.
And applying for these types of roles may be the springboard from which you may decide to pursue a PhD.

University Research Position (PhDs)

I know, doing a PhD typically doesn’t pay well in the UK, but not all PhDs are created equal. And remember it’s non-taxable.
Here are some PhDs which are typically slightly a cut above the rest, some well above the rest.
  • Cancer Research UK ~ £23K.
  • EMBL’s European Bioinformatics Institute - £27K.
  • Institute of Cancer Research - certain positions can offer a stipend of ~£26K.
  • Horizon Europe - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions - ~£33.6K (I expect it to be non-taxable).
  • This is funded by the European Commission and you’ll only be able to apply for opportunities in other European countries and not for programmes in your own country. Under funding programme search for “Horizon Europe”: https://euraxess.ec.europa.eu/jobs/search

Research Institutes

Standalone research institutions are another place of opportunity to lookout for jobs in research. Be open to applying for roles whose research is not directly what you studied during your degree because there may be some overlap.
Domain knowledge can be acquired with dedicated reading and in some cases there are overlapping ideas, such as the idea of antimicrobial resistance in microbiology and anti-cancer drug resistance in cancer biology. The underlying process of natural selection is occurring in both instances. And it’s important to try and demonstrate this kind of overlapping, transferable understanding however you can when applying.

Here are some institutions to keep in mind: Lastly, don't limit yourself to the United Kingdom, for example, there are opportunities to be had in Europe and the United States!

Well I’ll end it there, I hope this helps, God bless you in your vocational pursuits!



Do email me if you're interested in more posts like this.

Author: Dolapo Ajayi BSc MSc