Computational Genomics Expert at Turing

Computational Genomics Expert | Contractor | 6-Week Engagement | Remote (Select Countries)

Turing is seeking experienced Bioinformatics and Computational Genomics professionals to design challenging, agentic genomics tasks and reference solutions for GeneBench Pro — a benchmark platform for evaluating frontier AI models on real-world scientific workflows. This is a high-impact, short-term contractor role ideal for researchers who want to shape how AI systems are tested on computational biology problems.

About the Role

You will design self-contained computational biology problems that require an AI agent to interpret biological data, write and execute code, work across scientific file formats, and produce objectively verifiable outputs. Tasks should reflect authentic genomics and bioinformatics workflows — not standalone biology trivia.

Each GeneBench Pro problem runs in an isolated workspace with a short prompt, data files, and a standard bioinformatics stack including Python, scientific computing libraries, and tools such as PLINK 2.0.

Key Responsibilities

• Design novel, model-challenging tasks in computational genomics and bioinformatics.
• Build tasks that test higher-order scientific judgment — handling messy data, identifying artifacts, selecting appropriate analytical approaches, and determining when conclusions are decision-ready.
• Develop tasks using realistic scientific data formats: FASTA/FASTQ, VCF, BAM/SAM, BED, TSV/CSV, expression data, variant data, and other genomics artifacts.
• Create multi-step analysis tasks using Python, command-line tools, or established bioinformatics libraries.
• Write clear task specifications, input datasets, expected output schemas, and deterministic ground truths.
• Develop expert reference solutions and reproducible computational workflows within the provided Python environment.
• Validate that tasks are scientifically correct, solvable, and sufficiently challenging for frontier AI models.
• Design robust grading criteria that distinguish correct solutions from superficially plausible outputs.
• Ensure all deliverables are well-documented, reproducible, and client-ready.
• Maintain high quality and throughput while incorporating reviewer feedback.
• Communicate progress and technical requirements to project leads and reviewers.

Required Qualifications

• Ph.D., postdoctoral experience, or equivalent research experience in Bioinformatics, Computational Biology, Genomics, Computational Genetics, or a closely related field.
• Strong hands-on programming experience in Python.
• Experience analyzing biological sequence or genomics datasets.
• Comfortable working in Linux/command-line computational environments.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience with genomics workflows: variant analysis, transcriptomics, sequence analysis, phylogenetics, population genetics, functional genomics, or clinical genomics.
• Familiarity with bioinformatics tools and libraries: Biopython, pandas, NumPy, SciPy, samtools, bcftools, BLAST, PLINK, or equivalents.
• Experience developing reproducible scientific pipelines.
• Experience evaluating AI/LLM systems on computational scientific tasks.

Bonus Points For

• Experience with AI agents or coding agents.
• Experience designing benchmark datasets or automated graders.
• Publications in computational genomics or bioinformatics.
• Experience with Docker or containerized scientific workflows.

Engagement Details

• Type: Contractor / Freelancer (no medical or paid leave benefits)
• Duration: 6 weeks
• Hours: 40 hrs/week with at least 4 hours of overlap with PST
• Eligible Locations: Bangladesh, Brazil, Colombia, Egypt, Ghana, India, Indonesia, Kenya, Nigeria, Pakistan, Turkey, Vietnam