Job advertisement

Vacancy ID: 002/2026
Closing date: 2026-02-15

The Friedrich Schiller University Jena is a dynamic and innovation-driven university centrally located in Germany. With a broad range of disciplines, it shapes the future through excellent research and teaching. Its scientific excellence is reflected in the profile areas Light – Life – Liberty, which provide pioneering insights and sustainable solutions for the society of tomorrow. Through close collaborations with leading research institutions, innovative companies, and renowned cultural organizations, it advances interdisciplinary developments. With around 17,000 students and approximately 10,000 employees, it defines Jena as a vibrant, internationally connected city of science and innovation.

The professorship of the Viral Ecology and Omics (VEO) seeks to fill the position of a:

PhD student bioinformatics: Phage genomic modules: data mining, visualisation, and databasing

commencing on the 1st of April 2026 or as soon as possible thereafter.

We offer a part-time position (75%, 30 hours per week) initially offered as a fixed-term position until the 31st of March 2029. A total contract term of four years is planned.

The project is part of a German-French consortium that aims to identify, characterise, visualise, and disclose phage genomic modules: set of co-evolving genes in bacteriophages. You will be embedded in the Cluster of Excellence Balance of the Microverse () and the virus database team based in the RNA Bioinformatics lab at FSU Jena (). The Cluster combines expertise in life, material, optical and computational sciences to elucidate fundamental principles of the interactions and functions in microbial communities in diverse habitats. We aim to identify the shared characteristics of disturbed or polluted ecosystems as well as infectious diseases on the microbiome level and develop strategies for their remediation by targeted interventions.

The Viral Ecology and Omics Group () aims to study the role of viruses in the Microverse. To do this, we combine microbiological and eco/evolutionary experiments with molecular biology, microscopy, (meta-) genomics, bioinformatics, artificial intelligence, and computational modelling. Our wet lab manager oversees a level S1/S2 wet lab featuring a state-of-the-art laboratory automation system with high throughput automatic plate reader, microscopy, microbiology, and molecular biology facilities. Our dry lab manager supports access to bioinformatics tools and databases on the FSU high-performance compute cluster, which consists of ~100 CPU and 12 GPU nodes, dedicated interactive and visualization nodes, and five high-memory (up to 4TB) nodes with access to global genomic and metagenomic datasets on our 2+ petabyte storage disks.

The Virus Database () team is funded by NFDI4Microbiota, the National Research Infrastructure for Microbiota research consortium, which provides tools, infrastructure, training, and services to the microbiome research community in Germany and beyond. VirJenDB integrates publicly accessible virus sequences and metadata across all virus taxa. If you believe in organizing today’s knowledge to improve tomorrow’s virus research, are driven by scientific curiosity, and work best in a team, we encourage you to apply and help us advance FAIR and Open virus research infrastructure. This position is situated in a collaborative and intellectually stimulating environment where your contributions can advance the field.

Your responsibilities:

• With your advisors, design and perform analyses to address the research questions.
• Analyse your results in the context of literature and public (meta-) ‘omics data.
• Develop web-integrated visualizations to gain scientific insights from virus -omics datasets.
• Take initiative to communicate and discuss your results with wet- and dry-lab group members.
• Report your findings in publications and presentations at international scientific platforms.
• Support Masters students and undergraduate project students.

Your profile:

• A BSc or MSc in bioinformatics with extensive coding experience (Python, Java/React).
• Experience with databases and full-stack development, including APIs, software best coding practices, Linux, SLURM, and git.
• Specialist knowledge and hands-on expertise in metagenomics, genomics, viruses, or bacteriophages is beneficial.
• Strong motivation, excellent organisational skills, and ability to contribute to a friendly and collaborative working environment in a cross-disciplinary scientific research group.
• Excellent communication in English is required, both written and spoken. Fluency in German and other languages is advantageous.

We offer:

• A 75% funded position (30 hours per week).
• Embedding in a highly collaborative, cross-disciplinary research group that is world-leading in viral and microbial ecology.
• Excellent equipment and infrastructure for both experimental and computational work.
• Affiliation to the Jena School for Microbial Communication, a graduate school offering a comprehensive education programme to train your hard and soft career skills.
• Jena – City of Science: a young and lively town with a vibrant local cultural agenda. Jena is among the most liveable cities in Germany. Situated on the Saale River and surrounded by the famous Thuringian Forest, this city is ideal for lovers of nature and hiking.
• Remuneration based on the provisions of the Collective Agreement for the Public Sector of the Federal States (TV-L) up to salary scale E 13 (depending on the candidate’s personal qualifications), including a special annual payment in accordance with the collective agreement.
• 30 days of vacation per calendar year, plus two days off on December 24 and 31

To promote gender equality in science, applications by women are especially invited. Candidates with severe disabilities will be given preference in the case of equal qualifications and suitability.

Are you eager to work with us? Applications will be reviewed on a rolling basis, but no later than the 15th of February 2026. Applications in English should comprise a cover letter, a detailed curriculum vitae including a list of your publications, copies of academic certificates and names and contact details of two references. Please apply by using our online form.

For further information for applicants and the information on the collection of personal data, please refer to