Hiring

Open Positions

  • Imaging Data Scientist (Ph.D. level) – Join our team to lead cutting-edge image analysis on light‑sheet and cyclic immunofluorescence data. You’ll deploy advanced 2D/3D segmentation, skeletonization, pattern‑recognition, and customized 3D quantification algorithms. Collaborate with Software Engineers and HPC engineers to transform research-grade pipelines into cloud-native, containerized software on BioHPC Astrocyte with a code‑free web portal. Deliver publication‑ready analytics—like cell‑cell interaction metrics, morphological profiling, and dimensionality reduction—while ensuring versioned, reproducible workflows. Your work will support scalable imaging operations and drive impactful datasets to advance cancer research.

  • Automation Engineer (B.S./M.Sc. in Mechanical Engineering or Bioengineering) – Join the Bioinformatics Core Facility to advance robotic automation in imaging workflows. You’ll build upon established routines to integrate robotics into imaging pipelines and develop automated methods for post-imaging cell retrieval for downstream analysis. This role involves designing, programming, and validating robotic systems—combining mechanical and software skills, control systems, sensor integration, and quality assurance—to reliably isolate specific cells from tissues  . The Automation Engineer will ensure reproducible, optimized workflows across the facility, improving throughput and accuracy in imaging-based research.

  • Graduate Students - The Dean Lab welcomes highly motivated graduate students eager to explore the intersection of optics, cancer biology, and computational science. Our lab is part of the Computational Biology track within the Biomedical Engineering program at UT Southwestern Medical Center. We encourage interested candidates to apply for graduate study and consider rotating with our lab. If you are passionate about innovative research and would like to contribute to our projects, please feel free to contact us.

Lab Dynamic

The Dean Lab shares lab space and works closely with Drs. Benjamin Nanes, Bo-Jui Chang, Reto Fiolka and their teams, which consists of >25 research track faculty, instructors, postdoctoral fellows, graduate students, and staff scientists. Thus, ideal candidates must thrive in an immersive and highly interdisciplinary research environment and be capable of working both independently and effectively as part of a larger team.

Salary & Benefits

Salaries are internationally competitive. For staff positions, salaries are contingent upon past research experience, education level, and are subject to departmental review. Postdocs are paid according to the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s salary scale, with ~$20k bonuses upon the acquisition of independent research funding.

All individuals receive retirement benefits, health, dental, and vision insurance (with excellent rates for dependents), and access to on-campus childcare and dedicated resources for career planning.

UT Southwestern Medical Center

UT Southwestern Medical Center is a world-class and highly translational biomedical research institution with six Nobel laureates, 14 Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigators, and home to the Harald C. Simmons Comprehensive Cancer Center. Currently, UT Southwestern medical Center has >$500M in research funding, and an operating budget of $3.7B. UT Southwestern Medical Center is committed to an educational and working environment that provides equal opportunities and prohibits discrimination of any sort.

UT Southwestern is also home to the second largest high-performance computing environment in the state of Texas, BioHPC. As such, interested candidates may also participate in a Biomedical High-Performance Computing fellowship program with BioHPC, where they will be provided with advanced computational training and be provided with networking opportunities with NVIDIA, Redhat, IBM, Intel, and more.