Associate Director of Bioinformatics – Women's Health, Organ Health

This is a fully remote position, open to applicants in United States.

📋 Description

• Lead and guide a team of Bioinformatics Scientists, overseeing their professional development, responsibilities, and standards.

• Develop and manage the research strategy for new product creation from initial scoping to execution.

• Direct bioinformatics analysis for assay development and optimization, addressing experimental challenges alongside laboratory scientists.

• Engage with methylation, fragmentomics, various cfDNA-derived characteristics, short-read and long-read sequencing, hybrid-capture, and amplicon target enrichment.

• Collaborate with laboratory teams on the design of research and feasibility studies, technology evaluation, optimization, and performance assessment.

• Enhance analysis pipelines for variant detection, quality control, methylation calling, fragment-size and end-motif analysis, error suppression, and structural-variant calling.

• Transition research prototypes into stable production workflows utilizing version control, testing, continuous integration and delivery, and containerization.

• Streamline research data management, pipeline execution, and reporting through automation.

• Set standards for appropriate AI-agent-assisted work and ensure scientist sign-off.

• Work in conjunction with data science, molecular biology, pipeline engineering, biostatistics, quality assurance, and laboratory operations.

• Act as a bioinformatics subject-matter expert, conveying insights and roadmaps throughout the organization.

• Manage the team’s research roadmap, ensuring research methodologies are translated into production code and achieve anticipated benchmark performance.

⛳️ Requirements

• Ph.D. in Bioinformatics, Computational Biology, Computer Science, Mathematics, Engineering, Biostatistics, or a related discipline; an M.S. with equivalent experience is also acceptable.

• Over 7 years of experience in bioinformatics, including a minimum of 3 years in a leadership role overseeing scientists and collaborating across functions.

• Proven track record of leading a team that successfully translated scientific research into practical clinical applications.

• Established experience in developing or scientifically guiding diagnostic sequencing assays.

• Extensive knowledge in next-generation sequencing analysis, particularly with hybrid-capture or amplicon-based target enrichment, sequencing quality control, secondary analysis, and variant calling.

• Familiarity with cell-free DNA sequencing and other omics data, especially within diagnostic contexts.

• Working understanding of diagnostic product development within a regulated, accredited environment.

• Proficient in Python, programming, and data analysis techniques.

• Skilled in exploratory data analysis and visualization on complex datasets.

• Ability to convert findings into actionable insights and recommendations.

• Knowledge of sequencing workflows from sample extraction through the instrument.

• Proven history of evaluating new platforms, assay chemistry, or methods against established benchmarks.

• Experience with long-read sequencing technologies, including PacBio HiFi or Oxford Nanopore, alongside short-read Illumina sequencing.

• Proficiency in R, shell scripting, or Java.

• Experience with cloud computing platforms such as AWS or GCP and workflow orchestration tools like Snakemake, WDL, Nextflow, or Cromwell.

• Familiarity with containerization technologies like Docker or Kubernetes for reproducible, production-grade analyses.

• Experience with conference presentations or peer-reviewed publications may be a plus.

🏝️ Benefits

• Comprehensive medical, dental, vision, life, and disability insurance plans for eligible employees and their dependents.

• Complimentary testing for Natera employees and their immediate family members.

• Fertility care benefits available.

• Leave for pregnancy and baby bonding.

• 401(k) retirement benefits.

• Commuter benefits offered.

• Employee referral program in place.