Staff Bioinformatics Engineer

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At Exact Sciences, we’re helping change how the world prevents, detects and guides treatment for cancer. We give patients and clinicians the clarity needed to make confident decisions when they matter most. Join our team to find a purpose-driven career, an inclusive culture, and robust benefits to support your life while you’re working to help others.

Position Overview

The Staff Bioinformatics Engineer is largely self-driven, working in collaboration with others on one or more projects which are extremely complex in scope. This role is responsible for successfully leading the planning and execution of projects. Working in a team setting, this role will contribute to the design and implementation of new software solutions to process and interpret Next Generation Sequencing (NGS) data for the purpose of cancer diagnostics. This position will be involved in producing software to orchestrate and execute analysis workflows as well as building new bioinformatics tools that operate directly on scientific data. Leveraging the latest data platforms and technologies together we will build cloud-based solutions ready for a production environment.

We are seeking candidates with a strong focus on quality throughout their work and who place high value on peer review, software testing and documentation. The successful candidate will join a geographically distributed team of highly motivated bioinformaticians and developers at the forefront of cancer diagnostics and be required to collaborate closely with scientists, IT and others create solutions to meet the underlying need. During recruitment we prioritise talent over experience with specific technologies and will provide opportunities to learn and experiment with any technology that is new to the successful candidate. The Staff Bioinformatics Engineer helps develop the timeline and plan for new assignments/projects. As a technical expert with deep knowledge and thorough understanding of the bioinformatics engineering, this role provides technical guidance and mentorship to junior engineers in the Bioinformatics group.

This position is hybrid and based in our Oxford office (OX4 2JY).

Essential Duties

Include, but are not limited to, the following:

• Contribute to the development of software tools to support the bioinformatics workflow operations of Exact Sciences.
• Contribute to the design and architecture of cloud-based software solutions.
• Design and implement data storage solutions for experimental data and analysis results.
• Provide guidance and mentorship to the team (to other developers and beyond) on software development practices.
• Transition early development code into a production environment.
• Communicate software system designs to stakeholders across the organisation.
• Build and maintain cloud infrastructure to support data analysis pipelines.
• Establish best practices for effective and cost-efficient use of cloud resources.
• Interact with the wider Exact Sciences organisation on cloud computing.
• Produce high quality documentation of software and infrastructure.
• Uphold company mission and values through accountability, innovation, integrity, quality, and teamwork.
• Support and comply with the company’s Quality Management System policies and procedures.
• Exercise excellent team-working skills with ability to complete collaborative projects on time and within budget.
• Exercise excellent verbal and written communication skills with the ability to communicate complicated ideas and information effectively at all levels.
• Demonstrated ability working towards challenging goals in a fast-moving environment where on-time delivery of results is a high priority.
• Demonstrated ability working in a fast moving and motivated scientific environment.
• Ability to act with an inclusion mindset and model these behaviours for the organisation.
• Ability to travel 5% of working time away from work location, may include overnight/weekend/international travel.

Minimum Qualifications

• Master’s Degree in Bioinformatics, Computer Science, Software Engineering, Sciences, or field as outlined in the essential duties; or Bachelor’s Degree in Bioinformatics, Computer Science, Software Engineering, Sciences, or field as outlined in the essential duties plus 2 years of relevant experience in lieu of Master’s degree.
• 8+ years’ experience in software development.
• 6+ years’ experience working within a cloud computing environment.
• Demonstrated proficiency for solving problems with code using high-level programming languages (currently we mostly use Python but experience in other languages accepted).
• Advanced level knowledge of production software development.
• Advanced knowledge of automated software testing (unit, integration, system).
• Demonstrated ability to design complete software systems for complex problems.
• Ability to effectively communicate software system designs.
• Experience in creating software that interacts with external systems.
• Expertise in best practices for software development (such as Git, agile, code reviews, CI/CD).
• Experience with relational and non-relational databases.
• Experience using system monitoring tools and automated testing frameworks.
• Excellent communication skills (both written and oral) with the ability to communicate complicated ideas and information effectively at all levels.
• Demonstrated ability to perform the essential duties of the position with or without accommodations.
• Authorisation to work in the United Kingdom without sponsorship.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience in deployment and operation of cloud computing infrastructure.
• Experience or interest in developing scientific software.
• Experience with code performance optimisation.

Our success relies on the experiences and perspectives of a diverse team, and Exact Sciences fosters a culture where all employees can develop personally and professionally with a sense of respect and belonging. If you require an accommodation, please contact us here.

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