Overview of Role:
The Senior Director of Bioinformatics will provide scientific, strategic, and operational leadership for bioinformatics and computational biology activities supporting discovery, translational research, clinical development, and biomarker programs. This individual will work with a multidisciplinary team responsible for the analysis and interpretation of genomic, transcriptomic, proteomic, spatial, pathology, imaging, molecular modeling and clinical datasets to enable target identification, patient stratification, biomarker discovery, companion diagnostic development, and data-driven decision-making across the company's pipeline.
The successful candidate will serve as a key partner to Translational Medicine/Research, Biomarkers and Clinical Development teams and will help shape the organization's long-term data and computational strategy.
Role and Responsibilities:
Translational Research and Biomarker Development
- Lead analyses supporting biomarker discovery, patient selection, pharmacodynamic assessments, and mechanisms of response and resistance.
- Direct integration of multiomic datasets including:
- Whole exome sequencing (WES)
- Whole genome sequencing (WGS)
- RNA sequencing
- Single-cell sequencing
- Spatial transcriptomics
- Proteomics
- ctDNA
- Digital pathology and imaging data
- Collaborate with translational scientists and clinicians to generate biologically meaningful insights that influence clinical development strategy.
- Support companion diagnostic (CDx) development and regulatory submissions.
- Molecular modeling of protein-protein interactions
Strategic Leadership
- Develop and execute the company's bioinformatics and computational biology strategy across discovery, translational, and clinical programs.
- Interface with high-performing team of biochemists, computational biologists, and data scientists.
- Establish scientific priorities, resource plans, and technology roadmaps aligned with corporate objectives.
- Evaluate emerging technologies in AI/ML, multiomics, digital pathology, spatial biology, and real-world data analytics.
Data Science and AI
- Drive implementation of machine learning and AI-based approaches for biomarker identification and predictive modeling.
- Establish computational methods for integrating molecular and clinical data.
- Partner with digital pathology and imaging teams on AI-enabled analyses.
- Evaluate and implement cloud-based analytics platforms and scalable computational infrastructure.
Scientific Collaboration
- Partner closely with:
- Discovery Research
- Translational Medicine
- Clinical Development
- Biostatistics
- Companion Diagnostics
- Manage external collaborations with academic institutions, CROs, technology providers, and diagnostic partners.
Operational Excellence
- Establish best practices for data governance, reproducibility, quality control, and regulatory compliance.
- Oversee bioinformatics infrastructure, cloud computing resources, and data management processes.
- Ensure timely delivery of analyses supporting key development milestones.
- All other duties as assigned
Experience, Education and Specialized Knowledge and Skills:
- PhD in Bioinformatics, Computational Biology, Genetics, Genomics, Computer Science, Statistics, Systems Biology, or related field.
- Minimum of 15+ years of relevant experience in biotechnology, pharmaceutical, diagnostics, or related industries.
- Strong track record supporting oncology, inflammation, or other therapeutic development programs.
- Experience with biomarker strategies across multiple stages of drug development.
- Experience supporting IND, BLA, NDA, PMA, or companion diagnostic submissions preferred.
- Demonstrated expertise in:
- NGS analysis pipelines
- Multiomics data integration
- Statistical genomics
- Clinical biomarker analysis
- Single-cell and spatial biology analytics
- Machine learning and predictive modeling
- Cloud computing platforms (AWS, Azure, GCP)
- Programming languages such as R and Python
- Data visualization and scientific communication
- Preferred Qualifications
- Oncology drug development experience strongly preferred.
- Experience supporting companion diagnostic development and precision medicine strategies.
- Understanding of FDA, EMA, and global regulatory expectations for biomarker data.
- Experience with AI-powered pathology platforms and image analysis.
- History of scientific publications in high-impact journals.
- Experience working in cross-functional teams in a matrixed environment.