Staff Bioinformatics Scientist

What if the work you did every day could impact the lives of people you know? Or all of humanity?

At Illumina, we are expanding access to genomic technology to realize health equity for billions of people around the world. Our efforts enable life-changing discoveries that are transforming human health through the early detection and diagnosis of diseases and new treatment options for patients.

Working at Illumina means being part of something bigger than yourself. Every person, in every role, has the opportunity to make a difference. Surrounded by extraordinary people, inspiring leaders, and world changing projects, you will do more and become more than you ever thought possible.

Staff Bioinformatics Scientist

Cambridge - Onsite/Hub and Hybrid or UK remote

We have an exciting new opportunity for a Staff Bioinformatics Scientist to join our Multiomics Bioinformatics organization and will support the development of Illumina’s portfolio of multiomic assays, library preps, and associated software.

Why Us

Illumina's employee benefits are industry-leading and include flexible time off, private medical insurance, compassion and care time off, leisure travel insurance, pension, employee stock purchasing program, volunteer time off, and much more!

The Role

The Multiomics Bioinformatics organization supports products spanning epigenetics, transcriptomics, and proteomics.

As the Staff Scientist you will be responsible for prototyping novel algorithms, overseeing the transition of proposed methods to production software, and proposing novel research directions to improve the performance of Illumina's multiomics products.

In addition to strong bioinformatics and programming skills, this position requires a high degree of initiative and cross-functional collaboration, as well as a thorough understanding of the product development process.

Responsibilities:

• Participate in R&D projects across multiple sites for the design, development, and validation of new multiomics products
• Analyze NGS results from multiomic assays, identify potential areas for improvement, propose relevant algorithms, and deploy finished algorithms to customers via production software
• Represent bioinformatics in a product development team, and be able to establish work priorities and communicate / delegate tasks to other sub-team members as needed
• Work cross-functionally with leaders from product management, assay development, and software engineering to define strategy and roadmap for multiomics methods and customer facing software
• Stay current on latest publications and relevant research and identify established methods that should be incorporated into method development.
• Develop, document, and maintain reusable programming code
• Support and troubleshoot existing software and provide guidance on potential enhancements
• Submit invention disclosures or innovative ideas for technology, processes and products 
• Mentor peers and supporting scientists, engineers on technical skills in one's area of expertise 

Listed responsibilities are an essential, but not exhaustive list, of the usual duties associated with the position. Changes to individual responsibilities may occur due to business needs.

Key skill requirements:

• Strong programming skills and experience with several programming languages, such C++, or Python, R, etc.
• Software development experience contributing to large codebases
• Experience with Unix/Linux environments, including shell scripting and High Performance Computing (HPC) cluster usage
• Data analysis and visualization of large datasets and next-generation sequencing data
• Familiarity with common bioinformatics pipelines and data formats
• Solid understanding of statistical and biological concepts

Desired experience:

• Experience with Multiomics assays including: epigenetics, methylation, or scRNA
• Experience with C++
• Familiarity with collaboration and product development tools (confluence, JIRA, JAMA)
• Familiarity with next-generation sequencing technologies
• Strong communication skills and a history of collaboration with teams from diverse background
• Local to Cambridge but open to remote for the right candidate

Education requirements:

Masters/PhD in bioinformatics, computer science, data science, engineering, mathematics or equivalent

Typically requires a minimum of 6 years of related experience with a Master’s degree; or a PhD with 3+ years of experience; or equivalent experience

Illumina believes that everyone has the ability to make an impact, and we are proud to be an equal opportunities employer committed to providing employment opportunity regardless of sex, race, creed, color, gender, religion, marital status, domestic partner status, age, national origin or ancestry, physical or mental disability, medical condition, sexual orientation, pregnancy, military or veteran status, citizenship status, and genetic information.