Director, Laboratory and Bioinformatics Research and Development, Oncology

Job Description

The Director, Laboratory and Bioinformatics Research and Development, Oncology role is to lead a group of cross-functional teams to support the development, validation and execution of clinical and research use products, develop high performing teams, and create new revenue streams by establishing and maintaining high quality and productive collaborative relationships with Company business and pharmaceutical partners, other commercial collaborators, CROs, KOLs, and academic groups. The individual also provides strategic leadership in development and commercialization of transformative molecular diagnostic products and tools for clinical and research purposes. Additionally, the individual leads publication efforts across translation research, drug development and clinical utility space to support commercial success of these products.

• Supervises, directs and coordinates day-to-day activities of workers engaged in Bioinformatics, laboratory research and development, data science and translational research activities.
• Lead the Research and Development (R&D) laboratory and test development activities, including LDTs and FDA approved/cleared assays, pharmaceutical services and operational laboratory enhancements
• Provides thought leadership and representation in interoperability work groups, as they relate to company's framework.
• Provides strategic support to bridge laboratory, computational, commercial and clinical teams to advance company-wide initiatives.
• Lead translational and clinical utility publications for existing products to support sales and reimbursement efforts.
• Provides administrative/managerial oversight of the laboratory R&D, Bioinformatics, data science and translational research teams.
• Directs technical and non-technical staff involved in developing, implementing and validating clinical and non-clinical processes to support NGS testing and biopharma services.
• Set clear expectations, give appropriate autonomy, guide team members; manage performance by providing feedback, guidance/teaching and development opportunities.
• Supervise and evaluate R&D team members across laboratory research and development, bioinformatics, data science and translational research team member performance, competency, proficiency and attendance.
• Coordinate work schedules for laboratory research and development, bioinformatics, data science and translational teams.
• Troubleshoot issues with staff through meetings, remote sessions with supporting departments, companies, literature, etc.
• Provides data for critical review of pipeline development and enhancements; monitors timelines to meet production goals and objectives.
• Lead technical evaluations and assay development activities as they pertain to new product development including, but not limited to, future iterations of OmniSeq INSIGHT, Whole Genome Sequencing, Whole Exome Sequencing, and Whole Transcriptome Sequencing.
• Lead applied research on novel computational / statistical methods, software tools and databases for analysis of genomes and transcriptomes, with a primary focus on gene expression profiling, predictive biomarkers, and disease-associated variant analysis.
• Develop, maintain, and analyze QC metrics to support internal R&D.
• Process, analyze and interpret high volumes of data.
• Prepare and deliver presentations to varied audiences.
• Work independently to prepare and meet timetables, deliverables, and project schedules.
• Publishes regularly in refereed journals and provides data, tables and figures as required.
• Represent Company at scientific conferences, presentations, and industry and investment groups.
• Ensures continuous delivery of bioinformatic services through oversight of service level agreements with end users and monitoring of systems, programs, and pipeline performance.
• Ensure standardization of key pharma product deliverables to promote high quality service.
• Lead key pharma and industry business development activities around research and development services.

• PhD in Bioinformatics, Computational Biology, Genetics, Statistics, Biology, Biochemistry or similar field required.
• Prior experience in leading Bioinformatics, translational research, and/or laboratory-based research and development teams.
• Demonstrated experience in processing of high-volume genomic data generation and/or analysis including from technologies such as microarrays or NGS required. NGS data analysis highly preferred.
• Knowledge of human immune system and cancer biology required, direct experience in cancer research, including a working understanding of computational approaches for cancer genome and transcriptome analysis, highly preferred.
• Prior research experience and academic publications in data analysis for immune profiling and computational methods for immune response biomarker development in tissue and blood is a plus.
• Knowledge of commercial and open-source databases and proficiency in utilizing data from public resources such as TCGA, ICGC, COSMIC, HGMD, ClinVar etc. as part of data analysis or method development highly preferred.
• Experience in R, Python, Unix shell scripting or similar, with ability to understand and modify existing code as well as develop new scripts.
• Team oriented with excellent written and verbal communication skills.
• Ability to work in a fast-paced, dynamic, and results-oriented startup environment.

• Personal computer
• NGS platforms
• TCGA, ICGC, COSMIC, HGMD, ClinVar databases