Director, Research Informatics

Denali-Therapeutics; South San Francisco (CA); On-site; USD 204,000 - 265,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

401k

Healthcare coverage

ESPP

Broad range of benefits

Job summary

Denali Therapeutics seeks a Director of Research Informatics to lead the strategy and execution of our scientific data platforms, including Benchling and Dotmatics, and to drive AI integration across experiments. You will build and mentor a high-caliber engineering team while partnering with Discovery, IT, and Operations.

Responsibilities include setting roadmaps, prioritizing work, and ensuring compliant, attributable records. Strong collaboration and hands-on platform work are required.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in a technical field; advanced degree preferred.
• 10+ years building and delivering software solutions in pharma/biotech.
• 8+ years of people management experience, including building engineering teams.

Responsibilities

• Owns strategy, roadmap, and delivery of Research Informatics platforms and AI integration.
• Leads platform support, configuration, validation, and continuous improvement.
• Partners with scientists and IT to translate requirements into scalable solutions.
• Communicates platform strategy and risk to senior stakeholders clearly.
• Drives vendor relationships and platform migrations; hands-on configuration work.

Skills

Leadership

Stakeholder communication

ELN/data workflows understanding

Education

Bachelor's degree in technical field

Advanced degree preferred

Tools

Benchling

Dotmatics

AI integration

Job description

Neurodegenerative diseases are one of the largest medical challenges of our time. Denali Therapeutics is a biotechnology company dedicated to developing breakthrough therapies for neurodegenerative diseases through our deep commitment to degeneration biology and principles of translational medicine. Denali is founded on the collaboration of leading scientists, industry experts, and investors who share the vision that scientific discovery energetically applied to translational medicine is the key to delivering effective therapies to patients.We invite you to consider an opportunity with Denali to help achieve our goal of delivering meaningful therapeutics to patients.Research Informatics is responsible for the scientific data platforms and internal software that underpin the full research and development pipeline at Denali Therapeutics. This function owns the strategy, implementation, and ongoing support of the digital tools that enable scientists to register molecular entities and to track, analyze, and document associated experimental data across the full lifecycle, from early discovery through translational and development handoffs. These tools include Denali's Electronic Laboratory Notebook (ELN), the internal experiment data management platforms that underpin our scientific documentation, and the AI capabilities that unlock the full value of our data.The Director of Research Informatics will lead this function, serving as the strategic and operational owner of our scientific data platforms, including Benchling, Dotmatics, and our internal software and AI tool integration. This individual will define the informatics roadmap, drive stakeholder alignment behind it, and build a high-caliber engineering team, while serving as a trusted technical partner to Discovery, enterprise IT, and other operational leadership. This is a hands-on leadership role: the Director will set technical direction and make software architecture and design-space decisions, not simply manage from a distance.Key Accountabilities / Core Job ResponsibilitiesOwns the strategy, roadmap, and operational delivery of Research Informatics, including Benchling, Dotmatics, internal software systems, and AI integration.Leads and grows a team responsible for platform support, configuration, validation, and continuous improvement across Discovery, Development, and Technical Operations.Partners with scientists and lab operations leads to translate business and scientific requirements into scalable, well-engineered platform solutions.Serves as subject matter expert on ELN capabilities and experiment data workflows, advising on platform selection and integration strategy.Communicates platform strategy, status, and risk clearly to senior stakeholders, from group leaders to senior management.Engages hands-on in configuration and platform build work, alongside strategic oversight.Drives vendor relationships and manages platform migrations, escalations, and contract performance.Explores and integrates next-generation, AI-driven experiment capture concepts, including passive documentation architectures that reduce manual interface dependency while preserving compliant, attributable records.Owns roadmap prioritization and backlog decisions, balancing input from scientific, engineering, and IT stakeholders.Leads direct report(s) through annual goal setting, growth planning, adherence to company policies, maintains training compliance, and provides ongoing feedback on growth, development, and areas of improvement.Qualifications/SkillsTypically requires a Bachelor's degree in a technical field (computer science, data science, engineering, or related); advanced degree preferred.Typically requires 10+ years building and delivering software solutions, including 7+ years in pharma, biotech, or life sciences supporting laboratory informatics or scientific platforms.Typically requires 8+ years of people management experience, including building and growing engineering teams.Hands-on expertise with scientific data platforms (e.g., Benchling, Dotmatics) and experience leading ELN/registry migrations preferred.Experience partnering with enterprise IT on security, licensing, and infrastructure, and familiarity applying AI/ML workflows to biological or chemical data, preferred.Salary Range: $204,000.00 to $265,000.00 . Compensation for the role will depend on a number of factors, including a candidate’s qualifications, skills, competencies, and experience. Denali offers a competitive total rewards package, which includes a 401k, healthcare coverage, ESPP and a broad range of other benefits. Learn more at https://www.denalitherapeutics.com/careersThis compensation and benefits information is based on Denali’s good faith estimate as of the date of publication and may be modified in the future.Denali is committed to its core company value of unity by creating a diverse and inclusive environment. We are proud to be an equal opportunity employer and do not discriminate against any employee or applicant for employment because of race, color, sex, age, national origin, religion, sexual orientation, gender identity and/or expression, status as a veteran, basis of disability, or any other federal, state, or local protected class.