Director, Research Informatics

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

Benefits offered by this job

401k

Healthcare coverage

ESPP

Job summary

Denali Therapeutics is seeking a Director of Research Informatics to lead our scientific data platforms, including Benchling and Dotmatics, and to guide AI tool integrations across Discovery and IT. This hands‑on leadership role demands defining the informatics roadmap, building a high‑caliber engineering team, and partnering with stakeholders to ensure scalable, compliant data solutions.

You will own platform strategy, oversee platform migrations, and articulate risks to senior leadership while

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in a technical field; advanced degree preferred.
• 10+ years building and delivering software solutions; 7+ years in pharma/biotech/life sciences.
• 8+ years of people management experience; building engineering teams.
• Hands-on with scientific data platforms (Benchling, Dotmatics) and ELN migrations.
• Experience partnering with enterprise IT on security, licensing, and infra; AI/ML workflows familiarity.

Responsibilities

• Owns strategy, roadmap, and delivery of Research Informatics platforms.
• Leads and grows a team responsible for platform support and improvements.
• Partners with scientists to translate requirements into scalable platform solutions.
• Subject matter expert on ELN capabilities and data workflows.
• Communicates platform strategy and risk to senior stakeholders.
• Hones hands-on platform build work alongside strategic oversight.
• Manages vendor relationships, migrations, and contract performance.
• Explores AI-driven experiment capture concepts while preserving compliant records.
• Prioritizes backlog balancing input from science, engineering, IT.
• Leads annual goal setting, growth planning, and training compliance.

Skills

Leadership

Strategy development

Stakeholder communication

Team management

Education

Bachelor's degree in technical field

Advanced degree preferred

Tools

Benchling

Dotmatics

ELN

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 Responsibilities

• Owns 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/Skills

• Typically 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/careers

This 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.

"Life at Denali" is a living reflection of our values: trust, unity, grit and growth. These are not just words we share—they shape how we show up, collaborate and push boundaries together. From the lab to the community, across functions and milestones, our culture thrives on shared purpose and relentless pursuit.