Lead Biotech Software Engineer

SE4BIO - Software Engineering for Biotech; Remote; USD 100,000 - 130,000; Full time

Job summary

A biotechnology software firm is seeking a Lead Biotech Software Engineer to drive client-facing projects and take charge of system architecture and development. This full-time remote position requires strong bioinformatics expertise and the ability to manage legacy systems. The ideal candidate will engage directly with stakeholders, ensuring project progress while maintaining high code quality. Join a mission-driven team dedicated to improving life sciences and healthcare through impactful software solutions.

Qualifications

• Expertise in bioinformatics, computational biology, or related areas is required.
• Experience with analytical pipelines and real-world biological data is essential.
• Experience in a consulting or product-focused biotechnology environment is highly valued.

Responsibilities

• Work directly with clients and stakeholders in a remote setting.
• Understand existing systems and make improvements.
• Design and develop production systems with focus on scalability and reliability.
• Collaborate with engineers, data scientists, and biologists.
• Take full ownership of projects, managing challenges along the way.
• Maintain high code quality through testing and documentation.

Skills

Strong communication skills

Bioinformatics expertise

Health informatics knowledge

Experience with biological data

Proven experience in biotech

Initiative and drive

Ownership and accountability

Job description

SE4BIO - Software Engineering for Biotech

provides expert advice and custom software development for research organizations in the life sciences. We focus on production-grade software and automation tailored to our clients’ needs. Leveraging a long track record in software development combined with bioinformatics domain knowledge, our team has extensively contributed to open source projects in the domain such as cBioPortal and Gen3.

Role Description

This is a full-time remote role for a Lead Biotech Software Engineer . Lead in this role means taking initiative, driving projects forward, and working directly with clients. This is a senior, hands-on role with a strong industry and delivery focus.

You will take charge of architecture and development in client-facing projects, many of which involve pre-existing software, pipelines, and infrastructure. You will combine your domain expertise with solid software engineering practices to build, improve, and extend production systems.

This role requires advanced technical expertise in bioinformatics, health informatics and software development, comfort working with legacy code, unclear boundaries, systems that are not always well documented, strong self-management skills, and a proactive mindset. Prior industry experience in a consulting or product-focused biotech or life sciences environment is highly valued. Experience contributing to open source projects is a plus.

Key Responsibilities

• Work directly with clients and stakeholders in a remote setting, proactively finding time in busy schedules to gather requirements and unblock progress.
• Understand existing systems, pipelines, and data flows, and make pragmatic improvements rather than idealized redesigns.
• Design and develop from scratch, but also make changes and extensions to production systems with a focus on performance, scalability, and reliability.
• Collaborate with software engineers, data scientists, and computational biologists across time zones and availability constraints.
• Take full ownership of projects and drive them forward, successfully identifying and managing challenges like incomplete information, dependencies, and timeline expectations.
• Maintain high code quality through testing, code reviews, documentation, and clear and maintainable changes to existing codebases.

What We Are Looking For

• Strong communication skills , especially in remote work, and the ability to extract requirements and decisions from busy stakeholders.
• Bioinformatics expertise in computational biology, omics, or related areas, with experience working with real-world biological data and existing analytical pipelines.
• AND/OR health Informatics knowledge , particularly concerning patient data, including familiarity with OMOP CDM, EHR systems and standards such as FHIR.
• Proven experience in industry, with a record of delivering successful projects in biotech, life sciences, healthcare, or related domains.
• Initiative and drive to take responsibility , follow up, and push work forward without close supervision.
• Ownership and accountability , including comfort working with legacy systems and seeing improvements through to completion.

Why SE4BIO

Join a mission-driven company at the intersection of software engineering and biotechnology, working to advance life sciences and healthcare. You will be part of a small, early-stage remote team with high ownership and direct influence over technical decisions and delivery. The work is impactful, focused on improving real systems used in real biotech environments.