Staff Bioinformatics Scientist

Caris MPI, Inc.; Tempe (AZ); On-site; USD 140,000 - 210,000; Full time

Job summary

Caris Life Sciences in Tempe, AZ seeks a Staff Bioinformatics Scientist to lead a team delivering NGS bioinformatics pipelines in clinical workflows.

You will supervise development, validation, and support, collaborate with cross-functional teams, and ensure compliant, scalable solutions for research and clinical operations.

PhD required with 5–8 years of experience in bioinformatics, cloud computing, and analytics. Strong collaboration and communication skills are essential.

Qualifications

• PhD in a related field such as Bioinformatics or Genomics.
• 5–8 years hands-on bioinformatics experience with NGS pipeline development, validation, or production operations.
• 2–4 years people leadership experience.
• Experience managing projects and coordinating cross-functional stakeholders.
• Strong programming and scripting skills in Python, Bash, SQL, or R.
• Experience with AWS or other cloud platforms supporting genomic data processing and storage.
• Strong communication, collaboration, organizational, and problem-solving skills.
• Proficiency in Microsoft Office Suite.

Responsibilities

• Lead, coach, mentor, and develop a team of bioinformatics scientists, including hiring support, onboarding, performance management, career development, and workload prioritization.
• Manage day-to-day bioinformatics operations and ensure timely delivery of high-quality analytical solutions across development, validation, and production activities.
• Establish project plans, priorities, timelines, and resource allocations for team initiatives and cross-functional programs.
• Oversee development, optimization, validation, and maintenance of NGS bioinformatics pipelines and workflows.
• Support end-to-end genomic data analysis, including quality control, alignment, variant calling, annotation, filtering, interpretation support, and reporting workflows.
• Lead analytical development and validation activities for NGS assays, including performance assessment, reproducibility studies, concordance analysis, quality metrics, and documentation.
• Drive implementation of scalable, automated, and reproducible computational workflows using software development and bioinformatics best practices.
• Collaborate with software engineering and IT teams to support cloud-based infrastructure, workflow execution, data storage, monitoring, and system performance.
• Ensure bioinformatics processes comply with applicable quality, regulatory, documentation, privacy, and security requirements.
• Partner with laboratory scientists, molecular pathologists, clinical teams, statisticians, and researchers to translate scientific and clinical requirements into analytical solutions.
• Monitor project progress, identify risks and dependencies, communicate status updates, and facilitate resolution of technical and operational challenges.
• Investigate and resolve complex pipeline, assay, and data quality issues while supporting production operations as needed.
• Serve as a technical subject matter expert for bioinformatics workflows, genomic analyses, and assay validation efforts.
• Stay current on emerging technologies, tools, methodologies, and industry best practices in genomics and bioinformatics.

Skills

Bioinformatics

Project management

Leadership

Communication

Genomics data interpretation

Quality metrics

Team mentoring

Education

PhD in Bioinformatics/related field

Tools

Python

Bash

SQL

R

AWS

Job description

Position Summary

The Staff Bioinformatics Scientist leads a team of bioinformatics scientists responsible for the development, validation, implementation, and support of next-generation sequencing (NGS) bioinformatics pipelines and analytical workflows within a clinical or translational genomics environment. This role combines technical expertise, project leadership, and people management to ensure delivery of reliable, scalable, and compliant bioinformatics solutions supporting research, assay development, validation activities, and clinical operations. This role partners closely with laboratory, clinical, software engineering, IT, quality, and scientific stakeholders to advance genomic testing capabilities and operational excellence.

Job Responsibilities

• - Lead, coach, mentor, and develop a team of bioinformatics scientists, including hiring support, onboarding, performance management, career development, and workload prioritization.
• - Manage day-to-day bioinformatics operations and ensure timely delivery of high-quality analytical solutions across development, validation, and production activities.
• - Establish project plans, priorities, timelines, and resource allocations for team initiatives and cross-functional programs.
• - Oversee development, optimization, validation, and maintenance of NGS bioinformatics pipelines and workflows.
• - Support end-to-end genomic data analysis, including quality control, alignment, variant calling, annotation, filtering, interpretation support, and reporting workflows.
• - Lead analytical development and validation activities for NGS assays, including performance assessment, reproducibility studies, concordance analysis, quality metrics, and documentation.
• - Drive implementation of scalable, automated, and reproducible computational workflows using software development and bioinformatics best practices.
• - Collaborate with software engineering and IT teams to support cloud-based infrastructure, workflow execution, data storage, monitoring, and system performance.
• - Ensure bioinformatics processes comply with applicable quality, regulatory, documentation, privacy, and security requirements.
• - Partner with laboratory scientists, molecular pathologists, clinical teams, statisticians, and researchers to translate scientific and clinical requirements into analytical solutions.
• - Monitor project progress, identify risks and dependencies, communicate status updates, and facilitate resolution of technical and operational challenges.
• - Investigate and resolve complex pipeline, assay, and data quality issues while supporting production operations as needed.
• - Serve as a technical subject matter expert for bioinformatics workflows, genomic analyses, and assay validation efforts.
• - Stay current on emerging technologies, tools, methodologies, and industry best practices in genomics and bioinformatics.

Required Qualifications

• - PhD degree with experience in Bioinformatics, Computational Biology, Biostatistics, Computer Science, Genomics, Molecular Biology, or a related field.
• - Minimum of 5 to 8 years of hands-on bioinformatics experience supporting NGS pipeline development, validation, or production operations.
• - Minimum of 2 to 4 years of people leadership experience.
• - Demonstrated experience managing projects and coordinating cross-functional stakeholders.
• - Strong knowledge of NGS data analysis methods, quality metrics, bioinformatics workflows, and genomic data interpretation.
• - Strong programming and scripting skills using Python, Bash, SQL, R, or equivalent tools.
• - Experience with AWS or other cloud computing platforms supporting genomic data processing and storage.
• - Strong communication, collaboration, organizational, and problem-solving skills.
• - Proficiency in Microsoft Office Suite.

Preferred Qualifications

• - Experience supporting both research and clinical bioinformatics environments.
• - Experience with liquid biopsy, MRD, cancer early detection, ctDNA analysis, or related applications.
• - Experience with multi-omic data integration and advanced genomic analyses.
• - Experience working in CLIA, CAP, NYSDOH, FDA, ISO, or comparable regulated environments.
• - Experience preparing validation reports, technical documentation, regulatory support materials, or scientific publications.

Physical Demands

• - Must be able to sit, stand, and work at a computer for extended periods.

Training

• - All required training will be assigned based on job responsibilities.

Other

• - May require occasional travel, after-hours support, and participation in on-call activities.

Conditions of Employment

Individual must successfully complete pre-employment process, which includes criminal background check, drug screening, credit check ( applicable for certain positions ) and reference verification.

Caris Life Sciences is an equal opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, religion, color, national origin, gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, age, status as a protected veteran, among other things, or status as a qualified individual with disability.