Position Overview

This position works out of our La Jolla, CA location in the Abbott Cancer Diagnostics division.

The Staff Bioinformatics Scientist will lead the development and application of machine learning, statistical modeling, and bioinformatics for next-generation sequencing-based products. This individual will serve as a senior technical leader within Research and Development, working cross-functionally with bioinformatics, assay development, data engineering, software development, quality and product development teams.

The ideal candidate has deep experience analyzing large and complex biological datasets in an industry setting and has demonstrated successful development, validation and deployment of algorithms, statistical and machine learning models using principled and reproducible methodology.

This is a senior individual contributor role requiring strong scientific and technical leadership, and the ability to translate complex genomic data into insights and products.

Essential Duties

Include, but are not limited to, the following:

• Lead the development, evaluation and optimization of machine learning and statistical models for high-dimensional NGS and genomics datasets.
• Design and implement bioinformatics algorithms to support NGS assay development, analytical performance evaluation, quality control, signal detection, classification, or interpretation.
• Collaborate with wet-lab scientists to design experiments, interpret results, identify technical issues, and recommend next steps.
• Apply rigorous statistical and computational methods to evaluate assay performance, reproducibility, robustness, sensitivity, specificity, and sources of technical or biological variation.
• Develop reproducible analysis workflows using modern bioinformatics, data science, and software engineering practices.
• Work within cloud computing environments to process, analyze, and manage large-scale sequencing datasets.
• Present and summarize complex technical findings effectively to cross-functional audiences.
• Serve as subject matter expert for NGS bioinformatics, machine learning and statistical analysis.
• Identify opportunities and build out proof of concept implementations for new state-of-the-art methodology across machine learning, bioinformatics and software engineering
• Provide guidance and mentorship to junior team members.
• Support development activities within a quality-managed or regulated environment.
• Uphold company mission and values through accountability, innovation, integrity, quality, and teamwork.
• Support and comply with the company’s Quality Management System policies and procedures.
• Maintain regular and reliable attendance.
• Ability to act with an inclusion mindset and model these behaviors for the organization.
• Ability to work on a mobile device, tablet, or in front of a computer screen and/or perform typing for approximately 90% of a typical working day.
• Ability to work on a computer and phone simultaneously.
• Ability to travel 10% of working time away from work location, may include overnight/weekend travel.

Minimum Qualifications

• Ph.D. in bioinformatics, computational biology, computer science, mathematics, or related field; or Master’s degree in bioinformatics, computational biology, computer science, mathematics, or related field plus 4 years of experience in lieu of a Ph.D.; or Bachelor’s degree in bioinformatics, computational biology, computer science, mathematics, or related field plus 6 years of experience in lieu of Ph.D.
• 8+ years of industry or academia experience in bioinformatics.
• 6+ years of experience in medical device/IVD, biotech, life science or pharmaceutical industry.
• Demonstrated experience in developing statistical and quantitative methods.
• Deep knowledge and thorough understanding of molecular biology and/or biochemistry and/or next-generation sequencing (NGS) and genomics.
• Demonstrated expertise in product/assay research, design, or development.
• Basic computer skills to include Internet navigation, Email usage, and word processing. Proficient in Microsoft Office to include Excel, Word, and PowerPoint.
• Demonstrated ability to perform the Essential Duties of the position with or without accommodation.

Preferred Qualifications

• 10+ years of experience in medical device/IVD, biotech, life science or pharmaceutical industry.
• Deep expertise in NGS bioinformatics and genomic data analysis.
• Practical experience effectively leveraging AI in regulated environments
• Experience with modern cloud-based MLOps systems
• Experience developing and applying advanced linear and non-linear statistical learning methods on complex datasets, including but not limited to supervised and unsupervised machine learning techniques.
• Familiarity with applying deep learning to high dimensional data.
• Previous experience as a project lead for a team of scientists.
• 2+ years of direct people leadership and management experience.
• Experience in a pharmaceutical or biotech manufacturing environment, preferably in a GMP and/or ISO environment.
• Previous industry experience in product development or technical support.
• Previous experience working in molecular diagnostic

The base pay for this position is

In specific locations, the pay range may vary from the range posted.