Associate Director of Bioinformatics

Tempus AI

About The Position

We are seeking an Associate Director of Bioinformatics, Diagnostics to lead and manage a team of bioinformatics software engineers building the clinical pipelines and tooling that power Tempus's diagnostics platform. This is a primarily management role at the intersection of science and engineering: You won't be writing production code day-to-day, but you'll be deeply engaged in technical design, architectural decisions, and code review. You'll report to the Senior Director of Diagnostics Technology and own the day-to-day operations of a team of 4-6 engineers. This means driving execution, unblocking your team, and serving as the primary technical and organizational point of contact across product, engineering, and scientific stakeholders. This is the right role for someone who has grown out of pure individual contribution and is ready to lead but who still gets energized by hard technical problems and wants to stay close to the work.

Requirements

5+ years of experience in bioinformatics software engineering or a closely related field, including at least 2 years in a team lead, tech lead, or people management capacity.
Strong Python engineering skills — not just scripting, but production-quality software development.
Experience with next-generation sequencing data and clinical or research genomics pipelines.
Demonstrated ability to lead technical design and provide meaningful code review, even when not the primary implementer.
Strong written and verbal communication skills; comfortable working across scientific and engineering audiences.

Nice To Haves

Experience with Nextflow or similar workflow orchestration frameworks.
Experience with Google Cloud Platform or other cloud environments.
Experience developing software in a GxP, CLIA, or other regulated clinical setting.
Familiarity with SQL and relational data systems.
Exposure to FDA regulatory processes or clinical diagnostics development.
Experience with TypeScript/React or other frontend tooling (a plus, not a requirement).
Background in cancer genomics, molecular biology, or immunology.

Responsibilities

Lead and manage a team of 4-6 bioinformatics software engineers, including workload planning, mentorship, and career development.
Run daily standups and own the team's sprint planning; write, refine, and prioritize tickets in close collaboration with product and scientific stakeholders.
Conduct regular 1:1s and performance conversations; foster a team culture of technical rigor, collaboration, and continuous improvement.
Lead software design and architecture discussions; author and review technical design documents.
Provide thorough and constructive PR reviews across the team's codebase.
Drive adoption of engineering best practices across the team, including workflow standards, testing, and documentation.
Serve as a technical escalation point; capable of contributing directly to code or design when the team needs it.
Act as the primary day-to-day liaison between the bioinformatics engineering team and product, software engineering, and clinical science partners.
Translate scientific requirements into actionable engineering work; translate engineering constraints back to scientific and product stakeholders clearly and proactively.
Represent the team in planning, roadmap, and prioritization discussions with leadership.
Oversee the design, development, and maintenance of bioinformatics pipelines operating in a clinical production environment.
Ensure high-quality, validated software through rigorous testing, QA processes, and documentation practices appropriate for a regulated clinical setting.