Director, NGS & Bioinformatics - Cell Therapy

AstraZeneca • Santa Monica, CA

1d • Onsite

About The Position

The Director of NGS & Bioinformatics for Cell Therapy will lead the strategy and development of next generation sequencing (NGS) and computational analytics to grow AstraZeneca's cell therapy portfolio. You will oversee a diverse team responsible for generating high quality clinical and preclinical NGS datasets, delivering bioinformatic insights that create program decisions, and building scalable infrastructure to support impactful, data driven science. You will bring deep technical expertise in NGS, computational biology, immunology, and complex multiomics analytics. This expertise includes machine learning and AI. You also have the strategic vision to integrate these capabilities into translational, clinical, and regulatory environments. You will report to the Global Head of CPSS Cell Therapy and may be based in Santa Monica, CA or Gaithersburg, MD.

Requirements

• PhD and 7+ years of industry experience in data science, genomics, bioinformatics, Cell Therapy, or related fields.
• Demonstrated expertise in Cell Therapy–related genomics, including immunologic and translational data applications.
• Expertise with single cell multiomics and integrative analysis.
• Deep technical knowledge of TCRT and CART immunogenomics, including repertoire profiling, clonotype tracking, vector integration, and immune activation/exhaustion signatures.
• Background in AI/ML model development or application for biological data.
• Experience with NGS assay design, data types, analytical frameworks, and high throughput multiomics approaches.
• Handson experience with NGS wet lab workflows and corresponding bioinformatics pipelines for single cell and immune-profiling datasets.
• Proficiency with cloud computing environments for scalable data processing.
• Knowledge of FAIR data principles, structured metadata, and harmonized genomic data ecosystems.
• Familiarity with IT and data engineering infrastructure, including workflow automation, containerization, compute scaling, and storage architectures.
• Experience leading a team responsible for NGS data generation and bioinformatics analysis driving cross functional insights and informing clinically decisions.

Responsibilities

• Provide strategic, scientific, and technical leadership for NGS, single cell, and immunogenomic data generation and analysis across clinical programs.
• Lead a team responsible for NGS data generation, bioanalytical workflows and bioinformatic interpretation driving insights with direct clinical impact.
• Oversee the design, and optimization of bioinformatics pipelines supporting single cell transcriptomics, and immunorepertoire sequencing at scale.
• Guide assay development teams on NGS assay design, sequencing strategy, data quality requirements and readiness.
• Integrate multiomics datasets to create insights into biomarkers related to safety, mechanism of action, mechanisms of resistance and therapeutic response, shaping program strategy and decision making.
• Lead development and application of AI/ML models to enhance prediction, feature extraction, and integrative multiomics analytics.
• Improve adoption of cloud based computational infrastructure to support high throughput and enterprise level NGS workflows.
• Establish and enforce FAIR aligned data standards, metadata frameworks, and harmonized data practices for genomics and immunogenomics.
• Partner with data engineering teams to ensure workflow orchestration, data management, compute scalability, and long-term data lifecycle planning.
• Communicate findings, scientific insights to scientific, clinical, and executive stakeholders.
• Contribute to internal strategy documents and regulatory support materials.

Benefits

• Our positions offer eligibility for various incentives—an opportunity to receive short-term incentive bonuses, equity-based awards for salaried roles and commissions for sales roles.
• Benefits offered include qualified retirement programs, paid time off (i.e., vacation, holiday, and leaves), as well as health, dental, and vision coverage in accordance with the terms of the applicable plans.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Director
• Education Level: Ph.D. or professional degree