Senior Bioinformatics Engineer
About The Position
Illumina is hiring a Senior Bioinformatics Software Engineer to expand and maintain the software platform used to validate DRAGEN, its secondary analysis engine for clinical and research genomics. The platform orchestrates thousands of automated tests across HPC clusters, AWS, and local DRAGEN nodes, and provides tooling for more than 30 engineering teams. The role leads verification work in cross-functional teams, drives complex technical initiatives end-to-end, and helps shape testing practices for clinical-grade genomics at scale. The position involves leading end-to-end verification for complex data analysis software; partnering with engineering, bioinformatics, pipeline, and scientific stakeholders to translate requirements into traceable automated workflows; and designing scalable platform capabilities such as plugin frameworks, workflow orchestration, CI/CD, and observability. The engineer leads through code and design reviews, promotes maintainable architecture and engineering standards, and improves documentation, reproducibility, automation, and developer productivity. The role has broad scope across approximately 30 repositories, hundreds of test suites, and dozens of engineers. Its verification work gates releases used in hospitals and labs worldwide. The posting describes a potential growth path to Staff Engineer, depending on the employee’s interests. The role is hybrid and is not eligible for visa sponsorship.
Requirements
- Typically requires at least 5 years of related experience with a Bachelor’s degree; or 3 years with a Master’s degree; or a PhD without experience; or equivalent work experience.
- Significant Python experience, including Django or REST APIs, pytest, and modern tooling.
- Hands-on experience with CI/CD, Git/GitHub, Docker, and Linux/Unix environments.
- Strong software architecture and system design skills, with the ability to own technical direction across teams.
Nice To Haves
- Deep experience in NGS or secondary analysis, such as variant calling, methylation, or alignment, and understanding of oncology, molecular biology, bioinformatics, or related biology.
- Familiarity with DRAGEN or comparable secondary analysis platforms.
- Experience running workloads on HPC clusters and AWS.
- Experience with workflow orchestration beyond CI/CD, such as Airflow or Nextflow.
- Hands-on use of AI coding agents, IDE harnesses, or LLM tool integrations, including MCP, to ship features, automate engineering workflows, or build internal tooling.
- Experience using AI for code review, test design, refactoring, or documentation, with examples of delivered projects or workflows.
- Open-source contributions in bioinformatics or developer tools.
Responsibilities
- Lead end-to-end verification for complex data analysis software in multidisciplinary teams.
- Partner with engineering, bioinformatics, pipeline, and scientific stakeholders to turn requirements into traceable, automated verification workflows.
- Design and build scalable platform capabilities, including plugin frameworks, workflow orchestration, CI/CD, and observability.
- Lead through code and design review; champion maintainable architecture and engineering standards.
- Improve documentation, reproducibility, automation, and developer productivity.
Benefits
- Variable cash program (bonus or commission) eligibility for all employees.
- Equity for eligible roles.
- Access to genomics sequencing.
- Family planning benefits.
- Health insurance.
- Dental insurance.
- Vision insurance.
- Retirement benefits.
- Paid time off.
- Employee Resource Groups offering career development experiences, cultural awareness, and social responsibility opportunities.
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What This Job Offers
Job Type
Full-time
Career Level
Senior
