Principal Bioninformatics Scientist (NGS Oncology)

Location: Hybrid, based in San Diego or South San Francisco, California, United States

Salary: $184,000–$210,000 USD per year. San Diego range: $184,000–$204,000; South San Francisco range: $190,000–$210,000.

Company

hirify.global is a diagnostics company developing genomic and clinical insights to support cancer diagnosis and treatment decisions.

What you will do

• Lead bioinformatics strategy for minimal residual disease assay design, development, optimization, and lifecycle management under CAP/CLIA quality systems.
• Own study design, data analysis, performance characterization, and technical decision-making from assay concept through analytical validation and launch.
• Design and execute studies assessing accuracy, limit of detection, reproducibility, and longitudinal MRD tracking.
• Develop, validate, and maintain production-ready pipelines for quality control, variant calling, MRD calling logic, and reporting.
• Benchmark computational methods, including background error modeling and error suppression approaches.
• Partner with molecular biology, assay development, quality, regulatory, clinical, software, infrastructure, and engineering teams on deployment, submissions, and audits.

Requirements

• Ph.D. in Bioinformatics, Computational Biology, Genomics, Biostatistics, or a related quantitative field.
• At least 8 years of relevant experience, including 5 years in biotech, diagnostics, or regulated healthcare environments.
• Experience leading NGS-based clinical diagnostic assay development, including ctDNA-based MRD assays.
• Strong Python programming skills and experience building reproducible, production-grade analysis pipelines using software development lifecycle best practices.
• Experience with design-controlled regulated environments such as CAP/CLIA LDT or IVD, and with developing novel bioinformatics methodologies and algorithms.
• Demonstrated technical leadership, independent ownership, collaboration with wet-lab scientists, and communication with technical and non-technical stakeholders.

Nice to have

• Management experience of 1–2 years.
• Experience deploying bioinformatics workflows in AWS, including EC2, S3, Step Functions, Batch, or Lambda.
• Understanding of germline and somatic mutation processes and genome-wide biomarkers.
• Working knowledge of R and relational or non-relational databases.

Culture & Benefits

• Purpose-driven work focused on improving cancer care and providing clinicians with actionable diagnostic insights.
• Competitive compensation and benefits, with potential discretionary bonuses, incentives, and restricted stock units.
• Inclusive workplace supporting diverse backgrounds and collaborative scientific and technical work.
• Opportunities for professional growth within a growing diagnostics company.
• Work performed in a hybrid arrangement tied to the San Diego or South San Francisco office.