Associate Director of Bioinformatics

About the role

Tempus' proprietary platform connects an entire ecosystem of real-world evidence to deliver real-time, actionable insights to physicians, providing critical information about the right treatments for the right patients, at the right time.

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.
• 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.

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.

Preferred Experience

• 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).

Qualifications

• Background in cancer genomics, molecular biology, or immunology.

Skills

• Python engineering skills
• Next-generation sequencing data
• Clinical or research genomics pipelines
• Technical design and code review
• Communication skills
• Workflow orchestration frameworks
• Google Cloud Platform
• GxP, CLIA, or other regulated clinical settings
• SQL and relational data systems
• FDA regulatory processes
• TypeScript/React or other frontend tooling

Benefits

Tempus offers a full range of benefits, which may include incentive compensation, restricted stock units, medical and other benefits depending on the position.

Pay

$150,000-$220,000

Schedule

The expected salary range above is applicable if the role is performed from Illinois and may vary for other locations (California, Colorado, New York). Actual salary may vary based on qualifications and experience.