Lead, Bioinformatics Platform

Position summary

Platform and service leadership

• Coordinate bioinformatics, software development, and computational infrastructure activities; plan projects and allocate resources across services, infrastructure, software, and R&D.
• Ensure effective day-to-day bioinformatics and data analysis services and provide expert guidance on complex research projects.
• Plan capabilities across genomics, metagenomics, microbiome analysis, spatial omics, sequencing, structural biology, multi-omics, and AI-enabled biological data analysis.
• Monitor developments in bioinformatics, computational biology, AI, and software engineering and identify relevant technologies and practices.

Software and infrastructure

• Lead development of scalable bioinformatics workflows, analytical pipelines, software tools, and computational services.
• Oversee web-based bioinformatics services, databases, and computational resources; develop a software and computational asset management strategy.
• Coordinate with KAUST IT and the Supercomputing Core Lab on computational resources.
• Contribute to FAIR data management and oversee SOPs, workflows, and user and technical documentation.

Partnerships and quality

• Build relationships with faculty, researchers, Core Labs, IT, research platforms, and external partners.
• Develop collaborations, externally funded projects, and consultancy opportunities.
• Establish quality control, quality assurance, validation, reproducibility, and documentation practices.
• Contribute to training, workshops, publications, grant proposals, and new methodologies, software tools, and AI-driven methods.

Finance and people leadership

• Lead financial planning and budget management; identify cost optimization, external funding, and service revenue opportunities.
• Recruit, mentor, coach, and develop staff and foster a collaborative, inclusive, positive work environment.

Qualifications and experience

• PhD in bioinformatics, computational biology, computer science, data science, software engineering, or a related field is required.
• At least 5–8 years of relevant experience in bioinformatics, computational biology, scientific software development, data science, or a closely related field.
• Demonstrated multidisciplinary technical or scientific team leadership and experience developing workflows, software tools, computational infrastructure, or data analysis services.
• Experience with large, complex biological datasets and modern sequencing technologies; substantial HPC and Linux experience is essential.
• Experience in financial planning, budget management, and resource allocation.
• Experience working with researchers and stakeholders from diverse scientific and technical backgrounds and in an international, multicultural environment is essential.
• Research, core facility, or research platform experience is preferred; a record of publications, software, tools, or technical impact is preferred.

Competencies

• Extensive expertise in bioinformatics, computational biology, data science, and/or scientific software development.
• Strong knowledge of genomics and sequencing technologies; multi-omics, spatial omics, metagenomics, microbiome analysis, structural biology, or AI/ML experience is advantageous.
• Strong programming and computational skills in Python, R, C/C++, or Java, with strong Linux and command-line proficiency.
• Leadership, independent decision-making, problem-solving, project management, organization, communication, ownership, accountability, and reliability.