NOTE that prior experience in bioinformatics or biology is NOT required for any of the positions below. You must be interested in learning though! If you'd like to get a sense of what you'd be learning, check out the guide we wrote to teach software engineers about genomics here: https://learngenomics.dev.
Seems like it's a good filter for people interested enough to create an account.
Overall, it's a buyer's market now. So they can maybe afford to miss out on someone who would've been a good mutual match, but who wasn't interested enough at first glance to create a (yet another, probably awful) job application account.
NOTE that prior experience in bioinformatics or biology is NOT required for any of the positions below. You must be interested in learning though! If you'd like to get a sense of what you'd be learning, check out the guide we wrote to teach software engineers about genomics here: https://learngenomics.dev.
Of course! For us, it’s important to understand that we already have many, _many_ people that know biology. So what we’re really targeting is the engineering chops.
Again, anyone interested to see if they like it/could learn it, I encourage you to check our learngenomics.dev
> A reasonable estimate of the current salary range is $125,840 - $238,160 per year for the role of Senior Staff / Principal Software Engineer, Rust Genomics.
The market for principal engineers with Rust experience has _really_ shifted it seems over the past 24 months. $125k was graduation salary rates a few years ago, not someone 10-20 years in.
Though we are a non-profit research institute, I don’t want that to be an excuse here: I’m looking to hire the very best software engineers to build a new foundation for all of genomics. That’s not a small task, and I certainly don’t want folks to feel like their careers are hindered by working on such an important and hard problem. As I outlined above, I think we are hitting that mark on being competitive at face value today. I do appreciate the sentiment though! Postdocs are vastly underappreciated, and we do work right alongside many.
Another very important note: it’s definitely not a support role. This is a role where our team owns the intellectual contribution of what needs building and how it’s built. Just wanted to make sure that’s clear!
Some people would like it just for the contribution they are making, and the salary is far from shitty. The top of the range would triple my own anyhow.
One thing I didn’t mention in the above post is that this is _technically_ a posting for the level below Principal AND Principal. Thus, you’re seeing the very lowest salary for the position below Principal and then the highest salary for Principal as the range.
Furthermore, the way that St. Jude does ranges is a bit strange anyways (to me at least), as the ranges listed are very wide bands that apply to all positions at St. Jude.
All that being said, I would argue we’re quite competitive on salary. If it’s a concern for you but you’re interested in applying, just apply and flag to me you’d like to discuss it early on in the process.
I had the pleasure of working adjacent to the St. Jude team while at CHOP, and I can vouch for the passion and professionalism of this team. This would be a great team to contribute to.
Are you looking specifically for developers that are seasoned in Rust? I like the potential for impact in this role, and I think I would meet the requirements for the Senior position (Master's degree + almost 6 years in tech now across software engineering, ML engineering and research positions), but my focus is Python and (to a lesser extent) C++. Wouldn't mind learning a new language for a job of course, but I would understand if you want developers who already did projects in the language for a while.
Probably not for this level of position, though you are welcome to apply if you meet the requirements! Additionally, we do have other positions that have to do with software engineering and bioinformatics that don't require Rust. I'd just check out "software engineer" at stjude.org/careers.
We actually have an entire Immigration team dedicated to this area, and they’re awesome. Anyone who wishes to speak with that team is given a chance to during the interview process to learn more.
St. Jude Children's Research Hospital | Principal Software Engineer, Rust Genomics Infrastructure | Memphis, TN | ONSITE or REMOTE | https://www.stjude.cloud/
The St. Jude Cloud (https://stjude.cloud) project is hiring Rust software engineers to rebuild the genomics ecosystem in Rust. We work on the forefront of computational genomics by applying advanced computational techniques to analyzing genomics data then sharing that data with the world. Come work with the individuals that wrote the Rust-based bioinformatics library, noodles (https://github.com/zaeleus/noodles), as well as many other projects (https://github.com/stjude-rust-labs).
NOTE that prior experience in bioinformatics or biology is NOT required for any of the positions below. You must be interested in learning though! If you'd like to get a sense of what you'd be learning, check out the guide we wrote to teach software engineers about genomics here: https://learngenomics.dev.
St. Jude Children's Research Hospital | Principal/Senior Staff/Staff Software Engineer, Rust Genomics Infrastructure | Memphis, TN | ONSITE or REMOTE | https://www.stjude.cloud/
The St. Jude Cloud (https://stjude.cloud) project is hiring Rust software engineers to rebuild the genomics ecosystem in Rust. We work on the forefront of computational genomics by applying advanced computational techniques to analyzing genomics data then sharing that data with the world. Come work with the individuals that wrote the Rust-based bioinformatics library, noodles (https://github.com/zaeleus/noodles), as well as many other projects (https://github.com/stjude-rust-labs).
NOTE that prior experience in bioinformatics or biology is NOT required for any of the positions below. We're just looking for amazing engineers, but rest assured, we teach biology/genomics/bioinformatics from scratch routinely. You must be interested in learning though! If you'd like to get a sense of what you'd be learning, check out the guide we wrote to teach software engineers about genomics here: https://learngenomics.dev.
St. Jude Children's Research Hospital | Staff Software Engineer, Rust Genomics Infrastructure | Memphis, TN | ONSITE or REMOTE | https://www.stjude.cloud/
The St. Jude Cloud (https://stjude.cloud) project is hiring Rust software engineers to rebuild the genomics ecosystem in Rust. We work on the forefront of computational genomics by applying advanced computational techniques to analyzing genomics data then sharing that data with the world. Come work with the individuals that wrote the Rust-based bioinformatics library, noodles (https://github.com/zaeleus/noodles), as well as many other projects (https://github.com/stjude-rust-labs).
NOTE that prior experience in bioinformatics or biology is NOT required for any of the positions below. We're just looking for amazing engineers, but rest assured, we teach biology/genomics/bioinformatics from scratch routinely. You must be interested in learning though! If you'd like to get a sense of what you'd be learning, check out the guide we wrote to teach software engineers about genomics here: https://learngenomics.dev.
If you have questions, you can reach out to me (the project lead) with questions at Clay.McLeod AT stjude DOT org.
Yeah I think this is fair enough after reading it back. However, that was not exactly my intention here, and I think this is a case of me needing to be more careful in my wording.
When I said that software engineers add in the speed and reliability, I didn't mean they _only_ add in the speed and reliability: just that these two tenants of good software engineering where accounted for in this "correct" way of doing things (as opposed to the state of most genomics software that I described above).
However, I can see how my phrasing can give the wrong impression about the contributions an engineer makes when the biologist and engineer sit down to do create the real thing together. In a positive environment, both sides (biologists and software engineers) share enough information with one another that the either can make contributions to the scientific/software engineering domain.
software engineer provides/developes the appropriate level of abstraction for the non-software engineer to make use of.
Which if there's no standard for field, and working outside of a given field, makes writing grant(s) without paring up with someone who can develop field standards to be included in grant necessary. Hard to find/compete for scarce applicants using limited resources.
aka startups vs. big company funding for pure research lab (bell labs, xero parc, etc)
> That said: a lot of the comments are spot on. You're working in a field where the hard scientists and business people rule and you're a helper
This definitely was the culture when I started working in the field 6 years ago. However, the culture has shifted (at least where I work) to where biologists and engineers are equal partners that work together on solving these problems. For those organizations that are not this way, I think they’re going to have to change if they want to innovate.
Agreed. Huge change over the last 10-15 years. My first job in the space had a view that obviously a mere software developer wouldn't be paid more than even a postdoc scientist. And as postdocs weren't paid all that well, you see where this is going.
These days more biotech companies are computationally/software focused. They understand that to pull in strong talent they're not operating in the same academic science world.
That may be the case for engineers with PhDs and scientific credentials, but I'm not so sure that is true of normal developers who did not play the academic game. I'm not going to take a job based on the eventuality of a culture shift, and I don't think you should either.
This isn't just genomics, by the way. Scientific computing folks are very similar.
That's always been my impression, but it does sound like "software eats the world" has had some effect. At least in some places.
Looking at it from their point of view: CS people tend to think that "everything is just information, and now that we're here you're all going to be working for us."
You can see why a PhD in mol bio would resent that. Everything is not just information.
St. Jude Children's Research Hospital is hiring Rust software engineers to rebuild the genomics ecosystem in Rust. We work at the intersection of computer science and genomics, and we're trying to build a better foundation upon which genomics can be done using Rust. Come work with the individuals that wrote the Rust-based bioinformatics library, noodles (https://github.com/zaeleus/noodles), sprocket (https://github.com/stjude-rust-labs/wdl and https://github.com/stjude-rust-labs/sprocket), as well as many other projects (https://github.com/stjude-rust-labs).
NOTE that prior experience in bioinformatics or biology is NOT required for any of the positions below. You must be interested in learning though! If you'd like to get a sense of what you'd be learning, check out the guide we wrote to teach software engineers about genomics here: https://learngenomics.dev.
* Principal Software Engineer: https://talent.stjude.org/careers/jobs/JR4161?lang=en-us
With any questions, email me at clay.mcleod@stjude.org. Please do not email me your application directly—be sure to submit it through the job portal.