Director, Computational Biology

Director, Computational Biology
Computational science is a fundamental component of RAPT Therapeutic's approach to developing novel treatments for oncology and inflammatory diseases. We are seeking a talented scientist to lead our vibrant Computational Biology team. The job demands knowledge in oncology and/or immunology as well as cutting-edge tools and techniques in computational biology and bioinformatics.
RAPT makes extensive use of big data, especially proprietary and public RNA-Seq and single cell RNA-Seq data, at all stages of the drug discovery pipeline, from target ID to clinical biomarker analysis. As Director of the Computational Biology group, you will be a member of the Research & Development Leadership team, helping to provide strategic guidance to preclinical and translational programs from a CB perspective, providing direction to the CB team, and performing hands-on work to further our corporate goals. A deep knowledge of HTS technologies and methods, machine learning, statistical theory, programming, and biological assay best practices is essential for this role.
Duties And Responsibilities

• Provide strong mentorship, strategic leadership and technical expertise in computational biology.


• Lead a team of (approx. 3) scientists responsible for applying computational biology and statistics to impact decision making and program progression.


• Lead the development and deployment of computational methods and workflows for the analysis of various sources of low- and high- throughput data including NGS.


• Apply or develop new tools or data-mining techniques for integrative analysis and visualization of large data sets.


• Influence the development of R&D strategies to enable rapid progression of novel small molecule therapeutics toward and through the clinic.


• Ensure proper documentation of code, workflows, reports, and analyses of computational biology team.


• Provide transparency and regular communication on complex research to colleagues at all levels and across disciplines.


• Influence scientists and engineers cross-functionally to design studies that are appropriately powered and properly controlled to meet experimental and business objectives.

Basic Qualifications

• PhD in Computational Biology, Bioinformatics, Statistics, Computer Science with 10+ years of experience in biotech/pharma industry.


• 3+ years of experience managing a team of Scientists.


• Strong grounding in biology or medicine with strong statistical and quantitative data analysis skills and experience.


• Experience in developing bioinformatics workflows for NGS-based data and assays.


• Proven ability to develop or apply new tools for the integrative analysis and visualization of multi-dimensional datasets.


• Familiarity with the major public sources of transcriptomic and genomic data, and how to access and efficiently work with them.


• Great technical and scientific background with strong leadership and management experience (must be a good technical/scientific, cultural and people leader).


• Excellent verbal, written, analytical, and presentation communication skills; adept at communicating a clear vision and motivating teams to achieve goals.


• Inspirational thought leader who can motivate, act with sense of urgency, and create excitement around the application of computational biology to drug discovery.


• A proven computational biologist or bioinformatician with industry experience in discovery research or translational medicine (preferably in small molecule discovery and development).

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience in data analysis using cloud computing infrastructure.


• Experience partnering with vendors/strategic partners to ensure quality deliverables in a cost-effective manner


• Experience with developing clinical patient strategies and biomarker collection plans


• Strong scientific background and publication record with proven high levels of performance.