Senior Manager, Computational Biology

Karius is a venture-backed life science startup focused on transforming the way infectious diseases are diagnosed. Combining Next-Generation Sequencing and proprietary data analysis, we can identify over 1,000 pathogens from a single blood sample with typical turnaround time in one business day. By unlocking the information present in microbial cell-free DNA, we're helping doctors quickly solve their most challenging cases, with a future vision of accelerating clinical trials, discovering new microbes, and reducing patient suffering worldwide.

Position Summary

Karius is looking for a computational biology leader with an eye for innovation to join our diverse, talented, collaborative, brave, respectful, trusting, and humble team to continuously discover and evolve with us, delivering at startup pace, and healthcare quality. The ideal candidate will have mastered their craft yet are still eager to learn and grow, and are highly curious and creative, efficient and effective.

Why Should You Join Us?

Karius aims to conquer infectious diseases through innovations around genomic sequencing and machine learning. The company's platform is already delivering unprecedented insights into the microbial landscape, providing clinicians with a comprehensive test capable of identifying more than a thousand pathogens directly from blood, and helping industry accelerate the development of therapeutic solutions. The Karius test we provide today is one of the most advanced solutions available to physicians who aim to deliver better care to many otherwise ineffectively treated patients. Our test is the result of some incredible work done by our scientists, statisticians, engineers, and physicians, all driven by the same mission. You, as part of the Karius team, will be able to see how directly your work has a life-changing impact on people, and at scale.

Reports to: CTO

Location: Redwood City, CA

Primary Responsibilities

• Lead the analytical core, focusing on computational method development, from formulating strategy, to roadmapping, execution, and delivery.

• Provide deep technical guidance on the mathematical, domain, technology and software aspects.

• Continue to build up the computational biology organization as a high-throughput, top-quality, collaborative group.

• Be the guardian of quality for our computational inference methods.

• Work closely with the product, engineering, medical, and scientific teams, to set our company's goals, and partner in the development of our next products.

What's Fun About the Job?

Karius is operating at the edge of what is now known to be possible in infectious disease diagnostics. With that, comes a wave of new and incredible challenges and opportunities. To deliver on that value, you will be tapping into some of the most advanced technologies, architecting and innovating where the current solutions simply don't suffice. You will get to see how much your work really matters.

Physical Requirements

Subject to extended periods of sitting and/or standing, vision to monitor and moderate noise levels.

Position Requirements

• PhD in computer science, statistics, physics, or related fields, preferably with a focus on computational biology. Post-doc experience in computational biology, statistics, or related fields, preferred.

• 6+ years of biotech experience, or equivalent.

• 3+ years leading a research-oriented teams, with a track record of building up world-class method development teams.

• Development and publications of innovative mathematical models used in the investigation and interpretation of biological data.

• Experience with, and understanding of, modern statistics and machine learning.

• Proficiency in working with large-scale datasets.

• Experience in developing production-quality systems, preferred Familiarity and experience with bioinformatics tools, approaches and workflows, particularly those related to next-generation sequencing data analysis, preferred.

• Familiarity with a range of relevant laboratory techniques (either through hands-on work or from collaborations with laboratory-focused colleagues), preferred.

Personal Qualifications

• Ability to tackle complex problems, successfully navigating the high-uncertainty environment that is scientific research.

• Excellence at communication and collaboration within a cross-functional team; ability to summarize data and present information to stakeholders.

• Self-starting mentality and ability to drive results.

• Displays a high level of commitment and professionalism and is passionate about being at the cutting edge of science and technology.

• Exemplary project management skills with the ability to build schedules and mitigate against timeline delays.

At Karius, we value a diverse and inclusive workplace and provide equal employment opportunity for all applicants and employees and are committed to honor and invest in the full diversity of people, in our hiring, recruiting and development of employees across the Company. All qualified applicants for employment are encouraged to apply and will be considered without regard to an individual's race, color, sex, gender identity and gender expression (including transgender individuals who are transitioning, have transitioned, or are perceived to be transitioning to the gender with which they identify), religion, age, national origin or ancestry, citizenship, physical or mental disability, medical condition, family care status, marital status, domestic partner status, sexual orientation, genetic information, military or veteran status, or any other basis protected by federal, state or local laws. If you are unable to submit your application due to a disability, please contact us at recruiting@kariusdx.com and we will accommodate qualified individuals with disabilities.