Bioinformatics Engineer

At Wild Bio we are radically enhancing crops to feed the world sustainably and promote a wilder planet. Wild plants have had half a billion years to evolve natural solutions for thriving in almost every environment on Earth. Our proprietary genetics platform harnesses these wild innovations to enhance the world’s most important crops. Wild-enhanced crops can simultaneously boost farm yields and promote gigaton-scale carbon mitigation strategies. If you’re eager to join a high-growth start-up with enormous potential for impact on growers, consumers, and the planet, please read on. 

Wild Bio is a well-funded, fast-paced Oxford University spin-out working from state-of-the-art labs and offices at Milton Park, Oxfordshire. We are an early-stage start-up about to enter an exciting phase of growth and are looking for a versatile and motivated Bioinformatics Engineer to help build and support the running of pipelines that power our science.  
You'll join our Trait Design Team and be part of a small but growing, high-impact bioinformatics function supporting fast-moving R&D across the company. To begin with, you'll take ownership of some of our key next-generation sequencing (NGS) pipelines, relied on by teams across the business. Building on what we already have, you'll add features, resolve outstanding issues, and develop new pipelines as needs arise, keeping them robust, efficient, and easy for scientists to use. 
Working alongside experienced bioinformaticians, you'll partner closely with the scientists who rely on these pipelines. As we scale, you’ll play a key role in shaping how our bioinformatics grows with the company, taking on bigger technical challenges as we do – for example, containerising our pipelines and deploying them in the cloud. 
 
Our Values

Our work is guided by three core values that define who we are and how we approach our mission: 

• Curiosity: We fuel our desire to explore the unknown, pushing the boundaries of knowledge and sparking innovation. We ask questions, seek answers, and embrace lifelong learning.
• Community: We believe in the strength and support gained through collaboration and inclusion. As part of a global community, we nurture connections to drive meaningful impact for both people and planet.
• Courage: We face challenges head-on, take calculated risks, and stand up for our beliefs. Our bravery propels us to take action, even in the face of adversity.

 
If these values resonate with you, we invite you to join our team of passionate scientists and innovators working at the cutting edge of bioscience. 
Location

We’re headquartered in Milton Park, a business and technology park in Oxfordshire. While we embrace flexible and hybrid working, we are also a small, fast-paced team working on cutting-edge science, and we believe that the collaborative energy, rapid iteration, and strong team bonds forged through in-person interaction are crucial for our early-stage success and innovation. Therefore, we ask applicants to be able to work on-site at least three days a week to maximise our collective impact. 
 
The successful candidate will be required to provide proof of eligibility to work in the UK or indicate if sponsorship is required. 
Job Requirements

• BSc/MSc in bioinformatics, computational biology, genomics, computer science, or a related field.
• Proven experience building and maintaining bioinformatic pipelines, with proficiency in using pipeline orchestration tools (Nextflow/Seqera or Snakemake).
• Fluency in Python and comfort working in a Linux/Unix environment.
• Proficiency with Git and GitHub.
• Hands-on experience with NGS data and common bioinformatic formats and tools (e.g. FASTQ, BAM/SAM, VCF; samtools, bcftools).
• A good appreciation of wet-lab workflows and how they shape downstream analysis.
• Excellent communication skills and a real ability to partner with wet-lab scientists, translating easily between the bench and the pipeline.
• A genuine enthusiasm for learning and getting stuck in to new problems, and for sharing what you learn to help those around you grow.

 
The following would be an advantage, though we don't expect every candidate to have them all: 

• Strong software engineering practices; writing tested, maintainable, well-documented code, and using code review and CI/CD.
• Experience integrating pipelines with relational databases (e.g. SQL).
• Experience optimising pipelines for very large datasets and for parallel or cloud-based execution (e.g. AWS).
• Experience building and deploying containerised pipelines e.g. Docker.
• Experience making pipelines accessible to non-command-line users, for example through automation or workflow platforms.
• Experience working in plant science, or with data from non-model species.

Job responsibilities
As part of our Trait Design Team, you’ll be the driving force behind the pipelines that turn experimental data into results. 
You will: 

• Take ownership of the build, maintenance, and continuous improvement of our NGS pipelines, working closely with cross-functional teams, especially our Genotyping team.
• Provide responsive, hands-on support to the teams running these pipelines - triaging and fixing bugs, delivering new features, and developing new pipelines as their needs evolve.
• Optimise pipelines to run reliably and efficiently on very large data sets, including parallel execution on cloud infrastructure.
• Help move our pipelines towards greater automation, so they can be run robustly without needing to use the command line.
• Work side by side with wet-lab scientists to understand their workflows, co-design sensible analyses, and make outputs easy to use and interpret.
• Champion good software engineering practice across the team; testing, documentation, and code quality - so our pipelines stay dependable as we grow.

Benefits

• Training and development opportunities
• Opportunity to work withcutting edgescience
• Regular company socials
• Team meals including breakfast on a Monday and lunch each Friday, creating opportunities for informal networking and team bonding
• Flexible working opportunities
• Group life cover x 3 of base salary
• Pension
• Private medical insurance
• Complimentary refreshments throughout the week