clmcleod

St. Jude Children's Research Hospital | Sr. Staff or Principal Software Engineer, Rust Genomics Infrastructure | Memphis, TN | ONSITE (2x/week onsite) or REMOTE | $125,840 - $238,160 | https://www.stjude.org/

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. The primary project we’re working on is a bioinformatics workflow execution engine for local, HPC, and Cloud called Sprocket (https://github.com/stjude-rust-labs/sprocket). You can also check out the other projects we have going on at 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.

* Sr. Staff or Principal Software Engineer: https://talent.stjude.org/careers/JobDetail/Senior-Staff-Pri...

With any questions, email me at [email protected]. Please do not email me your application directly—be sure to submit it through the job portal.

Thank you!

Thank you for the kind words!

St. Jude Children's Research Hospital | Sr. Staff or Principal Software Engineer, Rust Genomics Infrastructure | Memphis, TN | ONSITE (2x/week onsite) or REMOTE | $125,840 - $238,160 | https://www.stjude.org/

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. The primary project we’re working on is a bioinformatics workflow execution engine for local, HPC, and Cloud called Sprocket (https://github.com/stjude-rust-labs/sprocket). You can also check out the other projects we have going on at 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.

* Sr. Staff or Principal Software Engineer: https://talent.stjude.org/careers/JobDetail/Senior-Staff-Pri...

With any questions, email me at [email protected]. Please do not email me your application directly—be sure to submit it through the job portal.

Thanks for the shout out!

St. Jude Children's Research Hospital | Principal Software Engineer, Rust Genomics Infrastructure | Memphis, TN | ONSITE (2x/week onsite) or REMOTE | https://www.stjude.org/

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 [email protected]. Please do not email me your application directly—be sure to submit it through the job portal.

Oh, hey William! Great to hear from you on here, and thanks for the words of support.

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

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!

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.

It’s a good point.

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.

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.

St. Jude Children's Research Hospital | Principal Software Engineer, Rust Genomics Infrastructure | Memphis, TN | ONSITE or REMOTE | https://www.stjude.org/

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 [email protected].

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.

* Principal Software Engineer: https://talent.stjude.org/careers/jobs/JR1800?lang=en-us

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.

* Principal: https://talent.stjude.org/careers/jobs/JR1800?lang=en-us

* Senior Staff: https://talent.stjude.org/careers/jobs/JR1801?lang=en-us

* Staff: https://talent.stjude.org/careers/jobs/JR1564?lang=en-us

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.

https://talent.stjude.org/careers/jobs/JR1564?lang=en-us

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.

My fault! Not intentional, I’ll fix it when I can. Appreciate the report.

I think the honest answer is, it depends where you work. Where I work, we have that autonomy. But we also have leadership that understands and respects the software engineering craft.

Exactly my thoughts, and what I hope this post makes some consider.

> 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.

I agree. With that said, I do think we are getting there. The pay is becoming more comparable, and I think software engineers are becoming more and more valued in these companies/organizations.

I know there are at least a few, because positions on my team offer remote and don't require and previous genomics experience.

I think your phrase here sums up how many people feel:

> why would I choose to work at an organization that respects my craft so little they haven't bothered to maintain their software for a decade

This is changing in my experience, albeit slowly. And really, this is what I'm calling on us, as a community, to do better on.

The reason you _would_ work at these organizations is because (1) the subject-matter is really interesting, (2) there are hard problems to be solved, and (3) you wake up every morning knowing that you are working on something that will have an impact on the lives of people around the world.

At least those are my reasons :)