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 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.