Head of Informatics

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Job description

About the role

The Head of Informatics is a senior role accountable for providing leadership and setting strategy across technical domains that include our research computing infrastructure, partnership with IT, our company-wide initiatives on data management and data ontology, and automation scaleup including communication of strategy to senior executives. This role will lead the design, implementation, and operations of our research & process development data architecture, AWS strategy for informatics infrastructure and research data management, and automation. This role will guide our software engineering efforts, emphasizing best practices in testing and deployment; our data capture and processing projects, emphasizing data provenance and lineages from Research through Process Development; and our evolving data science efforts, managing interdependencies between various groups. This role will be responsible for leading company-wide initiatives on data management, data governance and data ontology, ensuring consistency across the organization and enabling efficient research and accurate regulatory filings. The ability to influence within and across functions and work in a highly collaborative, fast-paced environment will be critical for Sana to successfully leverage data for gene and cell therapies today and in the future.

What you'll do

• Accountable for leading a Sana-wide data ontology working group, developing a framework for Sana's data ontology policy, and overseeing deployment of policy documents and build out of ontology capabilities across informatics systems
• Continue to evolve our research computing, data management and architecture roadmap as the business scales including gap assessment, risk mitigation, and prioritization of projects and investments
• Educate the company in data literacy and encourage efforts to collect, manage, and use internal and external data to drive operational efficiency and better decision-making
• Lead the Informatics Infrastructure, Computational Engineering, and Automation teams to define requirements for off-the-shelf systems or development of internal customized systems and deploy high quality solutions that ensure stakeholder groups have access to data and analytics they need to achieve scientific and clinical outcomes
• Define clear responsibilities and lines of communication between Informatics Infrastructure, Computational Engineering, and Automation teams
• Guide research computing, including:
  • designing, deploying and maintaining cloud infrastructure
  • specifying, selecting, and implementing LIMS in the support of research
• Partner with the corporate IT team, ensuring smooth connections with corporate infrastructure, consistent policies and good security practices
• Own the connectivity of research and process development data to GXP systems to ensure consistent definition and capture of data into the data lake and advanced analytics platforms
• Support an engineering culture that balances best practices for developing, testing and deploying systems with the timely delivery of results in support of company objectives
• Steer the development of automated lab systems, enabling scalable generation and capture of data and its interdependencies
• Ensure the development of a robust and reliable infrastructure for computational biology and data science; including standardizing foundational data, providing an efficient computing platform, and enabling reproducible results

What we're looking for

• PhD in a scientific or technical discipline with 12+ yrs experience in industry. BA/BS or MS with 15+ yrs experience in industry; expert knowledge of technical principles and concepts with a focus on data strategy
• 5+ years of successfully building and managing larger teams (> 10 FTEs including Directors & above) in research computing, engineering and/or automation in a biotech setting
• Strong familiarity with laboratory automation, integration, and scaleup
• Strong understanding of software development practices and comfort acting as a product owner
• Demonstrated experience partnering with Research functions, running steering team meetings, developing training plans, and driving user adoption
• Experience in business analysis, processing mapping, strategic road mapping, and digital transformation
• Experience owning the development and ongoing operations of infrastructure that supports multiple research and development streams
• Experience managing the development and maintenance of a cloud-based computing infrastructure that supports the collection of research data, bespoke and standardized analyses of that data, and systems that allow researchers to visualize the results
• Exceptional verbal and written communication skills with past experience presenting strategic roadmaps to senior executive leadership, and negotiation skills
• Ability to work, influence, and gain consensus across multiple functions (R&D, PD, Manufacturing, Regulatory, Quality, and Clinical)
• Must be highly organized and have the ability to manage multiple initiatives with many stakeholders
• Proven track-record to collaborate effectively in a cross-functional matrix environment and lead through influence across functional and organizational lines
• Strong analytical, problem solving, critical thinking and decision-making skills
• Proven track-record adapting to increasing scope and complexity of work brought on by growth/change and managing through change and ambiguity
• Ability to engage in crucial conversations - providing and receiving feedback

What will separate you from the crowd

• Experience with designing, deploying, and maintaining data management systems and automated end-to-end workflows from research through IND filings preferably in the gene or cell therapy space
• Owning (i.e. accountable) and leading infrastructure strategy for data management/storage/capture for a mid-size company
• Direct experience with evolving and deploying research data infrastructure to support growth of a smaller startup to a mid-size company with > 400 users
• Prior experience in successfully implementing, utilizing and leveraging outsourcing external consultant management strategies
• Demonstrated understanding of the software development lifecycle
• Strong understanding of research processes (e.g. molecular biology, cell engineering, in vitro/in vivo studies, pathology, AAV/lentiviral generation, sample management)

What you should know

• Working safely on a predictable and regular basis is an essential job function for this position and the Company requires that all individuals, subject to certain exceptions, be fully vaccinated against COVID-19

How we work together

• Lead from every seat - we seek to understand, act with honesty, and engage in the crucial conversations
• Thrive as a team - we hire amazing people, are intensely curious, and cultivate inclusion and personal connectivity
• Make it happen - we value vigorous debate, alignment around our decisions, and resilient execution

Get to know us

At Sana, we believe that a diverse workforce strengthens us as a company and helps us to achieve our mission to meaningfully change the outcome of many human diseases. This belief is a pillar of our business and is critical to our success. Our goal is that Sana is the place for talented people to bring their authentic selves to work, to have a great career and to deeply, positively impact patients.

Core to our values, we believe there is nothing more important than the health and wellness of you and your family. For benefit eligible employees, we cover 100% of the cost for employee health coverage and offer generous time-off, parental leave, short- and long-term disability, financial wellness programs, a 401(k) Plan, Employee Stock Purchase Plan, commuter subsidy and a variety of wellness offerings to support each person individually.

We are committed to providing a workplace free of discrimination and harassment based on race, color, religion, age, gender, national origin, ancestry, physical or mental or sensory disability (including the use of a trained guide dog or service animal by a person with a disability), genetic information, actual or perceived HIV or Hepatitis C infection, medical condition (cancer or a record or history of cancer and genetic characteristics), marital status, sexual orientation, sexual preference, pregnancy (including childbirth and related medical conditions), disability, veteran status, political ideology, taking or requesting statutorily protected leave, status as a victim of domestic violence, sexual assault or stalking, or any other basis prohibited by applicable law.

To perform this job successfully, you must be able to perform each job responsibility satisfactorily. The job description listed above is representative of the knowledge, skills, and/or abilities required for this position. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the functions described above.