Bioinformatics Engineer

Bioinformatics Engineer | Oxfordshire (Hybrid) AI-Driven Crop Science Startup | Oxford | Up to £60,000 + Benefits We are partnering with a well-funded Oxford University spin-out that is using genomics, AI and gene editing to radically enhance the world's most important crops. Wild plants have had half a billion years to evolve ways of thriving in almost every environment on Earth, and this company harnesses those natural innovations to boost farm yields and unlock gigaton-scale carbon mitigation. Genuinely impactful science, with a mission that matters. The company is fast-paced, working from state-of-the-art labs, and about to enter an exciting phase of growth. As the science scales, they are building out their bioinformatics function and hiring a Bioinformatics Engineer to own and harden the pipelines the whole R&D effort runs on. The Opportunity: You will join the Trait Design team as part of a small but growing, high-impact bioinformatics function. To begin with you will take ownership of some of the company's key next-generation sequencing (NGS) pipelines, relied on by teams across the business.This is firmly an engineering role. You will build, maintain and improve the pipelines that turn experimental data into results, not hand analysis off to someone else. As the team scales, you will help shape how bioinformatics grows with the company and take on bigger technical challenges as you do. What You Will Be Doing: Taking ownership of the build, maintenance and continuous improvement of the NGS pipelines, adding features, resolving issues, and developing new pipelines as needs arise.Optimising pipelines to run reliably and efficiently on very large, complex genomic datasets, including parallel execution on cloud infrastructure.Driving pipelines toward greater automation so scientists can run them robustly without touching the command line.Working side by side with wet-lab scientists to understand their workflows, co-design sensible analyses, and make outputs easy to use.Championing good software engineering practice, testing, documentation and code quality, so the pipelines stay dependable as the company grows. You will work alongside two experienced bioinformaticians and a CSO who is a recognised leader in the field. What They Are Looking For: Proven experience building and maintaining bioinformatics pipelines using orchestration tools (Nextflow/Seqera or Snakemake), with fluency in Python and comfort in a Linux/Unix environment.Hands-on experience with NGS data and common formats and tools (FASTQ, BAM/SAM, VCF; samtools, bcftools), proficiency with Git and GitHub, and a good appreciation of how wet-lab workflows shape downstream analysis.A BSc/MSc in bioinformatics, computational biology, genomics, computer science or a related field. A PhD counts toward experience, and strong recent graduates are welcome.Nice to have: strong software engineering practices (tested code, CI/CD), SQL, cloud (AWS), Docker, and experience with plant science or data from non-model species. Useful Backgrounds: This could suit someone from a genomics or sequencing company, an academic research software engineer or recent PhD/postdoc, or anyone who has built NGS pipelines on non-model organisms and wants to move into fast-paced, mission-driven R&D.What matters most is that you are a builder, someone who enjoys making robust, reusable pipelines that other people rely on, rather than a pure analyst. Why This Role Is Interesting: The mission is real: feeding the world more sustainably while pulling carbon out of the atmosphere, using cutting-edge genomics and AI.You will get genuine ownership of core infrastructure, mentorship from an excellent small team, room to shape how bioinformatics scales, and the chance to do work with visible, real-world impact. Package: Salary: up to £60,000 depending on experienceEquity: share options availableBenefits: private medical insurance, group life cover (3x base salary), pension, flexible working, training and development, regular team socials and mealsLocation: Milton Park, Oxfordshire, hybrid with a minimum of 3 days on-site (some flexibility)Visa sponsorship: available for the right candidateStart: as soon as possible If you are a bioinformatics engineer who wants to own the pipelines behind genuinely ambitious crop science, please apply or get in touch for a confidential conversation.