What are the responsibilities and job description for the Bioinformatics, Field Applications Scientist (FAS) position at Pillar Biosciences?
We are seeking a passionate and collaborative Bioinformatics Field Application Scientist (FAS) to serve as the primary interface between Pillar’s bioinformatics team and external clinical, academic, and biopharma partners. In this customer-facing role, the FAS will be instrumental in ensuring successful adoption, integration, and ongoing support of Pillar’s NGS assays and bioinformatics solutions, including the PiVAT software.
This position bridges technical expertise in genomics and bioinformatics with excellent communication skills to support implementation, training, troubleshooting, and scientific collaboration.
Duties & Responsibilities:
- Serve as the bioinformatics subject matter expert during pre- and post-sales support to customers implementing Pillar’s NGS assays and PiVAT software.
- Deliver technical training, onboarding, and education to customers on library preparation workflow, variant calling workflows, assay interpretation, and regulatory compliance best practices.
- Collaborate cross-functionally with internal R&D, Product, Sales, and Customer Support teams to resolve complex bioinformatics and assay performance issues.
- Provide scientific guidance on data interpretation, especially for oncology biomarkers (SNVs, InDels, CNVs, fusions, methylation).
- Lead troubleshooting efforts for customer data analysis pipelines and variant interpretation reports, assisting with both standard and customized bioinformatics workflows.
- Participate in external presentations, webinars, workshops, and conferences to support scientific visibility and customer engagement.
- Collect customer feedback to guide product and pipeline improvement efforts.
- Maintain strong knowledge of public genomic databases, annotation tools, and current best practices in NGS-based clinical diagnostics.
- Travel up to 50-75% to conduct onsite customer trainings.
Education & Qualifications:
- B.S. in Bioinformatics, Computational Biology, Genomics, or a related field with a minimum of 5 years’ experience in a field application role.
- Deep understanding of NGS data analysis pipelines, including BWA, SAMtools, GATK, and variant annotation platforms.
- Experience with PCR-based sequencing assays and an understanding of assay design considerations.
- Strong working knowledge of oncology-related genomic biomarkers and applications in precision medicine.
- Familiarity with regulatory and CLIA/CAP requirements for bioinformatics pipelines in a clinical setting is a plus.
- Experience using or supporting PiVAT or other NGS clinical reporting platforms.
- Familiarity with molecular pathology workflows and LIS/LIMS integration.
- Programming or scripting ability (Python, R, Bash) to support custom analysis or troubleshoot pipeline outputs.
- Excellent customer-facing skills with the ability to translate complex technical content to diverse audiences.
- Proven problem-solving capabilities, especially in troubleshooting bioinformatics pipeline outputs.
- Ability to work independently, manage multiple priorities, and thrive in a fast-paced startup environment.
Pillar Biosciences aims to "Make precision medicine the first option for every patient" by developing and manufacturing targeted next-generation sequencing (NGS)-based assays and software for today’s high-throughput specialty NGS laboratories. We are seeking collaborative and independent problem solvers to support our mission.
Pillar Biosciences is an Equal Opportunity and Affirmative Action employer committed to a culturally diverse workforce. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race; religion; age; nationality; marital status; sexual orientation; disability or any other characteristic protected by law.