Lead Site Reliability Engineer, Production Bioinformatics

Job Summary:

As the Lead Site Reliability Engineer for our Production Bioinformatics group, you will play a critical role in ensuring the stability, scalability, and performance of our production bioinformatics applications and infrastructure. You will lead a team of SREs in managing the reliability and operational excellence of our production bioinformatics systems, which support cutting-edge research and clinical applications. Your role will also encompass release management and production support responsibilities, ensuring smooth deployments and ongoing operational stability.

Key Responsibilities:

• Team Leadership & Management:

  • Lead and mentor a team of SREs, fostering a culture of collaboration, innovation, and continuous improvement.

  • Define clear goals and performance metrics for the team, and oversee the execution of their responsibilities.

  • Conduct regular one-on-ones, provide constructive feedback, and facilitate professional development opportunities for team members.

• Site Reliability Engineering:

  • Implement and manage monitoring, alerting, and incident response processes to ensure the reliability and uptime of bioinformatics systems.

  • Drive the resolution of operational issues, perform root cause analysis, and implement preventive measures to mitigate recurrence.

• Release Management:

  • Manage the end-to-end release process for bioinformatics applications, including planning, coordination, and deployment.

  • Collaborate with development teams to ensure timely and successful releases, minimizing disruptions and ensuring alignment with release schedules.

  • Develop and enforce best practices for release management, including version control, release notes, and rollback procedures.

• Production Support:

  • Provide ongoing support for production systems, including handling incidents, performing routine maintenance, and addressing user-reported issues.

  • Implement and manage procedures for system health checks, backups, and disaster recovery.

  • Ensure that production environments are monitored, and that any issues are promptly identified and resolved.

• Collaboration & Coordination:

  • Work closely with bioinformatics scientists, data engineers, and software developers to understand their needs and optimize system performance.

  • Collaborate with other engineering and IT teams to integrate bioinformatics applications with broader enterprise operational tracking systems and tools.

  • Participate in cross-functional projects to enhance overall system architecture and deployment strategies.

• Operational Excellence:

  • Develop and enforce best practices for deployment, configuration management, and system maintenance.

  • Lead efforts in capacity planning, performance tuning, and infrastructure scaling to accommodate evolving research demands.

  • Maintain documentation and standard operating procedures for all SRE-related activities.

• Innovation & Improvement:

  • Stay abreast of emerging technologies and trends in site reliability engineering and bioinformatics.

  • Evaluate and recommend new tools, technologies, and processes to enhance system reliability and operational efficiency.

Qualifications:

• Education & Experience:

  • Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Bioinformatics, Engineering, or a related field; advanced degree preferred.

  • Minimum of 5 years of experience in site reliability engineering, systems engineering, or a related role, with at least 2 years in a leadership or managerial capacity.

  • Experience working with bioinformatics applications or in a production environment related to research or clinical data analysis is highly desirable.

• Technical Skills:

  • Strong understanding of SRE principles and best practices, including monitoring, incident management, release management, and performance optimization.

  • Proficiency with cloud platforms (e.g., AWS, Azure, GCP) and container orchestration tools (e.g., Docker, Kubernetes).