Senior / Lead Geneticist

About Sano

At Sano, we’re accelerating the future of precision medicine by connecting patients, healthcare providers, and life sciences companies through a platform designed to improve access to research and clinical trials.

Our mission is to ensure that everyone can benefit from advances in genomic medicine, regardless of where they live or the condition they have.

At Sano, we’re accelerating the future of precision medicine by connecting patients, healthcare providers, and life sciences companies through a platform designed to improve access to research and clinical trials.

Our mission is to ensure that everyone can benefit from advances in genomic medicine, regardless of where they live or the condition they have.

We work with leading pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies worldwide to identify, engage, and support participants for precision medicine programmes, leveraging genetics, technology, and patient‑centric design to transform clinical research.

Curious to dive deeper?

Read more about what we do here.

Brief into to the role, who they are reporting to,...

• Headlines
• Role - Senior / Lead Geneticist
• Location - UK (remote only)

Role Summary

This role combines bioinformatics, statistical genetics, and clinical genetics to support the delivery of genetic testing programmes from study design through to participant results.

The successful candidate will process and quality control genomic data, provide strategic guidance on genetic testing approaches and study feasibility, contribute to bioinformatics pipeline development, and perform advanced statistical and population-genetics analyses where required.

They will act as a genetics subject matter expert for internal teams, sponsors, and laboratory partners, ensuring that Sano’s genetic analyses, testing strategies, and participant reports are scientifically robust, clinically appropriate, and commercially aligned.

• Core Responsibilities
• Genetic Data Processing, Bioinformatics & Return of Results
• Performing participant genetic data analysis across active delivery projects in conjunction with other members of the bioinformatics team, including writing and executing Bash, R, Python, and Nextflow scripts to process genotyping array, WES, WGS, Sanger, repeat expansion, and other genetic data types.
• This work requires a strong understanding of what expected genetic outputs should and should not look like, alongside the genetics knowledge and computational expertise necessary to identify, investigate, and debug issues within bioinformatics pipelines and analysis code where required.
• Working familiarity with standard genomics file formats and tooling (e. g. FASTQ, BAM/CRAM, VCF, PLINK, BED/GTF).
• Quality controlling all incoming genetic data against predefined metrics, running data through QC pipelines, and investigating quality failures or unexpected results.
• Contributing to research-use-only (RUO) pipeline development in conjunction with the bioinformatics team, requiring working familiarity with the languages above alongside Docker and AWS.
• Reviewing generated participant reports prior to release to verify clinical accuracy and output quality, including awareness of the clinical use and downstream reporting of genetic results.
• Genetic Strategy for Genetic Testing
• Genetic Strategy for Genetic Testing

Provide input into Sano’s genetic testing strategy and support the team on feasibility and cohorting work. This includes:

• Understanding and identifying which genetic testing approaches are most appropriate for different disease areas, based on the underlying genetics, clinical context, and study objectives.
• Awareness of jurisdiction‑specific regulatory requirements (e. g. GDPR implications for genetic data.
• Sourcing and evaluating new laboratory and logistics vendors, and identifying new genetic tests available across geographies to expand Sano’s service offering.
• Attending client and vendor calls when genetics expertise is required to progress a deal or resolve a technical question.
• Reviewing SOWs and other commercial documentation where genetic scope, methodology, or laboratory requirements are implicated.
• Extracting cohorting numbers from Sano’s participant database by querying genetic variant data or phenotypic criteria to support feasibility assessments and proposals.
• Advising on population sizing, stratification criteria, and the genetic‑strategy elements of proposals, surfacing statistical risks, assumptions, and dependencies early.
• Population & Statistical Genetics

Deliver advanced statistical and population-genetics analyses on large‑scale participant data, if needed.

Interpreting and communicating genetics results and concepts to internal stakeholders, sponsors, and non‑specialist audiences.

Understand Sano’s population-genetics capability, including GWAS and polygenic risk score (PRS) pipeline development, and be able to advise on their design, use, and interpretation.

Act as the team’s expert on statistical study design and methodology for genetic analyses, including advising on power calculations, sample‑size estimation, and cohort definition, and guiding correct application of statistical concepts.

Essential Experience

• An MSc, Ph D, or equivalent experience in genetics, ideally statistical genetics, population genetics, genetic epidemiology, or a related quantitative discipline.
• Proficiency in R and Python (and Bash) for genetic‑data processing and analysis, with familiarity with standard genomics formats and population‑genetics tooling (e. g.

VCF, PLINK).

• Ability to process genotyping‑array, WES, and WGS data and to query large datasets for cohorting and feasibility work.
• Solid command of applied statistics: power and sample‑size calculations, multiple‑testing correction (Bonferroni, FDR), regression modelling, PCA, Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium, and allele‑frequency analyses.
• Sufficient awareness of clinical genetics and return of results to ensure analyses are clinically and commercially fit for purpose.
• Excellent attention to detail and the ability to produce auditable methodology documentation and sponsor‑ready reports.
• Nice to Have
• Experience delivering sponsor-or client‑facing statistical analyses in pharma, biotech, or clinical research.
• Experience with Nextflow, Docker, AWS, and reproducible, version‑controlled workflows, and a publication or conference‑presentation record.
• Experience reviewing clinical trial protocols, patient‑and client‑facing material and providing structured clinical genetics input aligned with sponsor eligibility requirements and Sano’s testing capabilities.
• Familiarity with navigating regulatory requirements when developing genetic testing strategies, ensuring eligibility criteria and testing workflows are compliant for geography‑specific sites.
• Hands‑on experience performing and interpreting GWAS, developing and validating PRS, and running ancestry stratification / population‑structure correction.
• Knowledge of clinical genetics.

Research shows that some people are less likely to apply for a role unless they are 100% qualified.

Your experience, skills and passion will set you apart so tell us about your achievements, irrespective of whether they are personal or work‑related, tell us about your journey, and about what you learnt.

• Hiring Process
• Initial screening with Head of Clinical Genetics
• Take home task
• Stakeholder Interview
• Interview with SVP Product and Delivery
• Support

If you have a medical condition or an individual need for an adjustment to our process, and you believe this may affect your ability to be at your best – please let us know so we can talk about how we can best support you and make any adjustments that may be needed.

All interviews at Sano take place virtually.

Please let us know if we can help make a virtual interview run smoother for you.

Please note

We can only accept applications from those eligible to live and work in the UK or in the USA (for specific roles). We are unable to sponsor visas for this position.

Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Belonging

At Sano, we’re committed to creating an environment that promotes diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging.

We are a global community and we believe our unique qualities should be celebrated as they are critical to our innovation.

It's essential to us that you bring your authentic self to work every single day, no matter your age, ethnicity, religion, citizenship, gender identity, sexual orientation, disability status, caring responsibilities, neurodiversity, or otherwise.

Inclusion isn’t just an initiative at Sano.

We strive to embed it not just into our values but throughout our entire culture.

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