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, PhD, 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.

So, if this role excites you, don't let our role description hold you back, get applying!

🔍 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.