Senior Software Engineer I

We are seeking an experienced Senior Software Engineer I to join our engineering and science-focused organization. The Senior Software Developer I is responsible for designing, developing, architecting, implementing, deploying, and supporting complex software and bioinformatics solutions that support clinical, laboratory, research, digital pathology, and business operations.

This position provides technical leadership and ownership of complex systems and initiatives, working across bioinformatics, software engineering, clinical informatics, laboratory, pathology, data science, QA, research, IT, and business teams. The role is expected to independently evaluate technical and operational challenges, make sound technical decisions, and develop scalable, reliable, and maintainable solutions.

The Senior Software Developer I will contribute to and provide technical direction for bioinformatics pipelines, genomic data processing, data platforms, digital pathology applications, and large-scale image and data processing systems. The position will also support live production systems, lead investigation and resolution of complex production issues, and drive improvements in system reliability, performance, scalability, and operational efficiency.

The position requires a strong understanding of software engineering, bioinformatics, genetics, clinical laboratory operations, digital pathology, databases, data processing, infrastructure, and system architecture. The Senior Software Developer I is also expected to mentor other engineers, contribute to technical standards and architecture decisions, and communicate complex technical and scientific concepts effectively to both technical and non-technical stakeholders.

The Senior Software Developer I is expected to apply computer science and engineering principles beyond programming to solve complex technical, scientific, and operational problems and to help develop and deliver new diagnostic, laboratory, bioinformatics, and digital pathology capabilities.

Key Job Elements

• Lead the design, development, implementation, testing, deployment, maintenance, and support of complex software and bioinformatics solutions.
• Provide technical leadership for bioinformatics design, analysis, implementation, and support, including genomic data processing, variant analysis, and computational workflows.
• Design and provide technical direction for data management, databases, data pipelines, and data-processing architectures supporting large genomic, clinical, biological, and pathology datasets.
• Identify and drive process improvements, including automation, data delivery optimization, workflow improvements, and infrastructure enhancements for scalability, reliability, and performance.
• Design and develop analytics tools, reporting solutions, and data-processing solutions to support research, laboratory operations, system performance, and business needs.
• Design systems for reliability and fault tolerance, including failure-mode analysis, idempotent processing, retry and recovery strategies, and graceful degradation for clinical and laboratory workflows.
• Design systems with traceability and auditability built in, including data lineage, versioning of pipelines and software, and audit logging to support CLIA/CAP and other regulatory requirements.
• Plan and lead the evolution of existing systems, including migrations, refactoring, and modernization, with minimal disruption to production laboratory operations.
• Design and integrate APIs, services, workflows, and system interfaces across bioinformatics, laboratory, clinical, pathology, and enterprise systems.
• Lead the development and technical evolution of digital pathology applications and workflows, including whole-slide image processing, image management, visualization, and analysis.
• Design and optimize solutions for large digital pathology image datasets, including image conversion, compression, tiling, pyramidal image generation, storage, and web-based visualization.
• Identify recurring system and operational issues, analyze application, database, pipeline, storage, and infrastructure performance, and drive improvements to reliability, availability, performance, scalability, maintainability, and supportability.
• Lead or participate in production support and on-call activities, including the investigation, root-cause analysis, and resolution of complex or high-impact production incidents and coordination of technical recovery efforts.
• Provide technical guidance for system administration, configuration, maintenance, and troubleshooting across Linux, Windows, cloud, storage, networking, and related infrastructure.
• Lead or contribute to product design, planning, implementation, deployment, maintenance, and support, including the development of new diagnostic, laboratory, bioinformatics, and digital pathology capabilities.
• Translate technical, scientific, laboratory, clinical, and business requirements into scalable and maintainable technical solutions, evaluate hardware, software, database, storage, network, and infrastructure requirements, and conduct technical evaluations and feasibility assessments of new technologies and methodologies.
• Design, develop, and integrate AI and machine learning capabilities into bioinformatics, clinical, laboratory, and digital pathology workflows.
• Evaluate AI technologies, models, and vendors for technical fit, performance, cost, data privacy, and compliance, and provide recommendations for their adoption into production systems.
• Lead or participate in bioinformatics and scientific research activities, including research design, computational analysis, data interpretation, and implementation of software solutions.
• Serve as a senior technical resource across clinical informatics, bioinformatics, software engineering, data science, laboratory, pathology, QA, research, IT, and business teams.
• Mentor and provide technical guidance to software engineers and team members and contribute to code reviews, architecture and design discussions, engineering practices, documentation, and knowledge sharing.

• Minimum BA/BS in Computer Science, Electric Engineering, Bioinformatics, Mathematics, Statistics, or a related field.
• 5+ years of relevant software engineering, or equivalent professional experience preferred.
• Demonstrated ability to independently design, architect, implement, deploy, troubleshoot, and support complex software systems, including owning significant projects from conception through production and making sound technical decisions with limited supervision.
• Strong understanding of software engineering principles, system architecture, algorithms, data structures, distributed systems, computer architecture, operating systems, networks, and security.
• Strong programming experience with languages such as Java, Scala, Python, R, JavaScript/Node.js, .NET, or similar languages.
• Strong experience with SQL and PL/SQL.
• Strong experience with Python, Bash, regular expressions, and software automation.
• Experience designing and supporting data pipelines, large-scale and distributed data-processing systems, and complex workflows, with a strong understanding of data management practices and data-processing architectures.
• Experience with database architecture, implementation, optimization, troubleshooting, and administration.
• Experience with web technologies and user interface development, including JavaScript, HTML5, CSS, or similar technologies.
• Strong understanding of software, hardware, database, storage, network, and infrastructure limitations.
• Experience with Git source control, Linux, Windows, and production software environments.
• Demonstrated experience of troubleshooting production systems across application, database, infrastructure, and data-processing layers and performing root-cause analysis of complex technical issues.
• Experience with system performance analysis and optimization.
• Experience integrating AI or machine learning models into production software through APIs, MCP integration, etc.
• Understanding the risks and limitations of AI systems, including hallucination, model drift, and bias, and of practices for mitigating them such as testing, versioning, audit logging, and human-in-the-loop review.
• Experience building agentic or multi-step AI workflows, including orchestration, tool integration, and guardrails.
• Experience handling PHI/PII in AI workflows, including de-identification and HIPAA-compliant use of third-party AI services.
• Strong understanding of project management, requirements analysis, technical planning, and software development lifecycle.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills.
• Demonstrated ability to work effectively across multiple technical and non-technical teams.
• Demonstrated ability to mentor and provide technical guidance to other engineers.

Additional Skills

• Strong understanding of Bioinformatics, Genetics, Pathology and Clinical Diagnostics.
• Experience with genomic data formats such as FASTQ, BAM/CRAM, VCF, BED, and related formats.
• Experience with bioinformatics tools, pipelines, and genomic analysis workflows.
• Experience with Oracle, SQLite, and other relational or NoSQL databases such as MySQL, PostgreSQL, MongoDB, or similar.
• Experience with C/C++, Rust, Go or other programming languages is a plus.
• Experience with cloud computing, object storage, and distributed infrastructure.
• Experience with Docker, containerization, workflow orchestration, CI/CD, or infrastructure automation.
• Experience with digital pathology, whole-slide imaging, image processing, or image visualization, including technologies such as SVS, TIFF, pyramidal images, image tiling, OpenSlide, libvips, OpenSeadragon, or similar.
• Experience with image-processing performance optimization and large-scale image storage and delivery is a plus.
• Experience supporting software in a clinical, diagnostic, or regulated laboratory environment is strongly preferred.
• Experience leading cross-functional technical projects or initiatives is preferred.
• Experience evaluating and introducing new technologies into production environments is preferred.

Founded in 2011, Fulgent Genetics is a technology-driven precision medicine company providing genomic testing, anatomic pathology, and other clinical laboratory services. Fulgent combines advanced genomics, bioinformatics, laboratory operations, and technology to deliver innovative diagnostic solutions across areas including oncology, rare disease, reproductive health, and pathology.

Technology is a foundational part of Fulgent’s business. Our engineering teams build and support systems spanning bioinformatics, clinical workflows, laboratory operations, data management, digital pathology, and enterprise applications. These systems process large-scale genomic and clinical data and support critical laboratory and diagnostic operations.

We are an engineering- and science-focused organization that works closely with bioinformatics, laboratory, clinical, research, QA, and business teams to develop reliable, scalable solutions that advance precision medicine and patient care.