Senior Director, Knowledge Systems Group

Overview

The Senior Director, Knowledge Systems Group (KSG) within the Department of Data Science provides scientific, technical, and operational leadership for a multidisciplinary team developing software platforms that support precision oncology and have direct clinical relevance at Dana-Farber. This role sets and leads the long-term vision for the group across clinical software, cancer data systems, and AI-enabled initiatives, while also contributing as an active scientific leader through collaboration, publications, and grant activity. The Senior Director partners with clinicians, researchers, and institutional leadership to identify high-value opportunities for software innovation and to ensure systems remain reliable, secure, and appropriate for clinical use. The role also leads talent development, open-source engagement, and cross-functional execution across KSG’s portfolio.

Located in Boston and the surrounding communities, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute is a leader in life changing breakthroughs in cancer research and patient care. We are united in our mission of conquering cancer, HIV/AIDS, and related diseases. We strive to create an inclusive, diverse, and equitable environment where we provide compassionate and comprehensive care to patients of all backgrounds, and design programs to promote public health particularly among high-risk and underserved populations. We conduct groundbreaking research that advances treatment, we educate tomorrow's physician/researchers, and we work with amazing partners, including other Harvard Medical School-affiliated hospitals.

Primary Duties and Responsibilities:

• Define and execute the scientific and technical direction for the Knowledge Systems Group across its portfolio of oncology software platforms, data systems, and AI-related initiatives.
• Build and maintain a multi-year roadmap that anticipates advances in genomics, clinical informatics, and AI, and aligns group priorities with institutional and clinical needs.
• Lead, recruit, and develop a multidisciplinary team of approximately 15 engineers, scientists, bioinformatics professionals, and program managers, while fostering a culture of strong engineering practice, scientific rigor, and mission-driven collaboration.
• Contribute to the scientific direction of KSG’s core platforms including cBioPortal, MatchMiner Genomics, and MatchMiner-AI, and guide the incorporation of large language models and other AI capabilities where appropriate.
• Partner with internal clinical and research leaders and external collaborators to advance software-enabled precision medicine, contribute to publications and grants, and represent the group in the broader oncology informatics and open-source communities.
• Oversee software delivery and operations for systems used in active clinical settings, including reliability, scalability, security, regulatory alignment and budget stewardship.
• Manage grant portfolios and institutional budgets in partnership with DFCI administration and funding agencies including the NCI.
• Ensure KSG's software systems meet regulatory, compliance, and data security requirements appropriate for systems in clinical use.

Knowledge, Skills and Abilities:

• Knowledge of software architecture and delivery across front-end, back-end, cloud infrastructure, and data pipeline components.
• Demonstrated track record of leading technical teams building production software systems, ideally at the intersection of genomics, clinical informatics, or biomedical data science.
• Expertise in cancer genomics, precision oncology, or clinical trial informatics, with working knowledge across the modern genomics technology landscape (NGS, single-cell, spatial omics, etc.).
• Strong publication record and history of scientific collaboration, including peer-reviewed contributions to oncology informatics or related fields.
• Experience with large language models, machine learning applications in biomedicine, or AI-driven clinical decision support systems.
• Ability to operate effectively across scientific, technical, and clinical domains, including communication with software engineers, computational biologists, oncologists, researchers, and executive leaders.
• Commitment to open-source principles and collaborative, community-driven software development.

Minimum Job Qualifications:

Ph.D. in Computational Biology, Bioinformatics, Computer Science or a related quantitative field required.

Required experience:

• Minimum of 10 years of increasing responsibility in a leadership role in an academic medical center, cancer center or biotech/pharma informatics group.
• Expertise in cancer genomics, precision oncology, or clinical trial informatics, with working knowledge across the modern genomics technology landscape (NGS, single-cell, spatial omics, etc.).
• Experience managing and mentoring multidisciplinary teams of engineers, scientists, and program managers.

Preferred experience:

• Familiarity with clinical trial operations, trial matching workflows, or precision medicine programs at an NCI-designated cancer center.
• Experience with NCI grant mechanisms (R01, U01, U24, etc.) and federal research funding processes.
• Full-stack technical fluency — comfortable contributing to architectural decisions across front-end, back-end, cloud infrastructure, and data pipeline layers.
• Demonstrated experience with agile development practices and continuous deployment in a clinical or research software environment.

Supervisory Responsibility:

Leads a multidisciplinary team of approximately 15 engineers, scientists, bioinformatics professionals, and program managers directly and through managers.

Patient Contact:

None

At Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, we work every day to create an innovative, caring, and inclusive environment where every patient, family, and staff member feels they belong. As relentless as we are in our mission to reduce the burden of cancer for all, we are committed to having faculty and staff who offer multifaceted experiences. Cancer knows no boundaries and when it comes to hiring the most dedicated and compassionate professionals, neither do we. If working in this kind of organization inspires you, we encourage you to apply.

Dana-Farber Cancer Institute is an equal opportunity employer and affirms the right of every qualified applicant to receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, gender identity or expression, national origin, sexual orientation, genetic information, disability, age, ancestry, military service, protected veteran status, or other characteristics protected by law.

Pay Transparency Statement

The hiring range is based on market pay structures, with individual salaries determined by factors such as business needs, market conditions, internal equity, and based on the candidate’s relevant experience, skills and qualifications.

For union positions, the pay range is determined by the Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA).