Data Scientist - Computational Biology
Penfield Search Partners · Waltham, MA
—
Jul 19, 2026
Waltham, MA
Jul 21, 2026
What this job asks for AI summary
A six-month contract role at a biotech company focused on processing and interpreting next-generation sequencing data — particularly bulk RNA-seq, single-cell RNA-seq, and long-read RNA sequencing via Nanopore — to support drug discovery. Day-to-day work involves building bioinformatics pipelines, performing differential expression and splicing analyses, and translating computational findings into biological insights alongside experimental scientists. Best suited to an MS- or PhD-level computational biologist with strong transcriptomics experience and proficiency in Python and/or R.
Senior level · Boston-Cambridge-Newton, MA-NH · Master's required · Contract
“or” means any one of them counts — you don't need all of them.
We read this from the posting text with AI. Skim the description below before ruling yourself out.
How this req sits in the market our data
Roughly 410 people in the Boston-Cambridge-Newton, MA-NH area plausibly meet what this posting asks for (data scientists). range 85–740
Applicant volume Moderate — A normal amount of company. The rare requirements below are what will separate a shortlisted application from the rest.
Most people in this occupation already list these. Still required — just not what gets you shortlisted.
What the occupation pays Median $134,944 (middle half $104,979–$169,773).
Estimated from BLS employment for this occupation and area, per-skill prevalence across our listing corpus, and published wage benchmarks — as of Jul 28, 2026. It is a model, not a headcount.
Why we read it this way (10)
This is a six-month contract (contractor) assignment, not a permanent hire.
The JD requires an MS or PhD with no 'or equivalent experience' escape clause, so Masters is set as the minimum degree gate; a PhD is preferred given the postdoctoral experience mention but is not the stated minimum.
Python and R are listed together with 'and/or', so they are treated as interchangeable alternatives for the same proficiency requirement — one skill with the other as an alternative.
HPC and AWS are listed as alternatives ('HPC or cloud platforms such as AWS'); emitted as one skill with AWS as the alternative.
Nanopore long-read sequencing is explicitly called 'required' in the Required Skills section; PacBio is explicitly called 'a plus' and is marked preferred.
ATAC-seq, ChIP-seq, and PRO-seq appear together under 'Preferred Experience' as interchangeable examples of additional functional genomics data types.
Version control / reproducible research practices are mentioned as required but name no specific tool; Git is the canonical tool implied and is marked preferred given the vague framing.
No compensation figures are provided in the posting.
Ignored 1 non-technology phrase(s) as skills (responsibilities/concepts, not named tools): NGS data analysis.
Posting is for a contract engagement — the market benchmarks below price full-time roles, so read the comp comparison with that in mind.
Read the full posting
The employer publishes the full description on their own site — read it there ↗. Or sign in to read it here — it's free, and it also lets you track this application.