Application Science, Team Lead

A Little Bit About Us:

Saphetor’s mission is to enable anyone to find, share and use the most comprehensive human genome data – and to collaborate to improve health and lives around the world. To do this we have built the VarSome suite of bioinformatic tools, the world’s leading resource for analysis and interpretation of human genome variant data, with more than 6 000 citations in scientific papers, and over 60 000 registered professional users. Our customers work around the globe across academic, clinical, and industry laboratories analysing NGS (Next Generation Sequencing) data for research and diagnostic purposes. Saphetor is a Swiss precision medicine company with offices in Lausanne (CH), Boston (USA), and Athens (GR) employing a diverse global workforce.

The Opportunity

We are looking for an Application Scientist, Team Lead to lead and scale our global team of Application Scientists within the commercial organization.Standing at the intersection of bioinformatics, clinical genomics and leadership, you will not only support our customers through their journey with VarSome, from pre-sales to post-sales support and expansion - but you will also drive the team’s strategic direction, optimize operational workflows and mentor team members to ensure commercial growth and customer success. You will play a key role in shaping and delivering solutions to our direct and indirect customers while acting as a senior stakeholder within the company.

We thrive in a high-pressure, high-performance environment where clinical precision and rapid growth meet. While our pace is fast, it is always directed by rigorous organization and clear processes, ensuring that our commitment to quality is never compromised by our drive for speed.

Role Responsibilities

• Working manager: you will be the Application Scientist responsible for a defined territory.
• Team Leadership: Lead, coach and scale the global Application Science team; establish KPIs, manage resource allocation, and foster a culture of continuous learning and high performance.
• Pre-sales & Strategic Growth: Oversee the evaluation pipeline and act as the senior technical “closer”. Ensuring expert demonstrations bridge clinical/bioinformatic needs with the Varsome suite (Premium, Clinical, API) 
• Post-sales Excellence: Ensure seamless onboarding and rapid “time to value” across all global deployments; supervise complex cloud and on-premises delivery infrastructure specifications in coordination with DevOps. 
• Workflow Optimization & Support: Establish best practices for data filtering strategies and automation to maximize platform “stickiness” across the entire customer base
• Scientific Advocacy: Represent the company at major international conferences (e.g. ESHG, ASHG, AMP, WHX); cultivate strategic relationships with key opinion leaders (KOLs) and guide the creation of high-impact technical white papers.
• Cross-functional Collaboration: Partner closely with Product, Marketing, and Operations colleagues to ensure product-market fit, translate market feedback into product roadmap priorities, and align technical capabilities with commercial strategy.

The Ideal Candidate (Profile)

The ideal candidate combines deep expertise in clinical genomics or bioinformatics with a proven track record of leadership and a strong commercial mindset. You are a strategic thinker who can inspire a technical team and effectively communicate complex concepts to both laboratory professionals and executive-level stakeholders.

What you will bring:

• Education: A Master’s or PhD in Human Genetics, Laboratory Medicine, Molecular Biology/Pathology, Life Sciences, or related field.
• Leadership Experience: Experience managing, leading, or coaching directly or indirectly members of commercial or technical teams.
• Expertise: Hands-on experience in clinical genomics, including NGS tertiary analysis workflows.
• Technical Knowledge: A solid grasp of laboratory workflows, variant interpretation frameworks, and basic understanding of bioinformatics and IT workflows.
• Communication: The ability to simplify complex bioinformatics and technical infrastructure concepts for researchers, clinicians, and IT professionals.
• Languages: Proficiency in English and Spanish is a must. Fluency in other languages (e.g. French, German) will be considered a plus.

Strongly Valued

• Industry Experience: Previous background in a bioinformatics software company or experience in DevOps/SysAdmin roles.
• Regulatory Knowledge: Familiarity with working in regulated environments, such as IVDR, CLIA/CAP, or similar standards.
• Leadership experience: Leading a team 
• Global Mindset: Proven experience in multicultural environments and/or supporting international customers in a scale-up setting.

Mindset & Key Skills

• Scientific Rigor: A curious, detail-oriented professional who maintains high scientific standards while managing complex data analysis.
• Commercial Mindset: The ability to balance scientific accuracy with pragmatic sales decisions and translate features into customer benefits.
• Self-Organization: A structured thinker with strong prioritization and project management skills, comfortable in a fast-paced environment.
• Global Mobility: Αvailable and willing to undertake international business travel to support our global customer base.

While our foundation is in Athens, our talent pool is spread across Europe, with a strong culture of remote collaboration. Our team is highly experienced in distributed Agile workflows and communicates exclusively in fluent English.

Your career journey with us includes, among others:

• A position in a fascinating healthcare growth domain, at the cutting edge of technology and research
• A competitive compensation package tailored to your unique expertise and professional background.
• A remote-first work environment that promotes a healthy work-life balance
• Endless learning opportunities, while transferring new technologies from academics to clinical practice all over the world.

Saphetor is proud to be an Equal Opportunities Employer. We provide equal employment opportunities to all qualified applicants and our employees, regardless of race, color, religion, national origin, age, sex, medical condition or disability, sexual orientation, gender expression, or marital status.