Executive Director, Discovery

At Veracyte, we offer exciting career opportunities for those interested in joining a pioneering team that is committed to transforming cancer care for patients across the globe. Working at Veracyte enables our employees to not only make a meaningful impact on the lives of patients, but to also learn and grow within a purpose driven environment. This is what we call the Veracyte way – it’s about how we work together, guided by our values, to give clinicians the insights they need to help patients make life-changing decisions.
Our Values

We Seek A Better Way: We innovate boldly, learn from our setbacks, and are resilient in our pursuit to transform cancer care
We Make It Happen: We act with urgency, commit to quality, and bring fun to our hard work
We Are Stronger Together: We collaborate openly, seek to understand, and celebrate our wins
We Care Deeply: We embrace our differences, do the right thing, and encourage each other
The Position
As Executive Director of Discovery you will bring your track record as an innovative scientific leader and be responsible for driving Veracyte’s early‑stage discovery engine, driving the identification and development of novel biomarkers, technologies, and platforms that advance our mission to transform cancer care. You will integrate laboratory‑based cancer biology, genomic technologies, and state‑of‑the‑art bioinformatics—including multi‑modal artificial intelligence (MMAI)—to identify novel molecular diagnostics that have the potential to move from the lab into patient care.
This role is critical to Veracyte’s mission of delivering clinically impactful genomic solutions that improve outcomes for patients worldwide. With hundreds of thousands of patients already served, Veracyte continues to build diagnostic innovations grounded in rigorous scientific discovery and advanced analytics.
This leader must bring deep hands‑on experience in cancer biology, genomic technologies, and computational analysis, combined with a proven ability to translate complex biological signals into diagnostic product concepts. The role requires demonstrated excellence in managing laboratory‑based discovery programs, developing high‑quality datasets, and guiding teams that produce robust, reproducible evidence suitable for downstream development under design control.
The Executive Director, Discovery, is a key R&D leadership role and will participate in shaping scientific strategy, portfolio planning, and discovery operations that fuel product innovation. This individual will also provide scientific leadership during early-stage business development opportunities.
Key Responsibilities

Set the strategic direction for Discovery, ensuring alignment with Veracyte’s scientific vision and business objectives.
Oversee the design, execution, and interpretation of laboratory experiments related to cancer biology, functional genomics, molecular profiling, and biomarker discovery.
Guide the integration of wet‑lab and dry‑lab discovery, ensuring strong scientific foundations for new diagnostic concepts.
Advance multimodal data strategies, including combining genomics, transcriptomics, cell biology, digital pathology, clinical data and other data layers using bioinformatics and MMAI approaches.
Develop and maintain rigorous scientific standards for data quality, experimental design, analysis frameworks, and reproducible research practices.
Partner closely with cross‑functional teams—including Product Development, Clinical Affairs, Medical, and Data Science—to transition validated discovery work into development pipelines.
Recruit, develop, and mentor high‑performing teams of laboratory-based scientists.
Foster a culture of scientific excellence, collaboration, urgency, and transparent communication.
Build and manage scientific collaborations with academic groups, consortia, and technology innovators in genomics and AI.
Provide scientific leadership at conferences, advisory boards, and partnership meetings to highlight Veracyte’s discovery capabilities.
Manage budgets, resource allocation, and long‑range laboratory and computational infrastructure planning.
Qualifications
Who You Are:

Ph.D. in Molecular Biology, Cancer Biology, Genetics, Genomics, Bioinformatics, Computational Biology, or a related field.
13+ years of experience in biotechnology, diagnostics, or academic cancer research with increasing scientific leadership responsibility.
Demonstrated track record of integrating experimental cancer biology with computational analytics to uncover clinically meaningful biomarkers.
Deep expertise in genetics and genomics, including NGS­-based technologies, functional genomics assays, single‑cell methods, or spatial profiling.
Proven ability to design and execute discovery programs that lead to molecular diagnostics or clinically actionable insights.
Hands‑on leadership experience building and managing laboratory teams generating high‑quality experimental data.
Proficiency in bioinformatics, statistical analysis, and modern machine‑learning approaches; experience with multimodal AI is preferred.
Strong understanding of oncology disease mechanisms and the challenges inherent to developing diagnostic biomarkers.
Experience collaborating across R&D, clinical, regulatory, and product development functions.
Excellent leadership, communication, and interpersonal skills, with the ability to translate scientific discovery into strategic business value.
Demonstrated success working in fast‑paced, interdisciplinary environments with evolving priorities.
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For candidates based in our San Diego office , the salary (or hourly range is $262,000-$284,000
For candidates based in our South San Francisco office , the salary or hourly range is $288,000-$315,000.
The final salary offered to a successful candidate will be dependent on several factors that may include but are not limited to years of experience, skillset, geographic location, industry, education, etc. Base pay is one part of the Total Package that is provided to compensate and recognize employees for their work, and this role may be eligible for additional discretionary bonuses/incentives, and restricted stock units.
Pay range
$262,000—$315,000 USD
What We Can Offer You
Veracyte is a growing company that offers significant career opportunities if you are curious, driven, patient-oriented and aspire to help us build a great company. We offer competitive compensation and benefits, and are committed to fostering an inclusive workforce, where diverse backgrounds are represented, engaged, and empowered to drive innovative ideas and decisions. We are thrilled to be recognized as a 2024 Certified™ Great Place to Work® in both the US and Israel - a testament to our dynamic, inclusive, and inspiring workplace where passion meets purpose.
About Veracyte
Veracyte (Nasdaq: VCYT) is a global diagnostics company whose vision is to transform cancer care for patients all over the world. We empower clinicians with the high-value insights they need to guide and assure patients at pivotal moments in the race to diagnose and treat cancer. Our Veracyte Diagnostics Platform delivers high-performing cancer tests that are fueled by broad genomic and clinical data, deep bioinformatic and AI capabilities, and a powerful evidence-generation engine, which ultimately drives durable reimbursement and guideline inclusion for our tests, along with new insights to support continued innovation and pipeline development. For more information, please visit www.veracyte.com or follow us on LinkedIn or X (Twitter).
Veracyte, Inc. is an Equal Opportunity Employer and will consider all qualified applicants for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, protected veteran status or disability status. Veracyte participates in E-Verify in the United States. View our CCPA Disclosure Notice.
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