Bioinformatics Technicians
Apply principles and methods of bioinformatics to assist scientists in areas such as pharmaceuticals, medical technology, biotechnology, computational biology, proteomics, computer information science, biology and medical informatics. Apply bioinformatics tools to visualize, analyze, manipulate or interpret molecular data. May build and maintain databases for processing and analyzing genomic or other biological information.
Also known as: Bioinformatics Analyst, Bioinformatics Research Technician, Bioinformatics Specialist, Bioinformatics Technician, Biometrics Technician, Biotechnician, Data Analyst, Data Technician, ...
Annual Salary
Median annual wage (May 2024)
Job Outlook
Projected growth, 2024–2034 (About average)
What You'd Do
- Develop or maintain applications that process biologically based data into searchable databases for purposes of analysis, calculation, or presentation.
- Enter or retrieve information from structural databases, protein sequence motif databases, mutation databases, genomic databases or gene expression databases.
- Analyze or manipulate bioinformatics data using software packages, statistical applications, or data mining techniques.
- Confer with researchers, clinicians, or information technology staff to determine data needs and programming requirements and to provide assistance with database-related research activities.
- Create data management or error-checking procedures and user manuals.
- Document all database changes, modifications, or problems.
- Extend existing software programs, web-based interactive tools, or database queries as sequence management and analysis needs evolve.
- Maintain awareness of new and emerging computational methods and technologies.
- Participate in the preparation of reports or scientific publications.
- Write computer programs or scripts to be used in querying databases.
- Conduct quality analyses of data inputs and resulting analyses or predictions.
- Monitor database performance and perform any necessary maintenance, upgrades, or repairs.
- Design or implement web-based tools for querying large-scale biological databases.
- Develop or apply data mining and machine learning algorithms.
- Test new or updated software or tools and provide feedback to developers.
- Train bioinformatics staff or researchers in the use of databases.
- Confer with database users about project timelines and changes.
- Package bioinformatics data for submission to public repositories.
- Perform routine system administrative functions, such as troubleshooting, back-ups, or upgrades.
Top Skills
Importance scale: 1 (low) – 5 (high)
Knowledge Areas
Importance scale: 1 (low) – 5 (high)
Education Level Distribution
Percentage of workers in this occupation by education level
Technology & Tools
Software and tools commonly used in this role
In-Demand Technologies
Other Tools
Work Styles
Personality traits and work styles important for this career
Key Abilities
Cognitive, physical, and sensory abilities important for this role
Importance scale: 1 (low) – 5 (high)
Work Activities
General types of job behaviors occurring on this job
Importance scale: 1 (low) – 5 (high)
Work Environment
Physical and social factors that influence the nature of work
Related Careers
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Salary data: BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2024. Outlook data: BLS Employment Projections, 2024–2034.
This page includes information from the O*NET 30.2 Database by the U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration (USDOL/ETA). Used under the CC BY 4.0 license.