What does a Bioinformatics Technician do?

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. Day to day that includes work like analyze or manipulate bioinformatics data using software packages, statistical applications, or data mining techniques and Extend existing software programs, web-based interactive tools, or database queries as sequence management and analysis needs evolve.

What skills should a Bioinformatics Technician put on a resume?

O*NET rates Reading Comprehension, Active Learning, Active Listening, Complex Problem Solving, and Critical Thinking among the most important skills for this occupation. Name the ones that are genuinely yours and show where you used them. A resume that lists skills you do not have is weaker than one that lists fewer.

What software should a Bioinformatics Technician list?

Software recorded for this occupation includes Apache Subversion SVN, Atlassian Bamboo, Avaya Identity Engines, Basic Local Alignment Search Tool BLAST, and Bioconductor. Applicant tracking systems match on the exact product name, so write the tool as the posting writes it rather than describing it in general terms.

What other job titles cover Bioinformatics Technician work?

O*NET records 14 titles for this occupation, including Bioinformatics Analyst, Bioinformatics Specialist, Biotechnician, and Scientific Informatics Analyst. Searching only your own job title hides most of the openings you could apply to.

What qualifications does a Bioinformatics Technician need?

In O*NET's survey of people doing this job, 51% reported their level of education as "Bachelor's Degree". That is what current postholders reported, not a requirement any single employer sets.

Will this resume pass an ATS for a Bioinformatics Technician role?

No tool outside an employer can tell you how that employer's system is configured, including ours. What you can control is that the resume parses cleanly, names the work in the words the posting uses, and does not claim anything you cannot back up.

Bioinformatics Technician resume example

A resume for a Bioinformatics Technician needs to show the work itself: 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. Day to day that means work like this: analyze or manipulate bioinformatics data using software packages, statistical applications, or data mining techniques; extend existing software programs, web-based interactive tools, or database queries as sequence management and analysis needs evolve. Recruiters and applicant tracking systems both read for the tasks and tools this role actually involves, so the strongest resume names them in your own experience rather than describing the job in the abstract. Below are the tasks O*NET records for this occupation, the software and tools it uses, the titles it is advertised under, and the skills worth naming if they are genuinely yours.

Also advertised as

The same job is posted under many titles. Searching only your own job title hides most of the openings you could apply to.

Bioinformatics Analyst
Bioinformatics Specialist
Biotechnician
Scientific Informatics Analyst
Museum Informatics Specialist
Research Scientist
Bioinformatics Research Technician
Biometrics Technician
Data Analyst
Data Technician
Database Technician
Field Data Technician
Log Data Technician
Submission Technician

What this work actually involves

Tasks recorded for this occupation, in O*NET's words. If your experience covers one of these, it belongs on your resume in your own words.

Analyze or manipulate bioinformatics data using software packages, statistical applications, or data mining techniques.
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.
Conduct quality analyses of data inputs and resulting analyses or predictions.
Enter or retrieve information from structural databases, protein sequence motif databases, mutation databases, genomic databases or gene expression databases.
Develop or maintain applications that process biologically based data into searchable databases for purposes of analysis, calculation, or presentation.
Confer with researchers, clinicians, or information technology staff to determine data needs and programming requirements and to provide assistance with database-related research activities.
Participate in the preparation of reports or scientific publications.
Write computer programs or scripts to be used in querying databases.
Document all database changes, modifications, or problems.
Create data management or error-checking procedures and user manuals.
Develop or apply data mining and machine learning algorithms.

19 tasks are recorded in total; these are the most central.

Example bullets for this role

Built from this occupation's own tasks. The brackets stay empty on purpose: we will not invent a number for you, and a fabricated metric is the fastest way to lose an interview you had already won.

Analyze or manipulate bioinformatics data using software packages, statistical applications, or data mining techniques, for [who or what it served], at [what volume].
Extend existing software programs, web-based interactive tools, or database queries as sequence management and analysis needs evolve, for [who or what it served], at [what volume].
Maintain awareness of new and emerging computational methods and technologies, for [who or what it served], at [what volume].
Conduct quality analyses of data inputs and resulting analyses or predictions, for [who or what it served], at [what volume].

Software used in this role

Recorded for this occupation by O*NET. An applicant tracking system matches the exact product name, so write the tool the way the posting writes it.

Apache Subversion SVN
Atlassian Bamboo
Avaya Identity Engines
Basic Local Alignment Search Tool BLAST
Bioconductor
Bowtie
Burrows-Wheeler Aligner BWA
C
C++
ClustalW
Cufflinks
Customer relationship management CRM software
Data visualization software
Enterprise resource planning ERP software

50 software entries are recorded in total.

Tools and equipment

The physical equipment this occupation is recorded as using. Worth naming when a posting asks for it by name.

Computer clusters
Computer workstation setups
Desktop computers
High throughput screening HTS systems
Network file servers
Nuclear magnetic resonance NMR spectrometers
Semiconductor-based sequencers
Web servers

Skills an ATS reads for

Worth naming only if they are genuinely yours. Keyword overlap is one input to a resume's score, not a verdict.

Apache Subversion SVN
Atlassian Bamboo
C
C++
Git
HTML
SPSS
Jenkins CI
Linux
SQL Server

What this job rates as most important

O*NET rates every skill for importance to this occupation. These are the highest rated, in order.

01Reading Comprehension
02Active Learning
03Active Listening
04Complex Problem Solving
05Critical Thinking
06Judgment and Decision Making
07Writing
08Mathematics
09Speaking
10Monitoring

Knowledge areas

The subject knowledge this occupation draws on, rated by importance.

Computers and Electronics
Mathematics
English Language
Biology

What qualifications people in this job have

From O*NET's survey of people doing this work. This is what postholders reported, not a requirement any single employer sets.

51%Bachelor's Degree
41%Master's Degree
4%Doctoral Degree

What level this role is pitched at

O*NET places this occupation in “Considerable Preparation Needed”. Most of these occupations require a four-year bachelor's degree, but some do not.

A considerable amount of work-related skill, knowledge, or experience is needed for these occupations. For example, an accountant must complete four years of college and work for several years in accounting to be considered qualified.

Common questions

What does a Bioinformatics Technician do?: 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. Day to day that includes work like analyze or manipulate bioinformatics data using software packages, statistical applications, or data mining techniques and Extend existing software programs, web-based interactive tools, or database queries as sequence management and analysis needs evolve.
What skills should a Bioinformatics Technician put on a resume?: O*NET rates Reading Comprehension, Active Learning, Active Listening, Complex Problem Solving, and Critical Thinking among the most important skills for this occupation. Name the ones that are genuinely yours and show where you used them. A resume that lists skills you do not have is weaker than one that lists fewer.
What software should a Bioinformatics Technician list?: Software recorded for this occupation includes Apache Subversion SVN, Atlassian Bamboo, Avaya Identity Engines, Basic Local Alignment Search Tool BLAST, and Bioconductor. Applicant tracking systems match on the exact product name, so write the tool as the posting writes it rather than describing it in general terms.
What other job titles cover Bioinformatics Technician work?: O*NET records 14 titles for this occupation, including Bioinformatics Analyst, Bioinformatics Specialist, Biotechnician, and Scientific Informatics Analyst. Searching only your own job title hides most of the openings you could apply to.
What qualifications does a Bioinformatics Technician need?: In O*NET's survey of people doing this job, 51% reported their level of education as "Bachelor's Degree". That is what current postholders reported, not a requirement any single employer sets.
Will this resume pass an ATS for a Bioinformatics Technician role?: No tool outside an employer can tell you how that employer's system is configured, including ours. What you can control is that the resume parses cleanly, names the work in the words the posting uses, and does not claim anything you cannot back up.

Related roles

Occupations O*NET records as closest to this one, and worth looking at if this search is not moving.

What this page cannot tell you

No tool outside an employer can tell you how that employer’s ATS is configured, including ours.
This page makes no claim about pay, demand or how many people hold this job. O*NET does not publish that here and we will not estimate it.
Keyword overlap is one input to a resume’s score, not a verdict on you. A resume that names skills you do not have is worse than one that names fewer.

If this is the job you are aiming at, the guide to tailoring a resume covers how to aim one posting properly, and building and exporting a resume here is free.

Occupation data from the O*NET 29.1 Database by the U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration (USDOL/ETA), used under CC BY 4.0. O*NET is a trademark of USDOL/ETA. SpartanResume is not endorsed by USDOL/ETA.