Senior Technical Applications Scientist

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Position Summary

The Senior Applications Scientist is an experienced individual contributor responsible for providing high-quality technical and customer support across Illumina Laboratory Services (ILS). The role independently manages complex customer inquiries, coordinates issue resolution across relevant functions, and applies scientific, product, and service knowledge to protect customer commitments and strengthen the customer experience.

The position serves as a subject matter resource within an assigned service area or workflow. It contributes to investigations, customer onboarding, knowledge development, and practical process improvements, working within established policies and escalating broader business, quality, compliance, or contractual risks appropriately.

Position Responsibilities

Customer and Technical Support

•  Provide responsive, accurate technical support to internal and external customers across assigned ILS services, platforms, applications, and workflows.

•  Independently assess and resolve complex customer inquiries, using scientific and operational information to determine appropriate next steps.

•  Own cases through resolution, maintaining clear documentation, timely communication, and effective follow-up in the relevant case-management system.

•  Coordinate customer requirements and issue resolution with laboratory operations, commercial, quality, regulatory, product, software, and other technical teams.

•  Communicate technical findings, service limitations, risks, and recommended actions in language appropriate to the customer and stakeholder audience.

•  Support customer onboarding, service-readiness activities, business reviews, and recurring customer meetings for assigned accounts or programmes.

Investigation and Issue Resolution

•  Serve as an escalation resource for non-routine technical questions, service issues, and operational disruptions within the assigned area of expertise.

•  Lead or contribute to structured troubleshooting, root-cause investigations, customer complaint investigations, and corrective or preventive actions within defined scope.

•  Gather and analyse relevant case, laboratory, product, and workflow information to develop evidence-based conclusions and recommendations.

•  Partner with cross-functional teams to implement corrective actions, verify effectiveness, and communicate outcomes to customers and stakeholders.

•  Recognize when an issue may create significant customer, quality, compliance, contractual, or operational risk and escalate promptly with clear supporting information.

Service Delivery and Operational Excellence

•  Monitor case and service trends within the assigned area, identifying recurring issues, knowledge gaps, and opportunities to improve customer experience or operational performance.

•  Develop and implement practical improvements to support workflows, case handling, customer communications, escalation pathways, and support tools.

•  Contribute technical support input to new service introductions, workflow changes, technology adoption, and customer-specific solutions.

•  Work with operational teams to ensure customer requirements are translated into clear, executable service expectations.

•  Use established performance measures and customer feedback to evaluate outcomes and recommend targeted improvements.

Knowledge and Capability Development

•  Develop and maintain technical documentation, troubleshooting guides, standard responses, work instructions, training materials, and knowledge-base content.

•  Provide technical guidance, peer coaching, and on-the-job training within areas of demonstrated expertise.

•  Share lessons learned and best practices across teams and sites to improve consistency and reduce repeat issues.

•  Maintain current knowledge of relevant ILS services, laboratory workflows, Illumina platforms and applications, quality requirements, and support processes.

•  Contribute as a subject matter resource to training, customer education, internal forums, and cross-functional working groups.

Quality, Compliance and Risk

•  Perform responsibilities in accordance with applicable quality systems, data privacy requirements, regulatory expectations, accreditation standards, and business procedures.

•  Ensure customer cases, investigations, decisions, and communications are documented accurately, completely, and traceably.

•  Support audit readiness and provide technical information or records for quality reviews, audits, and inspections as required.

•  Identify potential service, process, or compliance risks within assigned activities and support timely mitigation.

Decision-Making and Accountability

•  Independently prioritizes and manages an assigned portfolio of customer cases and technical activities within established service expectations.

•  Determines troubleshooting approaches and recommends case actions based on available evidence, documented processes, and subject matter expertise.

•  Coordinates cross-functional contributors to progress complex issues, while escalating decisions outside role authority or assigned scope.

•  Makes recommendations for customer communication, corrective action, process improvement, and knowledge development.

•  Is accountable for the technical accuracy, documentation quality, communication, and timely progression of assigned work.

•  Escalates material customer, quality, compliance, contractual, safety, or business risks through the appropriate channels.

Organizational Impact

•  Delivers reliable technical support and issue resolution that protects customer commitments and service quality.

•  Improves team effectiveness through subject matter expertise, reusable knowledge, coaching, and targeted process improvements.

•  Contributes to consistent support practices across relevant teams, workflows, or sites.

•  Influences outcomes within assigned programmes and cross-functional initiatives through expertise, analysis, and collaboration.

•  Operates independently on complex work while seeking direction for novel, high-risk, or organization-wide decisions.

Listed responsibilities are an essential, but not exhaustive list, of the usual duties associated with the position. Changes to individual responsibilities may occur due to business needs. 

Position Requirements

•  Bachelor's Degree in Life Sciences, Molecular Biology, Clinical Laboratory Science, Biotechnology, Bioinformatics, Engineering, or a related scientific or technical discipline. Equivalent relevant education and experience may be considered. An advanced degree is beneficial.

•  Typically 5+ years of relevant experience in technical support, applications support, laboratory operations, service delivery, life sciences, diagnostics, or a related field.

•  Experience independently resolving complex technical or customer issues and coordinating work across multiple functions.

•  Working knowledge of molecular biology, sequencing, clinical laboratory services, or related technologies relevant to the assigned service portfolio.

•  Experience with structured troubleshooting, root-cause analysis, complaint handling, case documentation, and process improvement.

•  Demonstrated ability to communicate complex technical information clearly to customers and internal stakeholders.

•  Experience working in a regulated laboratory, diagnostics, biotechnology, healthcare, or life-sciences environment is preferred.

•  Experience using CRM, case-management, quality, or knowledge-management systems is preferred.

All listed requirements are deemed as essential functions to this position; however, business conditions may require reasonable accommodations for additional task and responsibilities. 

We are a company deeply rooted in belonging, promoting an inclusive environment where employees feel valued and empowered to contribute to our mission. Built on a strong foundation, Illumina has always prioritized openness, collaboration, and seeking alternative perspectives to propel innovation in genomics. We are proud to confirm a zero-net gap in pay, regardless of gender, ethnicity, or race. We also have several Employee Resource Groups (ERG) that deliver career development experiences, increase cultural awareness, and offer opportunities to engage in social responsibility. We are proud to be an equal opportunity employer committed to providing employment opportunity regardless of sex, race, creed, color, gender, religion, marital status, domestic partner status, age, national origin or ancestry, physical or mental disability, medical condition, sexual orientation, pregnancy, military or veteran status, citizenship status, and genetic information. Illumina conducts background checks on applicants for whom a conditional offer of employment has been made. Qualified applicants with arrest or conviction records will be considered for employment in accordance with applicable local, state, and federal laws. Background check results may potentially result in the withdrawal of a conditional offer of employment. The background check process and any decisions made as a result shall be made in accordance with all applicable local, state, and federal laws. Illumina prohibits the use of generative artificial intelligence (AI) in the application and interview process. If you require accommodation to complete the application or interview process, please contact accommodations@illumina.com. To learn more, visit: https://www.dol.gov/ofccp/regs/compliance/posters/pdf/eeopost.pdf. The position will be posted until a final candidate is selected or the requisition has a sufficient number of qualified applicants.