Bioinformatics Scientist Apprentice - Pipeline Review
at AstraZeneca
Higher Level Apprenticeship
Data Analysis, Science
Cambridge
Review Submitted: February 2026
Overall Rating
4.1 /5
The Overall Rating is the average of all the ratings given in each category. We take those individual ratings and combine them into one final score!
5/5
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Overview of Role
5/5
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Skills Development
3.6/5
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Structure and Support
Overview of Role
Please give an overview of your role and what this involves on a day-to-day basis:
5/5
I work in a team that provides bioinformatics support to a department working on high-throughput genomics and other OMICs data pipelines. I regularly support ingestion on the scale of 10-500 samples at a time, bringing these genomes into our in-house database and performing quality control checks. I also work on a lot of automation tasks for less routine analysis of data from our lab-based teams, and generally have at least one proof-of-concept analysis project where I am able to extract meaningful biological insight from our data using novel methods.
To what extent do you enjoy your programme?
5/5
At this stage of my programme (last year out of three), I fully enjoy my program. Since the study part of my course has ended, I am really able to make use of the skills learnt in my Masters degree, to benefit my contracted job and give me a breadth of experience. As an Apprentice, I am also encouraged to attend many external and internal learning opportunities such as talks, workshops, and networking. I feel comfortable balancing these side-of-desk activities with my assigned tasks.
Skills Development
Have you learnt any new skills or developed existing skills?
5/5
I have learnt a large amount of new skills, mainly relating to data analysis, software development, and high-throughput database design. I also gained a lot of communication experience, talking with other teams, other specialists, and leading enrichment groups of data scientists across the organisation.
Structure and Support
How well organised/structured is your programme?
2/5
The Apprenticeship program as a whole (including the Gateway and EPA timelines) has a good structure, especially given that an entire 4 months are free after the culmination of the Masters program to complete the EPA, and then there are a further 5 months contracted at the employer in order to search for a new job.
However, the majority of the first two years of the Apprenticeship are completely guided by the structure of whichever education provider is used to award the Masters degree, and in my experience the course at Cranfield university was not structured well. This meant that the first 6 months of my Apprenticeship felt very isolating, as I was travelling regularly for long periods to university, and not able to settle into my job role or understand how my employer works. It would have worked much better to spread modules evenly throughout the year.
However, the majority of the first two years of the Apprenticeship are completely guided by the structure of whichever education provider is used to award the Masters degree, and in my experience the course at Cranfield university was not structured well. This meant that the first 6 months of my Apprenticeship felt very isolating, as I was travelling regularly for long periods to university, and not able to settle into my job role or understand how my employer works. It would have worked much better to spread modules evenly throughout the year.
How much support do you receive from your employer?
4/5
The employer AstraZeneca is excellent for early careers support, and has a well-established Apprenticeships program that can look out for pitfalls early. The drawback was the communication of the employer with the education provider, and the fact that this course was relatively new.
How much support do you receive from your training provider when working towards your qualifications?
3/5
There is a large amount of material, and it is delivered at a very high pace, which makes it hard to digest properly and know how to integrate it into the Apprenticeship experience.
How well do you feel that your qualification (through your training provider) helps you to perform better in your role?
4/5
There was a lot more variety in the Masters course than in the Employee role, so it was very nice to have a breadth of understanding, and look outside the healthcare industry for other roles for bioinformatics.
Are there extra-curricular activities to get involved in at your work? (For example, any social activities, sports teams, or even professional networking events.)
5/5
I have participated in informal sports teams, formalised employee resource groups, many talks and activities, and many networking events. There is an early careers summer formal where nominees can be awarded, and there is a thriving early career community at AstraZeneca.
Recommendations & Advice
Would you recommend AstraZeneca to a friend?
Yes
Why?
It is a company that really does invest a lot in its Early Career employees, and I think it would be hard to get bored here.
What tips or advice would you give to others applying to AstraZeneca?
Think ahead of time about what burnout looks like for you, and how you can realistically manage your time. This will help you in starting conversations with your manager about noticing when things become difficult, so you can catch them early.
