About Tempus
Funding & Growth
✓ Pros
- • Mission-driven (cancer focus)
- • Large clinical data assets
- • AI/ML focus
- • Rapid growth
- • Good equity potential
✗ Cons
- • Fast-paced, demanding
- • Chicago location (for some)
- • Startup growing pains
- • High expectations
🏢 Working Here
Tempus, headquartered in Chicago with offices in Atlanta and San Francisco, operates at the intersection of precision medicine and healthcare IT.
Founded by Groupon co-founder Eric Lefkofsky, Tempus combines startup culture with significant resources ($1B+ raised).
Computational biologists work on analyzing real-world oncology data - tumor sequencing, RNA expression, treatment outcomes from partnered hospitals.
The unique aspect is scale and diversity: 50,000+ cancer patients profiled, linked to electronic health records and treatment outcomes.
Teams include Genomics (variant calling, RNA analysis), Machine Learning (predicting treatment response), Clinical Products (developing decision support tools), and Data Science (data quality, integration).
The culture is fast-paced and data-driven, with quarterly product launches.
Chicago location offers significantly lower cost of living than coasts while building a growing tech/biotech hub.
Tempus went public in 2024 (NASDAQ: TEM), providing liquidity for equity compensation.
🧬 Bioinformatics Focus
Tempus' computational focus is on translating genomic data into clinical actionability for oncologists. Core areas:
- Tumor sequencing analysis - detecting actionable mutations, fusions, copy number alterations from targeted panels and whole exome sequencing,
- RNA - based biomarkers - predicting checkpoint inhibitor response, MSI status, HRD from expression data,
- Real - world evidence analysis - correlating genomic features with treatment outcomes across thousands of patients,
- Machine learning for treatment recommendation - predicting which therapies will work for individual patients based on tumor profile and clinical features,
- Data integration - harmonizing genomic, clinical, radiology, and pathology data. Tempus has one of the largest cancer datasets combining multi-omic profiling with longitudinal outcomes. Computational challenges include handling real-world data (missing values, variable quality), developing models that generalize across cancer types, creating interpretable recommendations for FDA regulatory path, and maintaining HIPAA compliance. The team publishes in JCO, Nature Medicine, and maintains partnerships with major cancer centers (Northwestern, Mayo Clinic, MD Anderson).
📈 Career Growth & Development
Career Paths
Computational Biology
Data Science/ML Engineering
Growth
Tempus's rapid growth (2,000+ employees) creates abundant advancement opportunities. Versatility is valued, with scientists working across cancer types and data modalities.
Development
Professional development includes presenting at cancer conferences, contributing to product design, and cross-training in clinical oncology knowledge. Tempus encourages clinically relevant publications and maintains academic collaborations.
Compensation
Being a public company (IPO 2024) means equity compensation with liquidity events. The combination of engineering, ML, and clinical knowledge is a valuable skill set.
Mobility
Alumni join other precision medicine companies, tech companies building healthcare AI, or pharma companies seeking real-world data expertise.
Expertise
The expertise in real-world evidence and precision oncology is increasingly valuable as healthcare moves toward personalized medicine.