Lead Platform Engineer

Role details

ABOUT THE ROLE Lead the compute, data, AI, and security infrastructure behind a biotechnology sequencing operation. This hands-on technical leadership role connects laboratory systems with reliable cloud platforms and data workflows that support scientific work. WHAT YOU'LL DO - Own services that orchestrate laboratory devices, including robots, sequencers, and on-premises Linux servers, along with the data ingestion pipeline. - Build cloud infrastructure and data pipelines to store, process, and deliver large volumes of sequencing data. - Design reliable systems for orchestrating large-scale bioinformatics workloads, including queues, workflow orchestration, and scheduling. - Develop AI infrastructure and internal tools for operational quality monitoring, logistics coordination, and adaptive bioinformatics analysis. - Lead cross-functional projects from problem definition through production, connecting architectural decisions to business impact. - Contribute directly to implementation while mentoring engineers and communicating across scientific and engineering teams. WHAT WE'RE LOOKING FOR - At least 5 years of experience in platform, backend, or infrastructure engineering, including meaningful experience at a startup as it scaled. - Strong AWS orchestration experience with ECS, Batch, and Step Functions, plus Python backend development using FastAPI or Django. - Experience designing and shipping reliable distributed systems, including queues, orchestration, and state machines. - Linux server administration experience and familiarity with distributed task queues such as Celery or SQS. - Experience leading cross-functional projects and mentoring engineers on a small team, with a substantial hands-on individual contributor focus. - Current familiarity with AI tooling; experience building LLM or agent systems, including tools, evaluation, safety, permissions, prompts, and workflows, is valuable. - A technical degree or equivalent background, and curiosity about biotechnology, science, and scientific applications. COMPENSATION & BENEFITS Base salary is $205,000 to $235,000 USD annually. Visa sponsorship is available. LOCATION Hybrid in South San Francisco, California, United States.