Platform Engineer

Helical Ltd.; Greater London; On-site; GBP 90,000 - 130,000; Full time

Job summary

Helical Ltd. is seeking a Platform Engineer to build and scale the infrastructure behind our AI-enabled biology lab. This hands-on role covers Kubernetes operations, cloud infrastructure, and production deployment across ML pipelines.

You will own CI/CD, observability, and migrations, while collaborating with ML, backend, and product teams to deliver scalable, secure, and robust systems for accelerated drug discovery.

Qualifications

• 4+ years in platform / DevOps / infra.
• Strong Kubernetes, Docker, cloud (AWS/GCP/Azure).
• GPU workloads / ML infra.
• Experience designing & operating multi-tenant architectures with strict tenant isolation.
• Familiarity with autoscaling & service isolation.
• Experience with CI/CD, databases, infra-as-code.
• Comfortable debugging production systems.

Responsibilities

• Run and scale Kubernetes (incl. GPU workloads).
• Own cloud infrastructure and infra-as-code.
• Support ML training & inference pipelines.
• Manage CI/CD, observability, and deployments.
• Handle databases, storage, and migrations.
• Build automation (Python/Bash).
• Work closely with ML, backend, and product.

Skills

multi-tenant architectures

tenant isolation

Autoscaling

production debugging

observability

Education

MSC/PhD in Machine Learning

Tools

Kubernetes

Docker

AWS

GCP

Azure

GPU workloads

CI/CD

infra-as-code

Python

Bash

Databases

Job description

Helical is the AI-native lab for biology.

We turn biological foundation models into production systems for discovery—so scientists can run experiments in silico at the speed of inference.

We’re already deployed with top pharma, supporting work from target identification to biomarker discovery.

The Role

We’re hiring a Platform Engineer to build and scale the infrastructure behind our virtual AI lab.

This is a hands‑on role:
debugging Kubernetes one moment, improving architecture the next, shipping to production throughout.

You’ll be working on the system that makes AI-driven drug discovery actually usable at scale.

What You’ll Do

• Run and scale Kubernetes (incl. GPU workloads)
• Own cloud infrastructure and infra-as-code
• Support ML training & inference pipelines
• Manage CI/CD, observability, and deployments
• Handle databases, storage, and migrations
• Build automation (Python/Bash)
• Work closely with ML, backend, and product

What We’re Looking For

• 4+ years in platform / DevOps / infra
• Strong Kubernetes, Docker, cloud (AWS/GCP/Azure)
• GPU workloads / ML infra
• Experience designing & operating multi-tenant architectures with strict tenant isolation
• Familiarity with autoscaling & service isolation
• Experience with CI/CD, databases, infra-as-code
• Comfortable debugging production systems

Nice to Have

• Security/compliance (SOC2, HIPAA)
• Exposure to AirFlow and MLFlow for scientific workflows
• MSC/PHD in Machine Learning
• Biotech / pharma experience

Why Helical

• Live with top pharma
• High ownership, small team
• Work at the intersection of AI, biology, and systems
• Build something that actually changes how medicine is made
• High ownership, low ego