Backend and Infrastructure Engineer

Biotrust; San Francisco, Northern (CA, KY); Hybrid; USD 120,000 - 170,000; Full time

Job summary

BioTrust is hiring a Backend & Infrastructure Engineer in San Francisco to own the systems, infrastructure, and data backing the verification platform. You will help scale a production-grade AWS-based stack, implementing rigorous data models and secure, auditable processes to mitigate AI misuse and support biosecurity efforts.

You will collaborate with leadership to define data retention, residency, and privacy controls while building a trustworthy, scalable platform for researchers and labs.

Qualifications

• Experience building production-grade software on AWS.
• Strong understanding of data models and system design.
• Experience with access controls and audit trails.
• Ability to work across cross-functional teams.
• Comfort with biosecurity and AI risk contexts.

Responsibilities

• Own the backend, infrastructure, and data systems behind the verification platform on AWS.
• Design and implement data model for verification decisions.
• Build controls for permissions, secrets, audit logging, data separation, residency, and retention.
• Integrate with external screening and identity data sources.
• Own the governance side of AI in the workflow.
• Keep the end-to-end picture for analysts.

Skills

Cloud infrastructure

Security & compliance

Backend systems engineering

Data modeling

Audits & logging

Communication

Biosecurity awareness

Tools

AWS

Job description

BioTrust Backend & Infrastructure Engineer San Francisco, CA Full time Company website

We're hiring engineers to own the systems, infrastructure, and security the rest of the product is built on. You will be part of an ambitious, high velocity, mission-focused team directly mitigating AI misuse and building infrastructure for sustainably preventing AI and biosecurity risks.

About BioTrust

BioTrust is building the trusted-access layer between frontier AI labs, AI-bio tool developers, gene synthesis providers, and the researchers who use them. We verify once and let researchers be trusted across providers, reducing friction for legitimate science while creating a defensible screening layer against catastrophic misuse. We bring the experience of alumni of the UK AI Security Institute, Microsoft, Asana, the FBI, Los Alamos National Laboratory, and Oxford.

Description

What you'll do

• Own the backend, infrastructure, and data systems behind the verification platform, growing the current prototype into production-grade software on AWS.
• Design and implement the data model with the CTO and COO for how verification decisions are recorded, separated, retained, and kept reproducible and auditable.
• Build controls for permissions, secrets, audit logging, data separation, residency, and retention while driving toward SOC 2 and ISO 27001 certification.
• Build and own external integrations to screening and identity data sources.
• Own the governance side of AI in the workflow, including data separation and privacy.
• Keep the end-to-end picture in view: how the whole system fits together and what it unblocks for analysts.

What this job actually looks like

• The codebase is young: a prototype to extend and harden into production, with most foundational systems and security work still ahead. Much of it is unglamorous: data models, access controls, audit trails, and integration plumbing.
• The right person likes that the details matter. This is the screening layer meant to hold up against catastrophic misuse, so you build fast but correct, secure, and auditable from the start.
• On a team this small your layer is T-shaped: deep in systems and security but touching the whole stack, with constant collaboration across technical direction, compliance, and the end-to-end workflow.

What we're looking for

• Deep cloud and infrastructure ability.
• Security and compliance instincts across access control, audit logging, data separation, and privacy.
• Strong backend and systems engineering with solid data modeling.
• A fast but rigorous builder who sweats the details.
• A feel for the whole system, not just your slice.
• Clear, balanced communication through high-stakes trade-offs.
• Comfort getting up to speed on biosecurity and AI risk.

Nice to have

• Hands-on experience achieving SOC 2 or ISO 27001 certification, or building to a formal compliance framework.
• Experience taking systems from prototype to production on an early-stage team or greenfield codebase.
• Background in regulated or high-trust domains such as fintech, healthtech, govtech, identity/KYC, security, or trust and safety.
• Interest or background in biosecurity, AI safety, or other high-stakes domains.

Other notes

• Compensation will be determined by experience, scope, and impact.