Head/VP of Engineering

Valius Sciences; San Francisco (CA); On-site; USD 250,000 - 350,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Equity

Benefits package

Professional development

Job summary

Valius seeks a Head / VP of Engineering to lead the growing engineering function in San Francisco. You will partner with the founders and science team to steer internal and external product directions, data infra, and AI-powered platforms.

You’ll mentor engineers, shape a high-performance culture, and build the team and processes needed to scale. You’ll stay hands-on when needed and define architecture, security, and cloud strategy for rapid growth.

Qualifications

• 8+ years of software engineering experience with 2–3 years in leadership.
• Hands-on execution and mentoring engineers.
• Strong product instincts and cross-functional collaboration.
• Full-stack foundation with backend, data, and cloud expertise.
• Experience making end-to-end architectural decisions.
• Experience building and scaling engineering teams.
• Eager to work in a fast-moving, early-stage environment.
• Commitment to our patient-focused mission.

Responsibilities

• Define and own technical strategy with the founding team.
• Establish lightweight engineering processes to ship reliably.
• Directly manage software engineers and lead hiring.
• Contribute to codebase, review code, and make architectural decisions.
• Own architecture, cloud infrastructure, and data pipelines.
• Partner with computational biology to develop tools.
• Contribute across the company with an engineering perspective.

Skills

Leadership

Hands-on coding

Full stack

Cloud architecture

Python

Data pipelines

Product instincts

Hiring

Job description

Valius Overview

At Valius, we believe that the future of cancer care will be defined by “maximalist” diagnostics: deep, comprehensive assessments of DNA, RNA, and protein designed to give patients and their care teams the best possible understanding of how their tumor works and what its vulnerabilities are.

Valius Overview

At Valius, we believe that the future of cancer care will be defined by “maximalist” diagnostics: deep, comprehensive assessments of DNA, RNA, and protein designed to give patients and their care teams the best possible understanding of how their tumor works and what its vulnerabilities are. We’re building the diagnostics and bioinformatics company to power this future, starting by applying this approach to patients with challenging cancers. In our first year, we worked with over 75 of these patients and, in many cases, identified plausible therapeutic targets which had not been discovered previously. This coming year, we’re on track to scale our patient volume significantly, all while bringing new diagnostic modalities (e.g., single-cell transcriptomics) and analytical approaches into clinical care for the very first time. We’ve just raised a $13.5M seed round, led by 8VC and Basis Set Ventures, and are looking for people passionate about changing cancer care to join our growing team.

Head / VP of Engineering role

We’re hiring a strategic and experienced Head / VP of Engineering to lead the engineering function at Valius. You’ll be a player-coach: collaborating directly with the founders and the science team to oversee the technical direction of all of our internal and external facing products, and being hands‑on in the engineering with your developers. You’ll also be responsible for building the engineering team, culture, and processes that will propel our growth. This role will be expected to work out of our beautiful San Francisco office four days a week.

What You’ll Do

• Define and own technical strategy: Partner with the founding team to set the technical vision and roadmap across our internal and external applications, data infrastructure, and AI‑powered product.
• Drive product delivery: Establish lightweight but effective engineering processes that help the team ship reliably without bureaucratic overhead.
• Lead and grow the engineering team: Directly manage our software engineers, establish a high‑performance engineering culture, and lead hiring as the team grows.
• Stay hands‑on: Contribute meaningfully to the codebase, including reviewing code, making architectural decisions, and rolling up your sleeves when needed.
• Own architecture and infrastructure: Make key decisions on system design, cloud infrastructure, data pipelines, and our security and compliance posture.
• Partner with computational biology: Work closely with our science team to develop tools that accelerate their work.
• Contribute across the company: Pitch in on cross‑functional initiatives and bring an engineering perspective to strategic, company‑level decisions.

What You’ll Bring

• 8+ years of software engineering experience, with at least 2-3 years in an engineering leadership role (tech lead, engineering manager, or equivalent)
• Track record of both hands‑on technical execution and leading / mentoring engineers
• Strong product instincts and ability to collaborate with non‑engineering stakeholders to shape roadmaps
• Strong foundation across the full stack, with particular depth in back‑end systems, data infrastructure, and cloud architecture (Python, AWS/GCP, data pipelines)
• Experience making architectural decisions and owning them end‑to‑end
• Experience building and scaling engineering teams, including hiring
• Genuine excitement about working in a fast‑moving, early‑stage environment where the scope of the role will evolve
• Commitment to our patient‑focused mission

Other nice to haves

• Experience in life sciences, genomics, or bioinformatics
• Experience working at an early‑stage startup
• Background in data engineering or working with large datasets
• Experience integrating AI features in production applications
• Experience as an early engineering hire or founding engineer at a startup

What We’ll Bring

• Competitive salary and equity compensation
• Generous refresh grants
• Comprehensive benefits (health, dental, vision, 401(k))
• Genuine investment in your professional development
• Fun, mission‑driven team culture

Compensation Range: $250K - $350K