Lead Platform Engineer

True; San Francisco (CA); On-site; USD 220,000 - 300,000; Full time

Job summary

Confidential company in San Francisco, CA seeks a platform/infra engineer to own architecture, security, and scaling of a data platform. You will build pipelines, APIs, and storage with strong focus on provenance and async workloads.

The role requires 3–7 years in platform engineering, Kubernetes/Terraform/Ansible expertise, and comfort with Go, Python, and modern observability tools. On-site in San Francisco with relocation support.

Qualifications

• 3–7 years in platform or infrastructure engineering.
• Hands-on production backend infrastructure, data platforms, or distributed systems.
• Proficiency with Kubernetes, Terraform, Ansible, and modern CI/CD.
• Experience designing ETL/ELT pipelines for complex data.
• Strong software and infrastructure engineering background.
• Experience with Go, Python, FastAPI, TypeDB/TypeQL, Qdrant, GitHub Actions, OpenTelemetry, Prometheus.
• Biotechnology or computational biology data compliance or infra experience helpful.

Responsibilities

• Own architecture, delivery, security posture, and scaling of the core data platform.
• Build and maintain ingestion pipelines, APIs, microservices, and storage layers that preserve data provenance.
• Manage knowledge graph and vector search for AI agent workloads.
• Develop high-concurrency services in Go and Python with agent writes and isolated execution.
• Establish platform security practices: authentication, tenant isolation, secrets management, encryption, zero-trust.
• Own cloud infrastructure, CI/CD, observability, and define service objectives and internal workflows.
• Set engineering patterns, review code, mentor teammates, recruit the platform team.
• Partner with leadership on team design and interviewing.

Skills

Go

Python

FastAPI

Kubernetes

Terraform

Ansible

CI/CD

ETL/ELT design

Tools

TypeDB/TypeQL

Qdrant

GitHub Actions

OpenTelemetry

Prometheus

Job description

ABOUT THE ROLE

Lead platform engineering for a data infrastructure company building a foundational platform that turns complex scientific data into a unified, queryable knowledge base. You will own architecture, security, and scaling while setting engineering standards and helping grow the platform team.

WHAT YOU'LL DO

• Own the architecture, delivery, security posture, and scaling of the core data and execution platform.
• Build and maintain ingestion pipelines, APIs, microservices, and storage layers that structure varied scientific inputs while preserving data provenance.
• Manage knowledge graph and vector search systems to support hybrid retrieval for AI agent workloads.
• Develop high-concurrency services in Go and Python, including controls for agent writes and isolated execution environments.
• Establish platform security practices for authentication, tenant isolation, secrets management, encryption, and zero-trust access.
• Own cloud infrastructure, CI/CD, and observability, and define service objectives and internal developer workflows.
• Set engineering patterns, review code, mentor teammates, and help build the platform engineering team.
• Partner with company leadership on team design, candidate interviews, and recruiting.

WHAT WE'RE LOOKING FOR

• Three to seven years of platform or infrastructure engineering experience, with hands-on experience building production backend infrastructure, data platforms, or distributed systems.
• Deep proficiency with Kubernetes, Terraform, Ansible, and modern CI/CD systems.
• Experience designing ETL or ELT pipelines for complex, unstructured enterprise or scientific data.
• Strong software engineering skills alongside dedicated infrastructure engineering experience.
• Experience with Go, Python, FastAPI, TypeDB/TypeQL, Qdrant, GitHub Actions, OpenTelemetry, and Prometheus.
• Biotechnology, computational biology, data compliance, or early-stage infrastructure experience is helpful.

COMPENSATION & BENEFITS

Base salary is $220,000 to $300,000 annually. Equity details were not provided. Visa sponsorship or transfer is not available; candidates must be authorized to work in the United States without sponsorship.

LOCATION

On-site, five days per week in San Francisco, California. Relocation assistance is available.