Lead Platform Engineer

True; South San Francisco (CA); Hybrid; USD 205,000 - 235,000; Full time

Job summary

A biotechnology company in South San Francisco, CA is seeking an experienced infrastructure leader to helm compute, data, AI, and security infrastructure for sequencing operations. This hands-on leadership role bridges laboratory systems with cloud platforms and data workflows that enable scientific work.

You will own services that orchestrate lab devices, build scalable cloud pipelines, and design reliable distributed systems for large-scale bioinformatics workloads.

Qualifications

• 5+ years in platform/backend/infrastructure engineering.
• Experience at a scaling startup with growth.
• Strong AWS orchestration with ECS, Batch, Step Functions; Python backend with FastAPI or Django.
• Experience designing reliable distributed systems and state machines.
• Linux server administration and familiarity with Celery or SQS.
• Experience leading cross-functional projects and hands-on contributor.
• Familiar with AI tooling; building LLM/agent systems is valuable.
• Technical degree or equivalent; curiosity about biotechnology.

Responsibilities

• Own services that orchestrate laboratory devices, including robots and sequencers, plus the data ingestion pipeline.
• Build cloud infrastructure and data pipelines to store, process, and deliver sequencing data.
• Design reliable systems for orchestrating large-scale bioinformatics workloads, including queues, workflows, 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.

Skills

AWS ECS/Batch

Python

Distributed systems

Linux admin

Mentoring engineers

AI tooling familiarity

Education

Bachelor's degree in a related field

Tools

FastAPI

Django

Celery/SQS

S3/Cloud storage

Job description

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.