Principal Data Engineer & AI Platform Lead

Vir-Biotechnology; San Francisco (CA); Hybrid; USD 177,000 - 247,000; Full time

Job summary

Vir Biotechnology in San Francisco seeks an Associate Director, Principal Data Engineer to lead scalable data, cloud, software, and AI-enabled research platforms that support discovery and decision-making.

The role partners across Research, Clinical, Data Science, IT, and operations, building AI-powered workflows with governance, data quality, and reliability in a fast-changing biopharma environment.

Qualifications

• BS/MS in Computer Science, Data Engineering, Bioinformatics, or related technical field.
• 12+ years of experience in data engineering, software engineering, scientific computing, cloud architecture, or related.
• Strong hands-on experience with Python and/or Java and scalable data pipelines.
• Experience building AI/ML-enabled scientific applications using leading LLMs and RAG.
• Experience integrating LIMS, ELN, or experiment-management systems.
• Strong AWS cloud infrastructure experience.
• Experience with Databricks, Snowflake, Redshift, Spark, Airflow, Nextflow.
• Experience supporting bioinformatics, genomics ML, clinical data.
• Strong knowledge of data modeling, metadata, governance, lineage.
• Demonstrated technical leadership and mentoring.

Responsibilities

• Build AI-enabled research workflows and agents for scientists to search, analyze, summarize, and connect Vir-generated data.
• Develop AI agents for TCE research insights, Experimenta QC/QA review, and scientific/regulatory reporting.
• Design trusted LLM, RAG, knowledge-search, and agentic AI workflows with traceability, validation, governance.
• Lead development and integration of scientific platforms, including SeqAssembler, HPD/dAIsY, SASTRY, OPAL Miner, and more.
• Build scalable research and clinical data pipelines for bioinformatics, genomics, ML, and scientific decision-making.
• Architect and operate AWS cloud infrastructure for AI/ML, bioinformatics, clinical analysis, and large-scale data.
• Strengthen data quality, metadata, lineage, observability, security, governance.
• Partner cross-functionally to align data, cloud, and AI solutions with programs.
• Provide senior technical leadership across architecture, engineering practices, mentoring, and roadmap.

Skills

Python/Java

AWS cloud

AI/ML-enabled apps

Data engineering

Genomics data

Education

Bachelor's/Master's in CS/Engineering/Bioinformatics

Tools

SeqAssembler

HPD/dAIsY

SASTRY

OPAL Miner

Job description

Vir Biotechnology in San Francisco seeks an Associate Director, Principal Data Engineer to lead scalable data, cloud, software, and AI-enabled research platforms that support discovery and decision-making.

The role partners across Research, Clinical, Data Science, IT, and operations, building AI-powered workflows with governance, data quality, and reliability in a fast-changing biopharma environment.