Software Engineer (Datastore)

Beacon Biosignals; Boston (MA); Hybrid; USD 150,000 - 210,000; Full time

Job summary

Beacon Biosignals is seeking a Software Engineer IV for the Datastore team. You will design and scale backend data infrastructure, including PostgreSQL data models, Kafka pipelines, and GraphQL APIs, and lead complex system design.

You will mentor engineers, collaborate with cross-functional teams, and drive architectural decisions to unlock new data workflows across clinical studies and digital health products.

Qualifications

• 7+ years of backend development experience, including data platforms and backend infrastructure.
• Experience with data streaming and event processing using Kafka or equivalent.
• Strong proficiency in SQL with PostgreSQL as an application database.

Responsibilities

• Lead design and architecture for complex Datastore projects and data pipelines.
• Collaborate with product managers and stakeholders to translate requirements into scalable APIs and integrations.
• Draft RFCs to guide complex feature discovery and technical design with input from teams.
• Mentor engineers and contribute to team practices, tooling, and documentation.

Skills

Backend development

Data modeling

Distributed systems

SQL proficiency

GraphQL API design

TypeScript/JavaScript (Node.js)

Mentoring engineers

Cross-functional collaboration

Hybrid/remote teamwork

Julia or Python

Tools

Kafka

PostgreSQL

Kubernetes

Terraform

Helm

RabbitMQ

Pulsar

Job description

• Beacon Biosignals is seeking a Software Engineer IV to join our Datastore team
• The Datastore sits at the heart of Beacon's platform
• It defines our foundational data model and serves as the centralized repository and API for brain data collected from clinical studies, supporting the analytical tools, services, and applications used by our scientists, clinicians, and partners
• This role emphasizes the design and scaling of backend systems for data infrastructure: PostgreSQL data models, Kafka-driven event pipelines, and the GraphQL API that makes scientific and clinical data usable - distinct from frontend development or end-user product surfaces
• At this level you will lead the design of complex systems within the Datastore rather than individual components, own the pipelines that deliver dataset snapshots into our warehouse, and collaborate across platform, application and scientific teams to implement APIs that unlock new workflows in Beacon's expanding portfolio of clinical studies and digital health products
• You should expect to write SQL by hand, and to reason about schema design, indexes, and query behavior as a matter of course
• What success looks like:
• You lead design and architecture for complex projects and systems within the Datastore, weighing implementation trade-offs with engineering principles and backing your decisions with data rather than preference
• You partner with product managers, scientific and clinical stakeholders, and other development and support teams to translate their requirements into new integrations, services, and solutions for scaling Beacon's data platform - contributing to broader product and technical decisions, not simply implementing them
• You debug and profile ambiguous problems that cross system boundaries, including codebases beyond the Datastore's purview, and you leave what you touch better than you found it - structure, test coverage, tooling
• Peers look to your work as an example: you implement features with attention to detail, demonstrating product awareness and high standards for data integrity, design soundness, and maintainability across the lifespan of the system
• You draft RFCs to lead complex feature discovery and technical design phases, soliciting and incorporating input, and helping your team align on a set of decisions to guide development
• You plan your own work and contribute to planning the team's, making reasoned trade-offs between speed, generalizability, and technical debt, and accounting for the needs of multiple stakeholder teams
• You teach and mentor other engineers regularly, give feedback that people act on, and are sought out for it. You may act as tech lead on a project or as the coordination point for engineering practice within the team
• You leverage feedback from internal stakeholders and external partners to improve operational robustness and ease of use of the Datastore and its services via new documentation, tools, and dashboards

Hands-on experience with data streaming and event processing, using Kafka (our event bus) or an equivalent such as RabbitMQ, Pulsar, or a cloud-based equivalent like Amazon KinesisExperience deploying and operating services in containerized environments, with familiarity in Kubernetes and Infrastructure as Code (IaC) tools such as Terraform and/or HelmStrong proficiency in SQL, with production experience working with PostgreSQL as an application database; you write and tune queries fluently and are comfortable reasoning about schema design, indexes, and query plansA collaborative mindset: you enjoy working across disciplines and believe people achieve more together than aloneA track record of mentoring engineers and improving how a team works - practices, tooling, test coverage, or documentation that outlasted your involvementA self-directed approach, with a track record of thriving in hybrid or fully remote teamsExperience with GraphQL and TypeScript/JavaScript (Node.js) - GraphQL is the Datastore's primary interfaceExcellent written and verbal communication skills, especially in asynchronous and remote-friendly environments7+ years of backend development experience, including at least 3 years focused on data platforms and backend infrastructure for data-centric applications: transactional systems, event pipelines, and the APIs that serve themHighly proficient in at least one technical area relevant to this work: data modeling, distributed systems, API design, or database engineering, with the depth that others on a team come to you forWe don't expect every candidate to check every box. If you bring strong fundamentals, care about data infrastructure for health, and are excited to learn, we'd love to hear from you!Proficiency in Julia or Python; Julia is a core Datastore language, and experience with Julia is a strong plus, but not required - we welcome candidates eager to learn it!Experience with, or interest in, using LLM-assisted or agentic coding tools in a production setting, with good judgment about what guardrails are needed