Staff Backend Engineer — PostgreSQL & Data Modeling

Beacon; Boston (MA); Hybrid; USD 170,000 - 190,000; Full time

Job summary

Beacon Biosignals seeks a Software Engineer IV for the Datastore team to design and scale backend data systems, including PostgreSQL models, Kafka pipelines, and a GraphQL API that powers researchers and partners.

You will own end-to-end data infrastructure, mentor engineers, draft RFCs, and collaborate across platform, application, and science teams to unlock new workflows in Beacon's growing clinical studies portfolio.

Qualifications

• 7+ years of backend development experience with data platforms and backend infrastructure for data-centric applications.
• Strong data modeling, distributed systems, API design, or database engineering skills.
• Proficiency in SQL with PostgreSQL as an application database; fluent in writing and tuning queries.
• Hands-on data streaming and event processing experience with Kafka or equivalents.
• Proficiency in Python; Julia is a strong plus, but not required.
• Experience with containerized environments, Kubernetes, and IaC tools like Terraform or Helm.
• Track record of mentoring engineers and improving team practices.
• Collaborative mindset with strong asynchronous communication.
• Excellent written and verbal communication for async/remote work.
• Self-directed with a history of thriving in hybrid or remote teams.
• Interest in using LLM-assisted tools in production.

Responsibilities

• Lead design and architecture for complex Datastore projects and systems.
• Translate requirements from product/science stakeholders into scalable integrations and services.
• Debug and profile cross-system issues, improving structure, tests, tooling.
• Maintain data integrity and design sound, maintainable systems across lifecycles.
• Draft RFCs to guide complex feature discovery and technical design.
• Plan and contribute to team planning, considering multiple stakeholder needs.
• Mentor engineers and contribute to engineering practice across the team.
• Improve operational robustness and ease of use via documentation, tools, dashboards.

Skills

Backend development

Data modeling

PostgreSQL SQL

Kafka

Python

Kubernetes

Terraform

Mentoring

Collaboration

Communication

Self-directed

LLM tools

Job description

Beacon Biosignals seeks a Software Engineer IV for the Datastore team to design and scale backend data systems, including PostgreSQL models, Kafka pipelines, and a GraphQL API that powers researchers and partners.

You will own end-to-end data infrastructure, mentor engineers, draft RFCs, and collaborate across platform, application, and science teams to unlock new workflows in Beacon's growing clinical studies portfolio.