Staff Software Engineer, Production-Grade Data Systems

GRAIL; Menlo Park (CA); On-site; USD 169,000 - 224,000; Full time

Job summary

GRAIL, a healthcare company focused on early cancer detection, seeks a Staff Software Engineer for the Data Team in Menlo Park, moving to Sunnyvale in Fall 2026. This production-grade role focuses on data lifecycles, building scalable data systems to support clinical research and operations.

Flexible on-site/remote work with 60% on-site requirement. You will own data-ready datasets, collaborate with researchers and clinical teams, and guide long-lived data pipelines in a regulated environment.

Qualifications

• 7+ years of experience building production-grade software systems.
• Strong fundamentals in system design, data modeling, API design and well-tested production code.
• Experience building and operating data-intensive software systems, not just declarative pipelines or SQL-only workflows.
• Proficiency in Go or Python (or similar general-purpose language).
• Experience with data modeling, validation, and transforming real-world data into usable formats.
• BS in Computer Science, Engineering or Bioinformatics, or equivalent practical experience.

Responsibilities

• Design and implement software systems that turn raw clinical, lab, and operational data into reliable, analysis-ready datasets.
• Partner with scientists, clinicians, lab operations, and data teams to understand data generation, transformation, and usage needs.
• Develop services, libraries, data models, and workflow components that enforce data integrity, access control, and compliance by design.
• Navigate complex data requirements such as schema evolution, blinding, consent, and privacy compliance.
• Collaborate on cross-functional initiatives involving data quality, testing strategy, monitoring, and operational excellence.
• Lead software engineering efforts for long-lived systems that must evolve alongside active clinical and research programs.
• Mentor engineers and collaborate with scientists to ensure software decisions support both technical and scientific outcomes.
• Contribute to documentation, onboarding materials, and processes that support cross-functional adoption and data literacy across teams.
• Participate in incident response or investigation processes related to data quality or availability issues in production systems.

Skills

7+ years experience

System design

Data modeling

API design

Tests & production code

Data-intensive systems

Education

BS in CS/Engineering/Bioinformatics

Job description

GRAIL, a healthcare company focused on early cancer detection, seeks a Staff Software Engineer for the Data Team in Menlo Park, moving to Sunnyvale in Fall 2026. This production-grade role focuses on data lifecycles, building scalable data systems to support clinical research and operations.

Flexible on-site/remote work with 60% on-site requirement. You will own data-ready datasets, collaborate with researchers and clinical teams, and guide long-lived data pipelines in a regulated environment.