Product Engineer, Backend

Department: Engineering

Location: San Francisco

Employment Type: FullTime

About Plasmidsaurus

Plasmidsaurus is on a mission to accelerate new cures and promote a healthier planet by unlocking a new level of productivity for scientists. Our sequencing services are used daily by thousands of innovators, including Nobel laureates, Fortune 100 pharma, and over 70,000 scientists.

We began by revolutionizing plasmid sequencing, making it exponentially cheaper and faster, with innovative sequencing technologies and a global network of laboratories that turn samples into answers in hours, not weeks.

Now we are expanding that same disruptive model across all of genomics. With the launch of our new RNA-seq service, we are taking a bold step toward our vision to sequence everything, providing scientists everywhere with faster, simpler, and more affordable access to the data that powers discovery.

Every team member at Plasmidsaurus plays a crucial role in driving the future of biotech research. Together, we are building the world’s most efficient sequencing engine that operates overnight, scales globally, and helps scientists make breakthroughs faster than ever before.

Position Overview

You'll work on backend services that power our impact on the biotech ecosystem, wearing many hats from:

• Building REST APIs that allow our customers to seamlessly integrate their DNA sequencing results into their lab notebooks.

• Developing services and integrating APIs for our blazing fast operations, coordinating our couriers, labs, and robots around the world.

• Building robust payment services to streamline billing, invoicing, and product pricing.

• Building high performance backend services to process terabytes of sequencing data per day, powering our frontend bioinformatics analytics tools.

Culture

You are someone who:

• Enjoys high agency and high ownership work.

• Is curious about learning from other people’s expertise in scientific/biological domains.

• Is excited to make an impact on the scientific community, enabling the next generation of medicines, biotechnology, and even plant-based-meats!

• Can lead projects from idea to production independently.

• Is a life-long learner.

• Is excited to work in a tight-knit fast-paced environment with a motivated team.

• Values clear communication and helping others learn new skills.

Qualifications

• BS in Computer Science, Computer Engineering, Math, Physics, or technical subject.

• 3+ years of industry experience.

• Experience with REST API best practices (such as OpenAPI) and designing service-oriented architectures.

• Experience with SQL and data modeling in relational databases.

• Experience with full-stack Python web frameworks like Flask or Django.

• Some familiarity with modern frontend javascript frameworks (React, Vue, Svelte).

• Experience working in AWS (ECS, Lambda, Batch, RDS, StepFunctions) and infrastructure-as-code best practices.

• Experience building distributed systems with task queues (such as Celery and SQS).

• Experience with modern unit and integration testing frameworks for Python.

• Experience using CI/CD to deploy applications like Github Actions.

• Experience working with Linux servers.

• (Preferred) interest in learning about biotechnology and DNA sequence analysis.

Why Plasmidsaurus?

• IMPACT: Your work will directly contribute to accelerating biotech research. This research is one of humanity’s most powerful tools for stopping climate change and developing novel therapies.

• INNOVATION: Work on the cutting edge of biotech and software, introducing indispensable tools to top-tier researchers.

• COMMUNITY: Join a passionate, scrappy team that values close, interactive relationships with our customers and each other.

We encourage you to apply even if your experience doesn't perfectly align with the job description as we seek out diverse and creative perspectives. Team members who love to learn and collaborate in an inclusive environment will thrive with us. We are an equal opportunity employer and do not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, color, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, age, marital status, veteran status, or disability status. If you need additional accommodations to feel comfortable during your interview process, please let us know at [email protected].