- Project/division: SecureBio Detection
- Start date: as soon as possible
- Status: full-time SecureBio employee
- Approximate compensation: $165,000 to $190,000, depending on experience
- Visa sponsorship available: not available
- Work location: in-person in Cambridge, MA strongly preferred
The role
SecureBio is a nonprofit working to protect the world from catastrophic pandemics. As advances in biotechnology lower the barriers to engineering pathogens, our mission is to ensure humanity’s detection and alert systems are ready. As part of this mission, our Detection team is building a pathogen-agnostic pandemic early warning system: we operate the world’s largest metagenomic biosurveillance network, which performs daily sequencing of wastewater samples and nasal swabs to screen for emerging pathogens. Our computational team develops detection pipelines responsible for rapid processing of deep sequencing data in order to flag potential threats.
In pandemic early detection, speed is critical: novel pathogens spread exponentially, so every day of delay means many more people are infected by the time of detection. To meet this challenge, SecureBio Detection plans to more than double our sampling frequency and sequencing volume (currently ~50 billion read pairs per week) while reducing computational end-to-end time from ~12 hours to ~2 hours.
As our early warning system scales, we’re looking for a software engineer to help us meet our volume and turnaround time goals. This role will focus on making our metagenomic detection pipelines fast, scalable, robust, and accurate, and will also own pipeline observability. Prior experience with biology or bioinformatics is not required.
Responsibilities
- Pipeline performance: benchmark computational pipelines, identify bottlenecks, and implement optimizations – from CPU cache locality to data flow to complete algorithmic refactors.
- Pipeline accuracy: improve the sensitivity and specificity of detection algorithms.
- Pipeline infrastructure: deploy cloud infrastructure, monitor throughput, optimize cost and reliability, maintain databases.
- Observability and reliability: implement dashboards, expand test coverage, and quickly triage pipeline failures.
- AI acceleration: stay up to date with rapid AI progress and creatively use AI tools to accelerate your work. (And your colleagues’ work!)
Qualifications
Must have
- 2+ years of professional experience in software engineering or a related field
- Proficiency with performance patterns across the full stack, e.g. memory access patterns, networking, and algorithm asymptotic complexity
- Creativity in algorithm design
- Experience with distributed or cloud-based data pipelines
- Strong programming skills in a language of your choice, with a robust mental model of that language’s execution
- Enthusiasm and ability to use AI tools to complement your skills and boost your velocity
- Careful listener, strong communicator, and writes excellent tech specs
- Judgment and taste in prioritizing projects and selecting technical approaches
- Excited about biosecurity and pandemic prevention
Nice to have
- Experience with workflow orchestrators like Nextflow, Flyte, Airflow, etc.
- Experience managing cloud resources via infrastructure as code
- Experience with tools and technologies we currently use, including Python, Rust, Nextflow, Terraform, or AWS
- Experience processing large scale sequencing data
Logistics and benefits
This is a full-time in-person role located in our Cambridge, MA office. For exceptional candidates, there may be flexibility on remote/hybrid work and starting salary. Depending on prior experience and demonstrated skills, this role may be hired at the Software Engineer or Senior Software Engineer level.
Our employee benefits reflect our belief in investing to build the strongest possible team, in which everyone receives the trust and support they need to excel. Our benefits package includes:
Comprehensive healthcare
Comprehensive healthcare coverage, including health, dental & vision insurance, as well as a yearly mental health allowance for every employee.
Flexible work schedule
Flexible work hours; unlimited paid time off (PTO) for all employees; and minimum 12 weeks fully-paid parental leave.
Development opportunities
Generous professional development opportunities, including fully-paid conference sponsorships and a yearly development allowance for every employee.
401(k)
Employer 401(k) match up to 4% of total salary.
Excellent offices
Superb working environments in our Kendall Square offices, including high-quality ergonomic office equipment, snacks, and daily catered lunches.
Relocation & commuter support
Free commuter benefits up to $250/month, plus a generous relocation allowance for employees who move to the Boston area.
Application process
We will review applications on a rolling basis, and are looking for someone to start as soon as possible.
After considering your written application, we may invite you to a short screening interview. High-performing candidates may be invited to further interviews, followed by an in-person work trial in our Cambridge, MA office. We will also require two to three reference checks.
We’re committed to fostering a culture of inclusion, and we encourage individuals with diverse backgrounds and experiences to apply. We especially encourage applications from women, gender minorities, and people of color who are excited about contributing to our mission, and are happy to consider applicants from overseas. We’re an equal opportunity employer.
If you need assistance or an accommodation due to a disability, or have any other questions about applying, please contact careers@securebio.org.
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Referral bonus
We offer a referral bonus of up to $5,000 to individuals who refer successful candidates for this position:
To receive these bonuses, we must reasonably believe that you were responsible for referring the candidate to us (e.g. due to you introducing them to us when we didn’t previously know them, or them mentioning you on their application as the reason they heard about the position).
- If you refer a candidate that we invite to a technical interview, you will receive $150;
- If you refer a candidate that we invite to an in-person work trial, you will receive a further $650, for a total of $800;
- If the candidate accepts a job offer from us, you will receive a further $2,000, for a total of $2,800;
- If the candidate is still working with us after three months, you will receive a further $2,200, for a total of $5,000.