Backend & Infrastructure Engineer
A senior systems role owning the infrastructure, security, and auditability behind BioTrust's verification platform.
- Commitment
- Full-time. We're hiring on either a fixed-term contract or a permanent basis, depending on fit and your situation. We're happy to start as a contract and convert. For the contract path we want to move fast, so ideally you can start immediately.
- Location
- Bay Area and in person for the permanent role, with potential flexibility for contractors. We're open to discussing visa support for the right person.
- Compensation
- $200-250k + equity for the permanent position, depending on experience and seniority.
BioTrust is building the trusted-access layer between frontier AI labs, AI-bio tool developers, gene synthesis providers, and the researchers who use them. We verify once and let researchers be trusted across providers, reducing friction for legitimate science while creating a defensible screening layer against catastrophic misuse.
We're hiring an early engineer to own the systems, infrastructure, and security the rest of the product is built on. It's a senior, high-judgment, hands-on role.
You'll report to the CTO and work alongside at least one engineer focused on the product and analyst experience, on a small team with a lot of surface area to own and room to grow.
What you'll do
- Own the backend, infrastructure, and data systems behind the verification platform, growing the current prototype into production-grade software on AWS.
- Design and implement the data model with the CTO and COO for how verification decisions are recorded, separated, retained, and kept reproducible and auditable.
- Build controls for permissions, secrets, audit logging, data separation, residency, and retention while driving toward SOC 2 and ISO 27001 certification.
- Build and own external integrations to screening and identity data sources.
- Own the governance side of AI in the workflow, including data separation and privacy.
- Keep the end-to-end picture in view: how the whole system fits together and what it unblocks for analysts.
What this job actually looks like
The codebase is young: a prototype to extend and harden into production, with most foundational systems and security work still ahead. Much of it is unglamorous: data models, access controls, audit trails, and integration plumbing.
The right person likes that the details matter. This is the screening layer meant to hold up against catastrophic misuse, so you build fast but correct, secure, and auditable from the start.
On a team this small your layer is T-shaped: deep in systems and security but touching the whole stack, with constant collaboration across technical direction, compliance, and the end-to-end workflow.
What we're looking for
- Deep cloud and infrastructure ability.
- Security and compliance instincts across access control, audit logging, data separation, and privacy.
- Strong backend and systems engineering with solid data modeling.
- A fast but rigorous builder who sweats the details.
- A feel for the whole system, not just your slice.
- Clear, balanced communication through high-stakes trade-offs.
- Comfort getting up to speed on biosecurity and AI risk.
Nice to have
- Hands-on experience achieving SOC 2 or ISO 27001 certification, or building to a formal compliance framework.
- Experience taking systems from prototype to production on an early-stage team or greenfield codebase.
- Background in regulated or high-trust domains such as fintech, healthtech, govtech, identity/KYC, security, or trust and safety.
- Interest or background in biosecurity, AI safety, or other high-stakes domains.
Ready to apply?
Tell us about your experience, what draws you to BioTrust, and the role you want to help shape.
For questions, email kenan@biotrust.org.