Staff Backend Engineer

Job description

At Genestack we are tackling the underlying computational and scientific challenges of bioinformatics in order to provide researchers with software tools that will streamline the discovery process and drive forward precision medicine, drug development, and bioinformatics research. Our platform is deployed at leading pharmaceutical, agricultural, and consumer goods companies as well as leading academic institutions and this is just the beginning of our journey. We’re looking for a passionate, results-oriented engineer ready to lead by example and tackle complex problems in an intellectually stimulating domain. You’ll work on a product that manages petabytes of biological data and helps make the world a better place. We value engineers who are: inventive, pragmatic, and curious; comfortable navigating ambiguity; committed to building excellent engineering culture; eager to grow professionally within a strong and collaborative team. We follow agile practices, own our processes, and continuously evolve with our product. This role offers: close collaboration with the Head of Engineering on product architecture; hands-on implementation of new features; the opportunity to work on a product that handles petabytes of biological data; adapting and evolving APIs to meet the demands of AI/ML-driven use cases; involvement in cutting-edge software for life sciences, drug discovery, and bioinformatics; stretch goals for ambitious professionals who want to make a real impact. ODM is evolving to support modern AI/ML pipelines in drug discovery. You’ll help shape APIs and infrastructure that make our platform seamlessly integrate with current and future AI-driven workloads. Currently, our bets are placed on Java, Kotlin, ClickHouse, MySQL, Solr, Kubernetes, and Python — but we’re eager to adapt and innovate. If you feel this resonates with you, don’t hesitate to reach out to us. In this role, you will: maintain and evolve the system core, APIs, and related components; optimize data storage and backend systems for throughput, latency, and scalability; drive architectural evolution and manage tech debt in alignment with the product vision; help keep our system AI-ready and future-proof; promote an agentic engineering culture within the engineering team by leading by example. We would like you to have: 8+ years in software engineering, with a strong backend focus; deep understanding of CS fundamentals (OOP, algorithms, data structures); extensive experience with data storages: RDBMS, columnar databases, search engines, and other NoSQL technologies; strong experience with messaging systems; proven experience in agentic engineering; expert-level Java/Kotlin skills; proven success with system-level refactoring; ability to detect and resolve performance bottlenecks; experience defining and hitting performance benchmarks; quick learner in complex domains; interest in life sciences, data science, and ML/AI applications; excellent communication and collaboration skills; fluent in English. It would be nice if you have: knowledge of biology and genetics; experience with profiling/tracing/performance tools; familiarity with Python. We offer you: international team of professionals; fully paid sick leaves; onboarding and domain training for newcomers; flexible work schedule.