Remote Backend Engineer for a HealthTech Company

Pearl

7d • Remote

About The Position

A Boston-based life sciences venture firm is building a genomic sequencing and consumer health data platform that will bring genomic data, wearable data, lab results, and health records into one consumer product. The platform is at the pre-product stage, and the Backend Engineer will be its second technical hire, working directly with the frontend lead and the firm’s leadership to architect and build the backend from scratch. The engagement starts as a contract through Pearl and converts to full-time employment once the company is fully established.

The role covers API design, data pipelines for large genomic inputs, PostgreSQL data models, AWS infrastructure, security, and data governance. Its scope is broad initially and is expected to narrow as the team grows. Success includes sharing API contracts and data shapes with the frontend engineer before implementation and delivering reproducible, recoverable pipelines.

Requirements

• 5+ years of backend engineering experience, including building backend systems from scratch at an early-stage startup.
• Production experience building RESTful APIs with Node.js and TypeScript.
• Experience building data pipelines that process large, inconsistent inputs with reproducibility and failure recovery.
• PostgreSQL schema design and data modeling experience.
• AWS deployment and infrastructure experience.
• Experience implementing authentication and authorization systems such as AWS Cognito, Auth0, or OAuth.
• English proficiency at C1+ CEFR level for daily work with the frontend lead and firm leadership.

Nice To Haves

• Bioinformatics or genomic data processing experience.
• AWS CDK or CloudFormation infrastructure-as-code experience.
• Fastify framework experience.
• Healthcare or regulated-industry experience.
• Full-stack familiarity with Next.js.

Responsibilities

• Design, build, and maintain RESTful APIs using Node.js, TypeScript, and Fastify.
• Define API contracts and data shapes with the frontend engineer before implementation.
• Implement authentication and authorization using AWS Cognito or an equivalent.
• Build backend services that handle large-scale data requests securely and reliably.
• Develop reproducible, recoverable pipelines for large, inconsistent genomic data inputs.
• Write parsing and transformation logic for third-party vendor outputs.
• Harden pipelines against failures so they recover without manual intervention.
• Optimize pipeline performance as data volume grows.
• Design PostgreSQL schemas and data models for genomic and health data.
• Architect AWS infrastructure using infrastructure-as-code, such as CDK or CloudFormation.
• Set up secure storage systems for sensitive healthcare data.
• Collaborate with the frontend engineer on deployment workflows.
• Implement role-based access controls and data encryption for sensitive health data.
• Apply healthcare security and compliance requirements to architecture decisions.

Benefits

• Competitive salary based on experience and skills.
• Fully remote work from anywhere.
• Team incentives recognizing 100% CRM hygiene and on-time reporting.
• Generous PTO in accordance with company policy.
• HMO coverage after three months for full-time employees based in the Philippines.
• Direct mentorship from international industry experts.
• Ongoing access to learning and development resources.
• Global networking with professionals worldwide.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Senior
• Education Level: No Education Listed