DevOps Engineer

Subsense • Palo Alto, CA

9d

About The Position

Subsense is a deep-tech company developing the world’s first non-surgical, bidirectional brain-computer interface powered by plasmonic and magnetoelectric nanoparticles. Our mission is to unlock direct communication between the human brain and AI - starting with medical applications such as stroke recovery and moving toward cognitive enhancement for healthy users. Headquartered in Palo Alto, Subsense brings together leading scientists and engineers to redefine the future of human–machine interaction.

We're looking for a DevOps and Systems Engineer to own our core infrastructure, keep our lab and corporate systems running reliably, and lay a strong security foundation as we grow. This is a hands-on, high-ownership role that sits at the intersection of IT systems administration, R&D, cloud infrastructure, lab networking, and security. You'll work closely with R&D, Operations, and leadership across our Palo Alto HQ and Mountain View lab.
This role is ideal for someone who thrives in early-stage environments, takes pride in clean and stable systems, and can operate independently without a large IT team behind them.

Requirements

• 4+ years of experience in systems administration, DevOps, or infrastructure engineering
• Hands-on experience administering Linux servers (user management, permissions, storage, system logs, troubleshooting)
• Solid AWS experience (IAM, EC2, S3, VPC, or equivalent)
• Strong understanding of networking fundamentals: LAN/WAN, SSH, DNS, VPN, file sharing protocols
• Comfortable owning systems end-to-end in a small team, without a lot of hand-holding
• Strong communicator who can support non-technical users and partner with scientists and engineers
• Startup mindset — adaptable, resourceful, hands-on, and highly execution-focused.

Nice To Haves

• Experience in a lab, biotech, or research environment
• Familiarity with medical device or regulated environment IT requirements
• Background in or exposure to security frameworks (SOC 2, ISO 27001, HIPAA)
• Experience with tools like rclone, NAS/RAID systems, or hybrid cloud-local storage setups

Responsibilities

• Administer and maintain our on-premise Linux research server (Nano), including user management, SSH access, permissions, RAID configuration, logging, and troubleshooting
• Monitor system health, investigate failures, and resolve issues proactively
• Support lab and corporate users across two locations with day-to-day IT needs
• Set up and maintain our AWS environment, including access controls, storage, networking, and cost management
• Establish consistent, scalable patterns for cloud usage as our team and data volumes grow
• Maintain and improve local network infrastructure across HQ and lab environments
• Support secure connectivity for lab equipment, research systems, and remote access tools (e.g., rclone, SSH, VNC)
• Implement and maintain baseline security practices: identity and access management, endpoint protection, secure provisioning and deprovisioning, and logging
• Support compliance readiness for frameworks relevant to our R&D and medical device roadmap (SOC 2, ISO 27001, HIPAA, FDA cybersecurity guidance)
• Partner with a cybersecurity on more specialized security initiatives

What This Job Offers

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