Staff Software Engineer, PostgreSQL

Beacon Biosignals•Boston, MA

9d•$170,000 - $190,000•Remote

About The Position

Beacon Biosignals is hiring two Staff Software Engineers for its Datastore team, which provides the foundational data model, centralized repository, and API for brain data collected from clinical studies. The Datastore supports analytical tools, services, and applications used by scientists, clinicians, and partners. This role focuses on backend data infrastructure—including PostgreSQL data models, Kafka-driven event pipelines, and a GraphQL API—rather than frontend development or end-user product surfaces. Engineers will lead the design of complex Datastore systems, own pipelines that deliver dataset snapshots to the warehouse, and collaborate across platform, application, scientific, clinical, and product teams to build APIs and integrations for clinical studies and digital health products. The team is hiring for two areas of focus. The Datastore Systems role emphasizes platform breadth, including event pipelines, GraphQL APIs, core data models, and third-party integrations. The PostgreSQL & Data Modeling role emphasizes PostgreSQL data modeling, performance, production operations, schema evolution, and helping engineers develop schemas and access controls. The GraphQL API is generated from the PostgreSQL schema using PostGraphile, so schema decisions affect the API. Row-level security is applied to effectively every table to protect clinical data shared across studies, partners, and internal teams. The position is 100% remote from anywhere in the U.S., with in-person office hubs in Boston, New York City, and Paris. Beacon describes its work practices as robustly asynchronous and designed to support a first-class remote experience.

Requirements

At least 7 years of backend development experience, including at least 3 years focused on data platforms and backend infrastructure for data-centric applications such as transactional systems, event pipelines, and APIs.
High proficiency in at least one relevant technical area—data modeling, distributed systems, API design, or database engineering—with expertise others on a team rely on.
Strong SQL proficiency and production experience using PostgreSQL as an application database, including query writing and tuning and reasoning about schemas, indexes, and query plans.
Hands-on experience with data streaming and event processing using Kafka or an equivalent such as RabbitMQ, Pulsar, Amazon Kinesis, or another cloud-based equivalent.
Proficiency in Julia or Python.
Experience deploying and operating services in containerized environments.
A track record of mentoring engineers and improving team practices, tooling, test coverage, or documentation.
Collaborative approach and ability to work across disciplines.
Excellent written and verbal communication skills, particularly in asynchronous and remote-friendly environments.
Self-directed approach and a track record of thriving in hybrid or fully remote teams.
Experience with or interest in using LLM-assisted or agentic coding tools in production, with sound judgment about necessary guardrails.
For the Datastore Systems focus: ability to lead design across the breadth of the platform; GraphQL and TypeScript/JavaScript (Node.js) experience; and ability to lead complex system design across APIs, pipelines, and dependent services.
For the PostgreSQL & Data Modeling focus: deep PostgreSQL knowledge, including query planning, index selection, and EXPLAIN (ANALYZE); schema and temporal data modeling; zero-downtime schema evolution under load; production PostgreSQL operations; and ability to teach, review, and document database practices.

Nice To Haves

Experience with Julia; it is a core Datastore language, and candidates eager to learn it are also welcome.
Familiarity with Kubernetes and Infrastructure as Code tools such as Terraform and/or Helm.

Responsibilities

Lead design and architecture for complex Datastore projects and systems, making trade-offs based on engineering principles and data.
Partner with product managers, scientific and clinical stakeholders, and development and support teams to translate requirements into integrations, services, and solutions for the data platform.
Debug and profile ambiguous problems across system boundaries, including in codebases outside the Datastore team’s purview.
Implement features with high standards for data integrity, sound design, maintainability, and attention to detail.
Draft RFCs for complex feature discovery and technical design, solicit and incorporate input, and help the team align on development decisions.
Plan individual work and contribute to team planning, balancing speed, generalizability, technical debt, and stakeholder needs.
Teach and mentor engineers, provide actionable feedback, and potentially act as a project tech lead or engineering-practice coordination point.
Use feedback from internal stakeholders and external partners to improve Datastore operational robustness and usability through documentation, tools, and dashboards.
For the Datastore Systems focus: lead platform-wide design, own significant parts of the GraphQL interface, and design event-driven pipelines end to end, including producers, consumers, replay, idempotency, and handling lagging consumers.
For the PostgreSQL & Data Modeling focus: guide database design and expertise across the team; lead schema design, temporal data modeling, schema evolution, production operations, and team education on database practices.