Senior Engineer - DataJoint

Houston, Texas / Austin, Texas / Remote

DataJoint is seeking a Senior Engineer skilled in building computational platforms in modern cloud environments. This is a unique opportunity to join our team to scale up our existing solutions and invent new capabilities to support life sciences research in biotech and drug discovery.

About DataJoint

DataJoint is the leader in managing data-intensive neuroscience research. Our mission is delivering data integrity, speed, and scalability for labs engaged in the grand challenge of reverse engineering the brain. Our platform defines and operates custom research pipelines: orchestrating computing, managing change, and safeguarding reproducibility of results. It’s anything but a black box. Our applications combine intuitive tools for coding, data processing, analysis, and collaboration with uncompromising transparency and flexibility to customize and adapt every aspect of an experiment to the needs of science.

About the Role

As a Senior Engineer, you’ll be pivotal in designing and implementing the DataJoint platform. You’ll collaborate closely with our team of engineers, neuroscientists, and data scientists, developing robust and highly scalable solutions using modern technology stacks. As a technical mentor, you will guide the team in creating and extending orchestration and workflow systems to run scientific computing tasks in a stable, repeatable way.

Responsibilities

• Help build and extend our SaaS product for Data Science.
• Collaborate with a team of neuroscientists and data scientists on computational workflows, analysis, and visualization.
• Collaborate with Engineering and Product leadership.
• Architect solutions facilitating collaborative data analysis using modern technology stacks (Kubernetes, SciPy, NumPy).
• Create and extend orchestration and workflow systems for running scientific computing tasks in a stable, reproducible way.
• Create and consistently update documentation for both internal developers and front-end users.
• Participate in Agile Processes.
• Mentor existing team members from a technical perspective.

Requirements

• BS/MS in Computer Science (or related discipline) or equivalent professional experience.
• 5-7 years of professional programming experience.
• Expert in Python and Proficient in Typescript as well as one system programming language.
• Experience with SciPy, NumPy, or other scientific or numerical methods programming packages.
• Experience delivering containerized services.
• Experience with Kubernetes.
• Experience delivering professional, secure systems using AWS.
• Experience delivering software using Agile Processes, Git, and CI/CD.
• Experience with Infrastructure as Code (IaC) systems. (ex: Pulumi)

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience building platforms that manage code, data, and computation: MLOps, AIOps, DataOps, or our own nascent field, SciOps.
• Experience implementing and using observability systems for logs, metrics, and traces (such as OpenTelemetry, ELK, Datadog, Splunk, Grafana) to monitor, diagnose issues, and optimize complex computing environments.
• Experience with process automation within and/or across public cloud, private cloud, edge, and high-performance computing (HPC) environments.
• Previous participation in at least one compliance effort.
• Working knowledge of Authentication and Authorization using OAuth and IDCs.
• Experience with container orchestration frameworks.
• Experience scaling systems with microservice architectures.
• Experience implementing algorithms & data structures.
• Previous experience collaborating on open source software.
• Proficient with production use of relational database systems (MySQL, PostgresQL).
• Experience with full-stack web development (e.g., React, Node, and Flask).
• Experience with visualization packages (e.g., Plotly Dash, D3)
• Interest in developing advanced computational techniques (such as AI/ML tuning of closed-loop experiments, metaprogramming, or deep learning) and tools to make them broadly accessible.

What We Offer

As part of DataJoint, you’ll be an integral part of a rapidly growing startup at the forefront of neuroscience. You can expect:

• A flexible work environment open to remote work (most team members work in our Houston office two days per week).
• An agile and collaborative product and engineering team.
• Working alongside leading neuroscientists and engineers with hands-on experience.
• The opportunity to impact the future of neuroscience research.
• Flexible work arrangements and the tools you need to be successful, including a MacOS, Windows, or Linux laptop (based on your preference).

Our Backstory

As an expert data architect pursuing a Ph.D. in neurophysiology, Dimitri Yatsenko invented the DataJoint framework to support his research in the lab of Dr. Andreas Tolias at Baylor College of Medicine. DataJoint introduced a new database model, augmenting the traditional relational database with formal computational dependencies. He launched DataJoint as an open-source project in 2011, and co-founded the company in 2016 to develop solutions and services for data-driven team science.

DataJoint’s software is trusted by over 100 neuroscience labs around the world. Our work is supported by BRAIN Initiative grants from the National Institutes of Health (“NIH”), including the open-source DataJoint framework and library of neuroscience components (U24NS116470) and our commercial managed service for collecting, analyzing, and sharing scientific data (R44NS129492). Please visit DataJoint.com or follow us on Twitter at @DataJoint.