Job description
BioTrust • San Francisco Bay Area
A senior hands-on engineering role building the software BioTrust analysts depend on every day. Apply now Commitment Full-time. We're hiring on either a fixed-term contract or a permanent basis, depending on fit and your situation. We're happy to start as a contract and convert. For the contract path we want to move fast, so ideally you can start immediately. Location Bay Area and in person for the permanent role, with potential flexibility for contractors. We're open to discussing visa support for the right person. Compensation $200-400k + equity for the permanent position, depending on experience and seniority.
BioTrust is building the trusted-access layer between frontier AI labs, AI-bio tool developers, gene synthesis providers, and the researchers who use them. We verify once and let researchers be trusted across providers, reducing friction for legitimate science while creating a defensible screening layer against catastrophic misuse.
We're hiring an early engineer to be a primary driver of the software our analysts depend on. This is a senior, high-judgment role, and it is genuinely hands-on.
You will be part of an ambitious, high velocity, mission-focused team directly mitigating AI misuse and building infrastructure for sustainably preventing AI and biosecurity risks.
What you'll do
- Build the applications analysts use to research and make verification decisions, owning them end to end from workflow to UX, client and server logic, and data storage.
- Move fast from idea to production: prototype in several directions, get working software in front of analysts quickly, and harden the directions that prove out.
- Work in lock step with analysts as their methodology evolves, understanding the use case deeply and iterating the product alongside them.
- Integrate AI where it earns its place, including calls on local versus cloud models, data separation, privacy, analyst experience, and evals.
- Set technical foundations with the engineering lead and another engineer, including dev loop, testing, deployment practices, and end-to-end architecture.
- Prioritize ruthlessly with the engineering lead, separating rapid MVP milestones from fast follows and future work.
What this job actually looks like
The codebase is young: prototypes are underway that need to be expanded and hardened into production-grade software. The use case is still being discovered, so requirements shift and the right product is something you'll find by shipping, watching, and iterating rather than by reading a spec.
Expect a lot of prototyping that won't survive, constant judgment about what's worth hardening, and comfort working in ambiguity close to a high-stakes domain.
What we're looking for
- Strong product instincts and frontend/UX ability.
- A fast, reliable executor across the prototype-to-production loop.
- Strong cross-functional collaboration with non-engineers.
- Senior generalist judgment across the stack.
- Clear, balanced communication through high-stakes trade-offs.
- Comfort getting up to speed on biosecurity and AI risk.
Nice to have
- Depth in systems, data modeling, or infrastructure.
- Experience taking prototypes to production on an early-stage team or greenfield codebase.
- Interest or background in biosecurity, AI safety, or high-stakes trust-and-safety domains.
Ready to apply?
Tell us about your experience, what draws you to BioTrust, and the role you want to help shape.
For questions, email kenan@biotrust.org.