Head of Engineering (Founding Team)

Location: Flexible (U.S.-based; preference for major biotech or technology hubs)
Employment Type: Full-Time | Founding Role
Compensation: $180,000 – $220,000 + Equity
Reports To: VP of Product and Engineering

About the Company

Our client is a venture-backed healthtech startup building a first-of-its-kind platform at the intersection of biotechnology, data infrastructure, and AI. Their mission is to accelerate translational medicine by enabling innovators across biotech, pharma, and medtech to access and analyze human biology at scale—redefining how research moves from bench to bedside.

They are assembling a world-class founding team to pioneer a new category in biomedical data systems, unlocking breakthroughs that will dramatically improve patient outcomes.

About the Role

As the Head of Engineering and a founding member of the technology team, you will shape both the company’s product vision and technology roadmap from the ground up. You’ll partner closely with the CEO and senior leadership to define strategy, culture, and execution, leading the build-out of scalable, compliant infrastructure to support complex biomedical data pipelines.

This role is ideal for an engineering leader who thrives in early-stage, zero-to-one environments and wants to architect systems that have meaningful real-world impact.

What You’ll Do

Strategic & Technical Leadership

• Define and execute the engineering vision, strategy, and roadmap in alignment with company goals and product milestones.

• Translate ambitious business and scientific objectives into scalable, secure, and high-performance technology systems.

• Champion engineering excellence and best practices, driving code quality, observability, and resilience across all layers of the stack.

• Collaborate with product, data, and operations leaders to ensure cohesive platform design and seamless delivery.

Product & Delivery Execution

• Partner with product and design to deliver a user-centric development process with rapid iteration and continuous learning.

• Implement agile methodologies emphasizing predictable delivery, short feedback loops, and operational efficiency.

• Foster a culture of experimentation, innovation, and engineering rigor.

Team Building & Leadership

• Recruit, mentor, and manage a high-performing engineering team, including managers, architects, and individual contributors.

• Establish a scalable team structure, career frameworks, and performance management systems.

• Cultivate a collaborative, mission-driven culture that values inclusion, integrity, and ownership.

Data, Security & Compliance

• Oversee the secure handling of sensitive biomedical and human data across infrastructure and software layers.

• Ensure compliance with privacy, security, and ethical data governance frameworks (e.g., HIPAA, GDPR).

• Design and manage data-sharing APIs and systems to enable auditable, frictionless collaboration between researchers and partners.

Qualifications

Required

• 10+ years of progressive engineering experience, with at least 5 years in leadership roles.

• Demonstrated 0→1 experience, having built and scaled engineering organizations or products from inception.

• Proven track record of building mission-driven, inclusive, high-performing teams.

• Deep technical expertise in full-stack development, cloud infrastructure (AWS/GCP), and data systems architecture.

• Strong command of CI/CD pipelines, DevOps, observability, and security best practices.

• Proficiency with modern tools: GitHub, JIRA, Confluence, Terraform, Docker, Kubernetes.

• Strategic mindset with the ability to translate business goals into technical priorities and execution plans.

Preferred

• Experience in healthtech, biotech, or regulated data environments.

• Background in building or scaling data-intensive or API-driven platforms.

• Familiarity with compliance and security standards governing healthcare or life sciences data.

Compensation & Benefits

• Base Salary: $180,000 – $220,000 (DOE)

• Equity: Founding-level equity grant with meaningful ownership

• Performance Incentives: Eligibility for performance-based bonuses

• Benefits:

  • Medical, Dental, and Vision coverage

  • 401(k) plan

  • Paid holidays and flexible PTO

  • Parental leave for eligible employees

  • Annual wellness credit

  • Training and professional development budget

Why Join

• Founding Impact: Build the foundational architecture for a groundbreaking health data platform.

• High-Visibility Role: Direct partnership with the CEO and executive team.

• Equity & Ownership: Significant upside potential as part of the founding leadership team.

• Mission-Driven Work: Shape the future of translational medicine and accelerate scientific discovery.