Senior DevOps Engineer Research Cloud & Scientific Computing (AWS)

Septerna is a biotechnology company based in South San Francisco, CA on a mission to develop life-changing medicines for patients with the vision to become the industry-leading G protein-coupled receptor (GPCR)-focused drug discovery company. The company’s Native Complex Platform™ recapitulates GPCRs with their native structure, function, and dynamics outside of the cellular context. This approach enables novel access to modern structural and screening technologies used in industrial-scale drug discovery for the entire class of GPCRs. Septerna has an emerging pipeline of GPCR-targeted small molecule programs with potential for growth to target many GPCRs that have been undruggable and unexploited to date.

We are excited to expand our multidisciplinary team of individuals focused on creating revolutionary medicines to address the unmet needs of patients. At Septerna we strive to embrace diversity of thought, expertise, and background through collaboration. To join our ambitious team, be prepared to bring your real self to work every day; grow and learn from a talented team of drug hunters, scientists, and business professionals; and contribute your passion, creativity, and energy to accomplish our mission. We share a fearless pursuit of ground-breaking innovations and cultivate an environment where our employees succeed by learning from each other and working as a team.

We are committed to the development of meaningful therapeutics for patients with indications of high unmet need. This is a tremendous opportunity to work with talented individuals on the frontlines of therapeutic discovery and development. You will directly help move therapies through preclinical research, positioning them for success in the clinic. The successful candidate will add their passion, unique talents, and expertise to a dynamic team motivated to discover new disease-modifying therapeutics for patients in a fast-paced environment.

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Role Overview

We are seeking a Senior DevOps Engineer to join the Technology Department to serve as a key technical partner enabling cloud-based scientific computing and drug discovery efforts focused on G-protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs). This role is embedded within Research and works day-to-day with computational biologists and chemists, and the data science team to design, build, and operate scalable AWS infrastructure for data- and compute-intensive scientific applications.

This role requires close collaboration with IT to ensure alignment with enterprise standards for security, compliance, identity management, and cost governance. The successful candidate will be comfortable operating at the intersection of research agility and enterprise rigor, translating scientific needs into robust cloud solutions while partnering effectively across organizational boundaries.

Key Responsibilities & Requirements

• BS in Computer Science, Engineering, or a related discipline with minimum 5 years industry experience within a biotech environment


• Proven experience designing, deploying, and operating AWS-based cloud infrastructure (EC2, S3, EKS/ECS, RDS, IAM, VPC, CloudWatch, Lambda) in a research or engineering environment


• Experience with AWS SageMaker (Studio, Processing Jobs, Training, Endpoints) or comparable managed ML platforms, supporting data science and machine learning workflows


• Experience with data lake architectures and analytics infrastructure (S3, Athena, Glue, or similar query/cataloging services)


• Experience with infrastructure as code and automation (Terraform, CloudFormation, or CDK) and CI/CD pipeline development


• Hands-on experience with containerized scientific applications and orchestration platforms (Docker, Kubernetes)


• Experience supporting high-performance, distributed, or large-scale data processing workloads in the cloud


• Experience with cloud cost management, including Reserved Instances, Savings Plans, or spot instance strategies for compute-intensive workloads


• Proficiency in scripting and programming languages such as Python, Bash, or Go


• Strong track record of embedding DevOps capabilities directly within R&D or scientific teams, supporting rapid iteration and experimental workflows, with demonstrated deep analytical skills applied to troubleshooting code and resolving infrastructure issues


• Ability to interface effectively with IT, aligning research infrastructure with enterprise policies for security, networking, identity, and compliance

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience troubleshooting and optimizing cloud networking (VPCs, subnets, NAT gateways, VPN/Direct Connect, security groups) and diagnosing connectivity issues in hybrid on-prem/cloud environments


• Experience supporting GPU-based workloads for machine learning training and inference


• Experience deploying and managing computational chemistry platforms (Schrödinger, OpenEye, MOE, ChemAxon, or similar) including license server management and job scheduling


• Familiarity with HPC job schedulers (Slurm, PBS, LSF) or cloud-based equivalents (AWS Batch, ParallelCluster)


• Understanding of cloud security, access controls, and auditability, particularly in regulated or research-driven organizations

The anticipated salary range for candidates who will work in South San Francisco, CA is $160,000 - $185,000. Individual pay may vary based on additional factors, including, and without limitation, job-related skills, experience, work location and relevant education or training. Septerna's compensation package also includes benefits, stock options, and annual target bonus for full-time positions.

Note to Employment Agencies: Please do not forward any agency resumes. The company will not be responsible for any fees related to resumes that are unsolicited. We are an Equal Opportunity employer and will consider all qualified applicants for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, protected veteran status, or disability status. Septerna participates in the E-Verify program. California Consumer Privacy Act Privacy Notice For Job Applicants. If you are a California resident, click here for our CCPA Notice.