Senior/Principal Software Engineer

Details

Role: Senior/Principal Software Engineer – Web Platforms 
Reports to: CTO 
Location: Seattle, WA (Hybrid, preference for local candidates)  
Type: Full-time Exempt
Salary Range: $140,000 - $190,000 (based on experience)
Priority Application Date: November 20, 2026

About Cirro 

Cirro Bio is building the infrastructure for community-driven life science. The Cirro platform is a secure, cloud-based environment where organizations integrate, analyze, and collaborate around high-value scientific data. It runs in a customer's own AWS account or one we manage, and teams can bring their own pipelines, workspaces, and tools. We serve foundations, academic medical centers, and research institutions that fund, facilitate, and conduct research. 

We meet organizations where they are, with secure, flexible tooling that adapts to the diversity of needs within each one, so their teams and communities can turn data into progress. 

Our mission is to speed discovery and build community around the data and tools that make it possible. The data on our platform supports progress on cancer, rare diseases, and other conditions where faster answers make a difference for patients and their families. When a researcher finds a dataset they didn't know existed, or a foundation sees what its investments are making possible, that's the impact we're working toward. 

We're a small team where every engineer has real ownership and a direct line to the people we serve. You'll work closely with partners across the life science community, see how your decisions land, and help shape what we build next. We hold a high bar for security and trust (we're HIPAA compliant and SOC 2 Type II certified) while keeping the pace and curiosity of an early-stage company. 

The Role 

We're hiring a Senior / Principal Software Engineer to lead the architecture and development of a new public-facing digital platform, end to end. You will be the technical owner of a platform built on AWS, shaping how it is designed, deployed, secured, and scaled. 

As a public-facing application, it presents meaningful engineering challenges: real-world traffic, an open attack surface, search visibility, performance optimization, and users who expect a polished, intuitive experience. 

This is a full-stack role with a deliberate tilt toward backend, platform, and infrastructure. You'll write React and Next.js code, but your biggest impact will come from the systems underneath: APIs, data models, cloud architecture, CI/CD, observability and security. 

Owning the platform doesn't mean working on it alone. You'll have teammates with deep experience across our stack who can step in where you're less familiar. We care more about strong fundamentals, sound judgement, and a willingness to learn than about checking every box on day one. 

Core Responsibilities 

Build and own the platform 

• Be the technical owner of the public web platform and its supporting services. 
• Evolve the overall architecture across the platform, making clear, documented trade-offs. 
• Design and build APIs and serverless services on AWS (Lambda, API Gateway, CloudFront, S3, and related services). 
• Extend and customize our headless CMS, including plugins, permissions, and publishing workflows. 
• Manage infrastructure as code and own CI/CD pipelines. 

Fast, secure, and usable 

• Harden the public attack surface: WAF rules, rate limiting, bot protection, authentication flows, and OAWASP Top 10 mitigations. 
• Drive web performance: Core Web Vitals, rendering strategy, CDN caching, image, and bundle optimization 
• Partner with product on accessibility (WCAG), SEO and a polished user experience across devices. 
• Contribute to the React and Next.js front end code where needed 

Raise the bar 

• Mentor other engineers about running public-facing systems. 
• Work closely with product, design, security, and research teams, and translate between their needs and technical decisions. 
  

Success Metrics 

• First 30 days: You understand the current architecture and have shipped production changes improving the platform. 
• First 90 days: You've developed an architecture roadmap, set baselines, and shipped highest-priority features. 
• First year: Released product, other engineers can confidently build on, fast, resilient, and secure under real traffic. 
  

Qualifications 

Required 

• 4+ years of professional software engineering experience, with at least 1 year owning the architecture of a production system. 
• A track record of building public-facing web applications with real-world traffic. 
• Experience developing wireframes and responsive web design. 
• Strong backend skills in Java, C#, Python, or TypeScript, including API design and data modeling. 
• Hands-on AWS experience, especially serverless (Lambda, API Gateway, CloudFront, S3, etc.) and infrastructure as code (Terraform, Pulumi, or CloudFormation). 
• Production experience with DynamoDB, or another NoSQL store, and with Elasticsearch or OpenSearch. 
• Solid experience with React and Next.js, including server-side rendering, static generation, ISR, and caching behavior. 
• Proven results in improving web performance. 
• Background in accessibility and technical SEO, AEO, GEO. 
• Practical application security knowledge for public applications. 
• Comfort owning systems in production. 
• Clear written and verbal communication, and the judgment to make and explain architectural trade-offs. 

Nice to have 

• Hands-on experience with Webiny or another headless CMS. 
• Experience developing data visualizations. 
• Edge computing experience (CloudFront Functions, Lambda@Edge). 
• Experience building AI-powered features into public products, including guardrails for cost, abuse, prompt injection, and data privacy. 
• Experience with privacy and compliance requirements for public data (GDPR, CCPA, SOC2, or similar). 
• Familiarity with research, healthcare, scientific, or other regulated data environments. 
• Clear communicator who can translate between researchers, engineers, and product leaders.