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Director, Software Engineering
San Francisco, CA
Position Title: Director, Software Engineering
Location: San Francisco, CA
Time Type: Full Time
The Opportunity:
Ohalo is seeking an experienced Director of Software Engineering to lead all data-platform and application-engineering, including application development, DevOps/SRE, and MLOps. Reporting to the VP of Engineering & AI, you will chart technical strategy, scale the software engineering organization deliver our next generation platforms (ML-centered, and robotics integration) and tools. A core mandate is to implement rigorous, cloud-native data architectures that power machine-learning engineers and data scientists to accelerate outcomes in our breeding programs.
Ohalo is seeking an experienced Director of Software Engineering to lead all data-platform and application-engineering, including application development, DevOps/SRE, and MLOps. Reporting to the VP of Engineering & AI, you will chart technical strategy, scale the software engineering organization deliver our next generation platforms (ML-centered, and robotics integration) and tools. A core mandate is to implement rigorous, cloud-native data architectures that power machine-learning engineers and data scientists to accelerate outcomes in our breeding programs.
Responsibilities:
- Own architecture & roadmap for the Breeding and Genomics Platforms, emphasizing Kubernetes-based, event-sourced, ELT-centric designs on GCP.
- Design authoritative data domains and asynchronous data contracts that decouple services while preserving auditability and lineage.
- Hire, mentor, and develop a distributed team (~10-15 engineers in 12 months) spanning data-platform, full-stack, DevOps/SRE, and MLOps disciplines through a servant-leadership approach.
- Ship our next generation of Digital Breeding platforms within 12 months— extend our ML-integrations robotics and lab automation integrations.
- Stand up a unified data platform that streamlines ingestion, transformation, and access for ML engineering and data-science experimentation.
- Drive engineering excellence and dev-ops maturity through CI/CD, git flow, automated testing, and infrastructure-as-code with Pulumi.
- Partner with product, automation, and scientific teams to translate breeding, genomics, and robotics requirements into scalable software solutions.
- Establish and track OKRs for uptime (≥ 99.9 %), pipeline throughput, feature delivery, and cost governance.
- Champion Ohalo DNA values in every technical and managerial decision.
Candidate Profile:
- 10+ years of progressive software-engineering experience, including 5+ years leading teams (managing managers preferred), with proven experience in a fast-paced startup environment (ideally AgTech, BioTech, or similar).
- Demonstrated success architecting cloud-native data platforms on GCP (or AWS/Azure) with Kubernetes/GKE, event sourcing, Pulumi-based IaC, and ELT pipelines (dbt a plus).
- Deep expertise applying Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA) and Domain-Driven Design (DDD) principles to large-scale, multi-tenant scientific or genomics systems.
- Hands-on fluency in Python plus one typed language (Go, Java, or TypeScript); experience with FastAPI and containerized microservices.
- Track record delivering data systems that support ML engineering and scientific workflows—genomics, bioinformatics, or lab automation ideal.
- Strong background in DevOps/SRE (Pulumi, CI/CD, observability, incident response) and MLOps tooling (Vertex AI, Kubeflow, MLflow).
- Servant-leader who fosters inclusion, psychological safety, and continuous feedback across distributed teams.
- Exceptional communication skills; adept at translating complex technical topics for scientists, executives, and external partners.
- Collaborative partner: effectively engage with scientific teams to understand their workflows and tailor technical solutions to support their evolving research needs..
- Bachelor’s or Master’s in Computer Science, Engineering, Bioinformatics, or equivalent experience.
About Ohalo:
Ohalo™ aims to accelerate evolution to unlock nature's potential. Founded in 2019, Ohalo develops novel breeding systems and improved plant varieties that help farmers grow more food with fewer natural resources, increasing the yield, resiliency, and genetic diversity of crops to sustainably feed our population. Ohalo's breakthrough technology, Boosted Breeding™, will usher in a new era of improved productivity to radically transform global agriculture. For more information, visit www.ohalo.com.
Ohalo™ aims to accelerate evolution to unlock nature's potential. Founded in 2019, Ohalo develops novel breeding systems and improved plant varieties that help farmers grow more food with fewer natural resources, increasing the yield, resiliency, and genetic diversity of crops to sustainably feed our population. Ohalo's breakthrough technology, Boosted Breeding™, will usher in a new era of improved productivity to radically transform global agriculture. For more information, visit www.ohalo.com.
The anticipated pay range for this role is $210,000 - $260,000 per year for our San Francisco, CA location, though salary will be based on a variety of factors including, but not limited to, experience, skills, education, and location.
Notes:
- If you previously applied for a job at Ohalo, we encourage you to restate your interest in the position by submitting your application.
- No visa sponsorship is available for this position at this time.
- No recruiters please.
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