Senior Data Backend Engineer

About Us

Owkin is an AI company on a mission to solve the complexity of biology. It is building the first Biology Super Intelligence (BASI) by combining powerful biological large language models, multimodal patient data, and agentic software. At the heart of this system is Owkin K, an AI copilot and its new LLM fine-tuned on biology called Owkin Zero, used by researchers, clinicians, and drug developers to better understand biology, validate scientific hypotheses, and deliver better diagnostics and therapies faster.

Position is based in our Paris office or remotely in France, UK, Germany.

Please submit your CV in English

About The Role

As a Senior Data Backend Engineer, you will build the world leading Agentic AI product for biomedical researchers by combining robust engineering practices with cutting-edge AI technologies. You'll be working on a real-time system that integrates LLMs, tool-calling, to explore public biology knowledge, Owkin proprietary data and client data.

More specifically the role is focused on designing and optimising data workflows (storage, querying, analytics, etc) for agentic capabilities.

In Particular, You Will

* Collaborate within a multi-disciplinary team of product managers, designers, software engineers, data engineers and machine learning and biomedical scientists.

* Design, build, and maintain scalable, reliable data-intensive AI systems.

* Drive technical decisions and provide context-aware solutions for AI systems in biological research.

* Experiment with cutting-edge industry solutions—orchestration patterns, analytical DB (DuckDB, etc), distributed computing (AWS Athena, Trino, etc), integration with data platforms (Snowflake, Databricks, etc).

* Lead core stack component development focusing on sustainability, scalability, security, reliability, and performance.

* Foster team growth by sharing expertise and mentoring colleagues through code reviews, technical discussions, and knowledge sharing.

About You

* You’re driven by impact — excited to empower biomedical researchers with intuitive, AI-driven tools that unlock scientific discovery.

* Strong collaborative skills with an open, pragmatic mindset; you thrive in multidisciplinary environments that involve people with diverse backgrounds.

* Clear and effective communicator who can translate technical complexity into actionable decisions for the team.

* Proven track record leading software development at scale in production environments.

* Deep understanding of system architecture, infrastructure design, and building resilient distributed systems.

* Extensive experience with production environments: continuous deployment, high availability, observability, and security.

* Curiosity and ideally hands-on experience with AI systems — from integrating LLMs to managing their connection to data.

* Passion for user experience and product thinking: you consider not only the system’s internals but how the end user interacts with and benefits from your work.

* Proficiency with Claude Code and other AI software engineering tools

* Fluent English, both written and spoken.

* Stack: Python, DuckDB, Kubernetes, AWS

What we offer

* Flexible work organization

* Friendly and informal working environment

* Opportunity to work with an international team with high technical and scientific backgrounds

Recruitment Process & Security

* Please complete the form and submit your CV.

* Owkin is an Equal Opportunity Employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, sex, gender, sexual orientation, age, color, religion, national origin, protected veteran status or on the basis of disability.

* Owkin is a great place to work. As a coveted workplace we are, unfortunately, vulnerable to recruitment phishing scams. We urge all job seekers and candidates to be wary of potential scams. Most of these have individuals posing as representatives of prominent companies, including Owkin, with the aim of obtaining personal, sensitive, or financial information from applicants. These scams prey upon an individual’s desire to obtain a job and can sometimes “feel” like a genuine recruitment process. Some red flags are identified below. Should you encounter a recruitment process that claims to be for Owkin but is not consistent with the below, please do not provide any personal or financial information:

* Legitimate Owkin recruitment processes include communication with candidates through recognized professional networks, such as LinkedIn.

* Communication is always through an official Owkin email address (from the @owkin.com domain), over the phone or through our applicant tracking system (Greenhouse).

* The Owkin talent team do use platforms such as LinkedIn and Job Teaser, however if you have any concern or doubt about this contact, please ask for them to send an email from @Owkin.com.

* The Owkin talent team will not solicit personal data from candidates during the application phase including, but not limited to, date of birth, social security numbers, or bank account information;

* Legitimate Owkin interviews may be conducted over the phone, in person, or via an approved enterprise videoconferencing service (Google Meets). They will not occur via Signal, Telegram or Messenger

* Owkin offers of employment are based on merit and only extended once a candidate has interviewed with members of the talent and hiring team. Offers will be extended both verbally and in written format.

If you think that you have been a victim of fraud,

* Check the identity of the talent team on LinkedIn

* Check our senior team on our website https://owkin.com/team/

* Check the existence of the position on our website: https://www.owkin.com/careers#current-opportunities

* Notify Owkin's recruitment unit at this address [email protected]

* contact the following authorities:

* [FR] https://internet-signalement.gouv.fr/

* [UK] https://www.actionfraud.police.uk/reporting-fraud-and-cyber-crime

* [US] https://reportfraud.ftc.gov/