Python Engineer

A Little Bit About Us:

Saphetor’s mission is to enable anyone to find, share, and use the most comprehensive human genome data – and to collaborate to improve health and lives around the world.

To do this, we have built the VarSome suite of bioinformatic tools, the world’s leading resource for analysis and interpretation of human genome variant data, with more than 6000 citations in scientific papers and over 60000 registered professional users. Our customers work around the globe across academic, clinical, and industry laboratories, analysing NGS (Next Generation Sequencing) data for research and diagnostic purposes.

Saphetor is a Swiss precision medicine company with offices in Lausanne (CH), Boston (USA), and Athens (GR) employing a diverse global workforce.

The Opportunity

We are looking for a Python Engineer to join our backend team. If you're driven by clean code, cross team collaboration and excited to work in the fast-moving world of genomics, this is a place where your work will matter.

We thrive in a high-pressure, high-performance environment where clinical precision and rapid growth meet. While our pace is fast, it is always directed by rigorous organization and clear processes, ensuring that our commitment to quality is never compromised by our drive for speed.

Role Responsibilities:

• Backend Excellence: Develop server-side logic that delivers high performance and responsive communication between frontend and backend systems.
• Stack Ownership: Maintain and advance the Python web application stack, including VarSome Clinical, VarSome.com, and the VarSome API.
• Quality & Collaboration: Participate in code reviews to maintain code quality , architecture discussions, critical testing, performance optimization, and front-end coordination — owning custom client functionality end-to-end with full responsibility for the quality of your deliverables.
• Cross-Team Collaboration: Partner with front-end engineers, product managers, and domain experts to scope work, unblock dependencies, and deliver cohesive features.
• Operational Awareness: Participate in deployment, monitoring, and on-call rotations as needed, taking shared responsibility

The Ideal Candidate (Profile)

The ideal candidate is a Python engineer with hands-on experience building RESTful APIs in Django and Django Rest Framework, backed by a solid grasp of software design principles, relational databases, and disciplined testing practices. You write high-quality, well-tested code and you are comfortable engaging in code reviews and cross-functional work with other stakeholders.

What you will bring:

• Academic Foundation: BS or MS degree in Computer Science or a related technical field.
• Python Expertise: At least 3 years of working experience as a backend engineer working with Python in Django/Django Rest Framework in production environment.
• Software Design: Solid understanding of software design principles and best practices.
• API Development: Familiarity with building RESTful APIs and actively participating in code reviews.
• Database Skills: Good experience working with relational databases, with MariaDB experience strongly preferred.
• Testing Discipline: Familiarity with unit, integration and functional testing to ensure code reliability.
• Team Player: Flexible mindset, comfortable stepping into a variety of roles as needed.
• Curiosity & Growth: Eagerness to explore new technology stacks and step out of your comfort zone.
• Communication: Fluency in English, both written and spoken.

Strongly Valued:

• Cloud Deployment: Familiarity with deploying and managing applications on Google Cloud Platform.
• Front-end Awareness: Working knowledge of Bootstrap, React JS, or other frontend frameworks.
• Automation Tools: Familiarity with Ansible for automating configuration management.
• Domain Interest: Some bioinformatics background — or a genuine willingness to dive into the domain.

While our foundation is in Athens, our talent pool is spread across Europe, with a strong culture of remote collaboration. Our team is highly experienced in distributed Agile workflows and communicates exclusively in fluent English.

Your career journey with us includes, among others:

• A position in a fascinating healthcare growth domain, at the cutting edge of technology and research
• A competitive compensation package tailored to your unique expertise and professional background.
• A remote-first work environment that promotes a healthy work-life balance
• Endless learning opportunities, while transferring new technologies from academics to clinical practice all over the world.

Saphetor is proud to be an Equal Opportunities Employer. We provide equal employment opportunities to all qualified applicants and our employees, regardless of race, color, religion, national origin, age, sex, medical condition or disability, sexual orientation, gender expression, or marital status.