Senior Software Engineer, Data

About The Role

This is a high-impact individual contributor role on our platform team, building large-scale data pipelines and distributed systems that power Sidecar Health's core product. You'll take full ownership of complex, ambiguous problems from architecture through production — designing, shipping, and running the systems you build. If you're a strong senior engineer who thrives on end-to-end ownership and wants your work to matter in healthcare, this is the role for you.

MUST BE BASED IN CALIFORNIA

What You'll Do

• Design and own high-throughput, distributed data pipelines and platform infrastructure from concept through production
• Decompose large, ambiguous initiatives into structured, executable plans that the team can move on in parallel
• Write production-grade Python — strongly typed, well-structured, and built to last — not scripts or notebooks
• Optimize SQL at scale: query tuning, data modeling, and understanding execution plans
• Architect across boundaries — defining contracts between frontend, backend services, and infrastructure
• Be a technical resource and mentor for junior engineers, and partner directly with leadership on roadmap and technical decisions
• Instrument systems for observability — knowing what to monitor, not just how to read a dashboard

What You'll Bring

• 5+ years of professional software engineering experience with full ownership of production systems
• Strong proficiency in Python (mypy, Pydantic, proper abstractions) and SQL at scale
• Deep experience building and operating distributed data pipelines and event-driven architectures
• Hands-on AWS experience: Lambda, SQS, IAM, CloudWatch, and cost-aware design
• Docker as a first-class practice
• Habitual, fluent use of AI tools (Claude, Cursor, etc.) as part of your daily workflow
• Observability experience with Datadog or equivalent
• Familiarity with FastAPI, Django, SQLAlchemy, Celery, or Infrastructure-as-Code (Terraform, CDK) is a strong plus
• Bachelor's or Master's degree in Computer Science, Information Systems, or a related field

The Reality

This is a startup. We move fast. We prioritize impact over polish. We expect:

• Bias for action — ship, learn, iterate
• Ownership — you design it, build it, run it
• Pragmatism — solve real problems, not theoretical ones
• Resilience — ambiguity comes with the territory

Healthcare is complex and broken. The work matters.

What You'll Get

• Competitive salary, bonus opportunity, and equity package
• Comprehensive Medical, Dental, and Vision benefits
• A 401k retirement plan
• Paid vacation and company holidays
• Opportunity to make an impact at a rapidly growing mission-driven company transforming healthcare in the U.S.