Senior Data Platform Engineer

Your work will change lives. Including your own. Recursion is a leading, clinical-stage TechBio company decoding biology to industrialize drug discovery. Central to its mission is the Recursion Operating System (OS), a platform built across diverse technologies that continuously expands one of the world’s largest proprietary biological, chemical, and patient‑centric datasets. Recursion leverages sophisticated machine‑learning algorithms to distill from its dataset a collection of trillions of searchable relationships across biology and chemistry unconstrained by human bias. By commanding massive experimental scale—up to millions of wet‑lab experiments weekly—and massive computational scale—owning and operating one of the most powerful supercomputers in the world—Recursion is uniting technology, biology, chemistry, and patient‑centric data to advance the future of medicine.

In this role, you will:

• Build, scale, and operate a data platform.
• Build relatability into a heterogeneous dataset.
• Act as a mentor, coach, and sponsor.

The Team You’ll Join:

You will join the Data Lake team that built and maintains our Data Lake/house. The team is responsible for relational and object storage and has the motto: all data flows to the Data Lake. The team solves the problem of making our diverse data discoverable, queryable, and relatable across datasets while we continue to add new data modalities as we grow. This will require collaboration with many different groups including teams building out reports, dashboards, and applications, teams finding and generating the required data for machine‑learning problems, and teams building and iterating on new data processing pipelines.

The Experience You’ll Need:

• 5+ years of deep experience in modern, cloud‑based data engineering.
• Expertise in Core Technologies (Mandatory): advanced proficiency in Python and SQL, experience with Containerization (Docker, Kubernetes), Infrastructure as Code (Terraform, etc.), and Agentic Development (Cursor, Claude, etc.).
• Data Fundamentals & Architecture: deep understanding of Relational Databases (Postgres, MySql, etc.) and proficiency in working with data container files (e.g., Parquet, Avro, etc.). Familiarity with Medallion Architecture (Bronze/Silver/Gold).
• Cloud & Platform Operations: seasoned in at least one major cloud provider (GCP, AWS, or Azure). Comfortable in a 'DevOps' capacity.
• Hands‑On: understand trade‑offs between different architectures (Data Lake vs. Warehouse) and can make high‑level decisions regarding CI/CD and system maintenance.
• Collaborative Problem Solver: thrive in environments with significant technical ambiguity.
• People‑First Mindset: prioritize supporting your coworkers’ growth.
• Intellectual Curiosity: drive to learn the domain and explore new technologies.

Our Tech Stack:

Tools: dbt, Prefect, Argo Workflows, BigQuery, Snowflake, Fivetran, Datastream, AI/LLM (Cursor, Claude Code, and Gemini available).

Nice to Haves:

• Experience with Search (Elasticsearch), Vector/Graph databases, or deep experience scaling within the GCP ecosystem.

Working Location & Compensation:

This position can be based at either our London or Milton Park office. Please note that we are a hybrid environment and ask that employees spend 50% of their time in the office. At Recursion, we believe that every employee should be compensated fairly. Based on the skill and level of experience required for this role, the estimated current annual base range for this role is £75,900 - £101,900. You will also be eligible for an annual bonus and equity compensation, as well as a comprehensive benefits package.

Values We Hope You Share:

• We act boldly with integrity.
• We care deeply and engage directly.
• We learn actively and adapt rapidly.
• We move with urgency because patients are waiting.
• We take ownership and accountability.
• We are One Recursion.

Equal Opportunity Employment Information (Recursion):

Recursion is an Equal Opportunity Employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, age, disability, veteran status, or any other characteristic protected under applicable federal, state, local, or provincial human rights legislation. Accommodations are available on request for candidates taking part in all aspects of the selection process.