Staff Software Engineer – Data Team #4555
GRAIL · Menlo Park, CA
$169,000–$224,000from the description
Jul 22, 2026
Menlo Park, CA
Jul 23, 2026
What this job asks for AI summary
A senior software engineering role on a team responsible for managing the full lifecycle of clinical and research data — from lab sample ingestion through downstream analysis. The work centers on designing and building production-grade services, data models, and workflow components that enforce integrity, access control, and compliance in regulated environments. It suits engineers with deep experience in data-intensive systems who are comfortable working alongside scientific and clinical teams in a biotech setting.
Staff level · 7+ years · San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, CA · Full-time
“or” means any one of them counts — you don't need all of them.
We read this from the posting text with AI. Skim the description below before ruling yourself out.
How this req sits in the market our data
Roughly 430 people in the San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, CA area plausibly meet what this posting asks for (software developers). range 320–560
Applicant volume Moderate — A normal amount of company. The rare requirements below are what will separate a shortlisted application from the rest.
Rare in this occupation — lead with these, and say what you built with them.
Most people in this occupation already list these. Still required — just not what gets you shortlisted.
What the occupation pays Median $217,796 (middle half $177,469–$231,052). This posting is about at that midpoint.
Estimated from BLS employment for this occupation and area, per-skill prevalence across our listing corpus, and published wage benchmarks — as of Jul 28, 2026. It is a model, not a headcount.
Why we read it this way (9)
The role is explicitly titled 'Staff Software Engineer' and the JD describes cross-functional technical leadership, mentoring, and long-lived system ownership — consistent with a Staff-level IC band.
The primary SOC is 15-1252 (Software Developers) because the JD explicitly frames this as a software engineering role building production-grade systems, not assembling ETL tools or writing SQL pipelines. 15-1243 (Database Architects) is a plausible runner-up given the heavy data modeling, schema evolution, and data lifecycle focus.
Go and Python are listed as interchangeable options ('Go or Python or similar general-purpose language') in the Required Qualifications; they are captured as a single requirement with alternatives. The 'or similar' qualifier means the specific language is flexible, but proficiency in a general-purpose language is a hard gate.
API design and data modeling appear in the Required Qualifications as part of 'strong software engineering fundamentals'; they are retained as named technical requirements. Generic concepts such as 'system design' and 'writing well-tested production code' are omitted per instructions.
HIPAA, LIMS, and GxP appear under Preferred Qualifications and are marked accordingly.
The role is hybrid (minimum 60% on-site in Menlo Park, CA, moving to Sunnyvale in Fall 2026); it is not fully remote.
A BS degree is listed as required but the JD explicitly accepts 'equivalent practical experience,' so the degree requirement is set to None.
The $169k–$224k range is stated as the annual base pay scale.
Ignored 1 non-technology phrase(s) as skills (responsibilities/concepts, not named tools): API design.
Read the full posting
The employer publishes the full description on their own site — read it there ↗. Or sign in to read it here — it's free, and it also lets you track this application.