Research Engineer

About Chai Discovery

Chai is an applied research lab working on AI to unlock biology. Our models design new molecules for new medicines. Scientists across industry are adopting our software platform to develop drugs with engineering precision and discover treatments to "undruggable" disease.

Our founders have been at the forefront of this field since its inception. We raised $230m from Thrive, General Catalyst, OpenAI, Dimension and other tier-one investors. We partner with global life sciences companies like Eli Lilly on deals that are transforming the industry landscape.

We are known for talent density, rigorous research and pace of execution.

About the role

We are seeking an AI Research Engineer to help design, train, evaluate, and optimize Chai’s core models and infrastructure, working in tight loops with research scientists. Chai's models are moving beyond protein structure prediction into real-world therapeutic engineering. This is a chance to push the frontier of AI drug design, working alongside a craft-obsessed team of micro-pessimists and macro-optimists.

• Develop and optimize all the infrastructure & tooling upon which our AI research depends.

• Collaborate with AI researchers to understand, implement and optimize new research directions.

• Integrate AI models into production systems, ensuring scalability and reliability.

About you

Ideal backgrounds include high-performance computing, custom CUDA kernels and GPU programming, AI/ML + data systems at scale.

• Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in Computer Science, Software Engineering, or a related field.

• Strong proficiency in programming languages such as Python and deep learning frameworks like PyTorch.

• Deep understanding of operating system internals.

• Experience with HPC infrastructure such as Slurm and Kubernetes.

• Experience with performance engineering and profiling for CPU and CPU workloads.

• Experience writing, building, and maintaining large-scale ETL pipelines.

We offer

• Frontier technology: work on the technologies that promises to fundamentally change how new therapeutics are created.

• World-class people: work with world-renowned leaders in the AI x Biology ecosystem.

• Velocity and ownership: we move incredibly fast and liberally distribute ownership, which means continuous learning and career growth opportunities are guaranteed.

• Strong culture and mission: we foster a supportive culture that is mission-driven and high-energy.

• Highly competitive compensation: we attract the best talent and compensate them accordingly.