BioMedical AI Research Engineer
Xaira Therapeutics is hiring a BioMedical AI Research Engineer in South San Francisco, United States. It pays $227k-$295k a year and Level rates it ; you can apply on Xaira Therapeutics.
Level's read on this job
- On Level's scale, this role is Builds AI ●●●●: the job is building AI systems.
- Tools and skills the posting cites include PyTorch, TensorFlow and JAX.
- Level lists 30 other open roles at Xaira Therapeutics.
AI in this role
About Xaira Therapeutics
Xaira is an innovative biotech startup focused on leveraging AI to transform drug discovery and development. The company is leading the development of generative AI models to design protein and antibody therapeutics, enabling the creation of medicines against historically hard-to-drug molecular targets. It is also developing foundation models for biology and disease to enable better target elucidation and patient stratification. Collectively, these technologies aim to continually enable the identification of novel therapies and to improve success in drug development. Xaira is headquartered in the San Francisco Bay Area, Seattle, and London.
About the Role
We are seeking a Biomedical AI Engineer to design and deploy agentic AI systems that can reason over biomedical knowledge, plan multi-step analyses, and autonomously integrate diverse scientific data sources to accelerate therapeutic discovery.
This role goes beyond traditional LLM + RAG pipelines. You will build AI agents that can retrieve, synthesize, evaluate, and act on biomedical information across literature, omics datasets, and clinical records operating as intelligent systems embedded within discovery workflows.
Key Responsibilities
- Design and implement agentic AI architectures capable of multi-step reasoning, planning, and tool use in biomedical contexts.
- Develop LLM-based agents that dynamically retrieve, rank, and synthesize knowledge from scientific literature, knowledge graphs, omics datasets, and clinical data.
- Build memory and feedback mechanisms that allow agents to refine hypotheses, update context, and adapt to evolving data.
- Integrate external tools (analysis pipelines, simulation engines, statistical models, databases) into autonomous agent workflows.
- Architect scalable systems that combine structured and unstructured biomedical data within production-grade AI environments.
- Collaborate closely with computational biologists, translational scientists, and software engineers to embed agentic systems into real-world discovery pipelines.
- Evaluate robustness, reliability, and interpretability of autonomous systems in high-stakes biomedical settings.
Qualifications
- Degree in Computer Science, Machine Learning, Computational Biology, Biomedical Informatics, or related field.
- Strong hands-on experience with large language models, including fine-tuning, alignment, and structured prompting.
- Experience building agent-based systems or complex LLM orchestration frameworks (e.g., multi-agent systems, tool-using LLMs, planning modules).
- Proficiency in Python and modern ML frameworks (PyTorch, JAX, TensorFlow).
- Experience working with large-scale biomedical datasets (genomics, transcriptomics, clinical records, or scientific corpora).
Preferred
- Experience designing autonomous research assistants or AI systems that perform multi-step scientific reasoning.
- Familiarity with knowledge graphs, hybrid symbolic-neural systems, or multimodal foundation models.
- Understanding of privacy, security, and regulatory considerations in healthcare AI.
Compensation
We offer a competitive compensation and benefits package, seeking to provide an open, flexible, and friendly work environment to empower employees and provide them with a platform to develop their long-term careers. A Summary of Benefits is available for all applicants. We offer a competitive package that includes base salary, bonus, and equity. The base pay range for this position is expected to be $227,000 - $295,000 annually; however, the base pay offered may vary depending on the market, job-related knowledge, skills and capabilities, and experience.
Xaira Therapeutics an equal-opportunity employer. We believe that our strength is in our differences. Our goal to build a diverse and inclusive team began on day one, and it will never end.
TO ALL RECRUITMENT AGENCIES: Xaira Therapeutics does not accept agency resumes. Please do not forward resumes to our jobs alias or employees. Xaira Therapeutics is not responsible for any fees related to unsolicited resumes.
How we rate this
BioMedical AI Research Engineer at Xaira Therapeutics rates 99 out of 100 for how much of the daily work is AI. That makes it Builds AI (AI Level 4 of 4). The level is about AI in the job, not seniority.
Builds AI. The job is building AI systems.
- ●●●● Builds AI80 to 100
- ●●●○ Works on AI60 to 79
- ●●○○ Uses AI40 to 59
- ●○○○ Little AI0 to 39
Levels come from how often the tools, models and workflows of the role are named in the posting itself. Read the description and count the AI tools, models and workflows it names.
Prepare for this job
Built from this posting and from similar jobs on Level.
Skills and AI tools this role asks for
Questions you could be asked
- How would you design a retrieval step so the model answers from real data instead of guessing?
- How do you decide when an AI agent can act on its own versus asking for approval first?
- Walk me through fine-tuning a model: what data did you use, and how did you check the result?
- Tell me about a research question you investigated. What did you find?
- Walk me through how you've used PyTorch in your day-to-day work.
Adapt your resume
- List these exact terms on your resume: RAG, AI agents, Fine-tuning, AI Research, and PyTorch. An applicant tracking system matches the wording, not the idea.
- Attach one line of real, concrete experience to at least one of them. A tool named with nothing behind it rarely survives a human read.
- Lead with what you built, trained or shipped. This role is judged on the AI system itself, not the tools around it.
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