Chai DiscoveryResearch Engineer
Chai Discovery is hiring a Research Engineer in San Francisco, United States. Level rates it ; you can apply on Chai Discovery.
Level's read on this job
- Level rates this role Builds AI ●●●●: the job is building AI systems.
- Tools and skills the posting cites include PyTorch, JAX and AI research.
- Level lists 19 other open roles at Chai Discovery.
AI in this role
About Chai Discovery
Chai Discovery builds the computer-aided design suite for molecules. Eli Lilly, GSK, Pfizer, Bristol Myers Squibb, argenx and Novartis all use Chai to power drug discovery programs. AI is reinventing life sciences the same way it reinvented software engineering, and our team is building that future.
We train frontier models that learn the underlying foundations of biochemical structure and interaction. We pair this with a computational workspace to iterate on molecules from idea to medicine, helping scientists move faster and develop medicines beyond the reach of existing methods.
We value diverse perspectives and are ready to find greatness in unexpected places.
About the role
Make our models performant, fast, and reliable at scale by developing the core frameworks used to train and evaluate our ML models.
Build datasets and algorithms to systematically evaluate and monitor model performance.
Analyze model failure modes, working closely with researchers on experiments to mitigate them.
Own the distributed training stack, removing runtime and reliability bottlenecks across all layers of the stack and architecture—parallelism, quantization, and kernel optimization and whatever else might move the needle.
Own and contribute to our auto research and auto kernels frameworks.
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 rigorous and craft-obsessed team.
About you
Ideal backgrounds include deep industry experience working with top AI/ML teams on the kinds of problems we describe above—with strong software system design skills, proficiency in Python, and Pytorch or JAX fluency. We look for technical spikes where you have gone deep and demonstrated exceptional impact on real-world problems and systems.
We offer
The opportunity to work at the vanguard of AI research and frontier biology, with world-class people, on a mission that matters. We protect and promote a culture of high velocity and ownership. We compensate our team accordingly.
How we rate this
Research Engineer at Chai Discovery rates 98 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
- 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.
- What are the limits of JAX that you've run into, and how did you work around them?
- How would you decide a model or AI system is ready to ship?
- Tell me about a time a model underperformed in production. How did you find out, and what did you change?
Adapt your resume
- List these exact terms on your resume: AI Research, PyTorch, and JAX. 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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