Software Engineer, AI Platform
Chai Discovery
San Francisco, CA · Posted October 12, 2026
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Where San Francisco, CA placed in our monthly rankings, month by month. Each month stays online at its own address.
November 2026
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- #1Cities with the most jobs that do not need a four-year degree in the West Coast902 jobs · of 47
Rankings about data & analytics jobs
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- Best cities for data and analytics pay after cost of living #1 Foster ($232k)
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- Employers with the most data and analytics jobs #1 Amazon (711 roles)
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Pay compared with the market
This listing does not state pay. Across 754 open software engineer listings that state pay, the middle half runs $157,500 to $251,500 and the median is $197,500.
Listed pay is what employers advertise, not what people are paid.
How AI is used in this kind of work
Among software developers, AI is already used for some of the tasks. Measured exposure for software developers: 29% (some).
Share of this job’s tasks that AI is already used for at work, from real usage. It is not a forecast of job loss, and a low number means no use seen yet. Source: Anthropic Economic Index.
About the job
ABOUT CHAI DISCOVERY
Chai Discovery builds the computer-aided design suite for molecules. Eli Lilly https://endpoints.news/eli-lilly-chai-discovery-sign-ai-software-deal/, GSK https://endpoints.news/chai-discovery-signs-gsk-deal-to-make-biologics-with-ai/, Pfizer https://www.forbes.com/sites/amyfeldman/2026/06/04/why-pfizer-and-eli-lilly-are-betting-on-this-13-billion-ai-drug-discovery-startup/, Bristol Myers Squibb https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7496300911523246080/, argenx https://x.com/chaidiscovery/status/2077422480617267230?s=20 and Novartis https://www.chaidiscovery.com/news/novartis-partnership 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
Build the AI platform that lets scientists direct research programs with agents. We believe that as Chai's models get more powerful, scientists will focus more on fundamental problems and biological hypotheses, and delegate more of the subtasks to answer them to agents. Making this possible requires inventing the abstractions through which people, agents, and Chai’s models collaborate.
- Work with scientists and model researchers to define how agents use Chai’s foundation models to design molecules and guide experiments.
- Build products that shorten the cycle from idea ➝ to experiment ➝ to the next decision, while scientists monitor and direct the work.
- Build the core abstractions for agent execution, model inference, and scientific tools so new capabilities come together fluidly across the workspace.
ABOUT YOU
We look for technical depth, strong software architecture, and product judgment, with experience building complex applications or agent systems. You can find clear abstractions in a messy domain and build systems that hold up as their scope grows. We value a practical understanding of where agents fail and how to tell whether they’re doing useful work.
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.