Software Engineer, Developer & Research Platform
Chai Discovery
San Francisco, CA · Posted October 13, 2026
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Where San Francisco, CA ranks
Where San Francisco, CA placed in our monthly rankings, month by month. Each month stays online at its own address.
November 2026
- #1Best cities for security jobs316 openings · of 20
- #1Best cities for technology jobs7,178 openings · of 100
- #1Best cities for financial services pay after cost of living$173k · of 33
- #1Best cities for entry-level jobs that want AI skills35% · of 100
- #1Best cities for entry-level jobs that want AI skills in the West Coast35% · of 54
- #1Cities with the most jobs that do not need a four-year degree in the West Coast902 jobs · of 47
Rankings about engineering jobs
- Best cities for software and engineering jobs #1 San Francisco (3,412 openings)
- Best cities for engineering pay after cost of living #1 San Mateo ($216k)
- Most requested AI skills in engineering jobs #1 AI tools in daily work (6.1%)
- AI tools named most often in engineering jobs #1 Claude (1.7%)
- Employers with the most engineering jobs #1 Amazon (2,992 roles)
Pay compared with the market
This listing does not state pay. Across 696 open software engineer listings that state pay, the middle half runs $168,000 to $251,000 and the median is $201,500.
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 , GSK , Pfizer , Bristol Meyers , 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
Build the platform that shortens the time it takes researchers and engineers to test ideas, ship software, and learn from experiments. We believe the software factory is just as important as the software itself, and you will build that factory for people and agents, including:
Shipping the research platform where people and agents launch experiments, compare results, and decide what to try next.
Designing systems that let coding agents take on more development, testing, and code review.
Setting up better development environments, faster tests, and reliable deploys.
About you
We look for strong systems engineering, developer taste, and a record of making other technical people more effective. You understand how researchers and engineers work, can go deep into the systems they depend on, and build tools they want to use.
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 & promote a culture of high velocity and ownership. We compensate our team accordingly.