Senior Software Engineer, - Information Retrieval

BenchSci; Toronto; Remote; CAD 150,000 - 200,000; Full time

Job summary

A leading biomedical AI software company is seeking a Senior Software Engineer to join their GenAI and Web Applications Team. This role involves designing and optimizing retrieval systems to support pharmaceutical companies in biomedical research. Candidates should have strong expertise in information retrieval, proficiency in Python, and 4+ years of software engineering experience. The position offers a competitive compensation package and a commitment to diversity and inclusion.

Benefits

Great compensation package with equity options

Robust vacation policy

Health and dental benefits

Annual learning and development budget

Home office set-up budget

Qualifications

• Strong expertise in information retrieval techniques and ability to optimize them in production.
• Hands-on experience with IR evaluation metrics like Precision, Recall.
• Familiarity with LLMs and vector embeddings.

Responsibilities

• Design, implement, and optimize Conversational AI retrieval systems.
• Troubleshoot and resolve retrieval and embedding-related issues.
• Establish high standards for retrieval quality and team culture.

Skills

Information Retrieval techniques

IR evaluation metrics

LLMs and vector embeddings

Python programming

System design

Education

4+ years of professional software engineering experience

Job description

Overview

We are currently looking for a Senior Software Engineer, Data to join our GenAI and Web Applications Team. Reporting to the team’s Engineering Manager, you''ll work on complex projects focused on advancing our core search retrieval and ranking capabilities. You''ll contribute to our backend initiatives and collaborate with other engineers and scientists to develop intelligent solutions for our software as a service (SaaS) products, helping scientists save time and increase their experiment quality.

You Will

• Design, implement, and optimize Conversational AI retrieval and evaluation systems in collaboration with data engineers, product managers, and scientists. This includes technical investigations, solution design, scalable implementation with automated tests, and participation in code reviews.
• Troubleshoot and resolve retrieval and embedding-related issues in a timely manner.
• Establish and uphold high standards for retrieval quality, evaluation rigor, and team culture, ensuring outcomes align with scientific and business goals.
• Be given an unmatched opportunity for accelerated growth and learn from a team working on cutting-edge IR + LLM applications in biomedical research.
• Work on projects that directly support some of the largest pharmaceutical companies in the world, improving their ability to discover and apply biomedical knowledge.
• Tackle difficult IR/LLM challenges and contribute new ideas and perspectives to advance our retrieval platform.

You Have

• Deep Expertise in Information Retrieval (IR): Strong expertise in information retrieval techniques (e.g., BM25, dense retrievers, hybrid methods) and an ability to optimize them in production.
• Evaluation Expertise: Hands-on experience with IR evaluation metrics (e.g., Precision, Recall, MAP, MRR).
• Hands-on Experience with LLMs and Embeddings: Familiarity with LLMs and vector embeddings, including fine-tuning or adapting models for domain-specific retrieval tasks.
• Proficiency in Python: High proficiency in Python, with experience building production-quality data or ML systems.
• System Design Skills: You can architect and build scalable information retrieval systems and understand the trade-offs of different design choices.
• 4+ years of professional software engineering experience, ideally in roles bridging ML/IR and backend development.

Nice to haves, but not mandatory qualifications

• Infrastructure and Ecosystem: Exposure to cloud ecosystems (Google Cloud, BigQuery, Spanner, Vertex AI).
• Applied Machine Learning: You have experience tuning embedding models, training and evaluating reranker models, and are comfortable with A/B testing and online evaluation.
• Data and Knowledge Graphs: You have experience with graph databases and knowledge graph-based retrieval.

Benefits and Perks

• A great compensation package that includes BenchSci equity options
• A robust vacation policy plus an additional vacation day every year
• Company closures for 14 more days throughout the year
• Flex time for sick days, personal days, and religious holidays
• Comprehensive health and dental benefits
• Annual learning & development budget
• A one-time home office set-up budget to use upon joining BenchSci
• An annual lifestyle spending account allowance
• Generous parental leave benefits with a top-up plan or paid time off options
• The ability to save for your retirement coupled with a company match!

About BenchSci

BenchSci''s mission is to exponentially increase the speed and quality of life-saving research and development. We empower scientists to run more successful experiments with the world''s most advanced, biomedical artificial intelligence software platform.

Backed by Generation Investment Management, TCV, Inovia, F-Prime, Golden Ventures, and Google''s AI fund, Gradient Ventures, we provide an indispensable tool for scientists that accelerates research at top pharmaceutical companies and leading academic centers.

Our Culture

Our culture fosters transparency, collaboration, and continuous learning. We value each other''s differences and always look for opportunities to embed equity into the fabric of our work. We foster diversity, autonomy, and personal growth, and provide resources to support motivated self-leaders in continuous improvement.

You will work with high-impact, highly skilled, and intelligent experts motivated to drive impact and fulfill a meaningful mission. We empower you to unleash your full potential, do your best work, and thrive. Here you will be challenged to stretch yourself to achieve the seemingly impossible.

Diversity, Equity and Inclusion

We''re committed to creating an inclusive environment where people from all backgrounds can thrive. We believe that improving diversity, equity and inclusion is our collective responsibility, and this belief guides our DEI journey. Learn more about our DEI initiatives.

Accessibility Accommodations

Should you require any accommodation, we will work with you to meet your needs. Please reach out to [e-mail].