Research Software Engineer (RSE) — Open Source AI for Science

University of California-Berkeley; Berkeley (CA); On-site; USD 105,000 - 155,000; Full time

Job summary

The University of California, Berkeley seeks a Research Software Engineer to join Lightcone’s OSPO and help advance AI-assisted scientific research. You will apply rigorous software engineering to build and maintain AI-enabled tools, collaborating with senior researchers and industry partners to ensure reproducibility and open science.

You will drive open source contributions, documentation, and project leadership as part of a team focused on responsible AI for science, aligned with UC Berkeley

Qualifications

• Advanced Python programming skills and software development experience.
• Experience with agentic AI and LLM coding agents (e.g., Claude, Codex).
• Experience building tools for agentic AI/LLM systems.
• Git, CI/CD knowledge; secure software development.
• Strong collaboration across interdisciplinary teams.
• Ability to scope requirements and deliver results.
• Bachelor's degree in a related area or equivalent.

Responsibilities

• Plan, design, and implement AI-enabled software for reproducible scientific research.
• Maintain open source projects and contribute to testing, reviews, and releases.
• Lead project plans and deliver tasks within interdisciplinary teams.
• Analyze and develop modular software systems; apply open source standards.
• Enable data analyses by collaborators across multi-modal pipelines.
• Create user and developer documentation and set development standards.
• Stay current with AI for science and security practices.
• Serve as technical lead on software projects and contribute to OSPO goals.

Skills

Python

Agentic AI

LLM tooling

Git & CI

Education

Bachelor's degree in related area

Tools

Git

GitHub Actions

Docker

Kubernetes

Job description

The University of California, Berkeley seeks a Research Software Engineer to join Lightcone’s OSPO and help advance AI-assisted scientific research. You will apply rigorous software engineering to build and maintain AI-enabled tools, collaborating with senior researchers and industry partners to ensure reproducibility and open science.

You will drive open source contributions, documentation, and project leadership as part of a team focused on responsible AI for science, aligned with UC Berkeley