Sr. Principal Software and AI Engineer

BeOne Medicines Ltd.; Emeryville (CA); On-site; USD 180,000 - 240,000; Full time

Job summary

BeOne Medicines Ltd. seeks a Sr. Principal Software and AI Engineer to act as the senior technical authority for AI-powered applications across drug development, with emphasis on protocol generation and clinical trial execution.

You will shape R&D AI strategy, set technical direction for the engineering team, and contribute hands-on to critical components while establishing best practices for AI-native development within a validated SDLC.

Qualifications

• Senior leadership with ownership of product direction and delivery.
• Experience shipping production-grade AI/ML applications in regulated environments.
• Strong collaboration with clinical, medical writing, biostatistics, and operations teams.

Responsibilities

• Architect, build, and deploy AI-powered applications to accelerate protocol generation and clinical trial execution.
• Define scalable platform architecture for multi-agent orchestration and LLMOps lifecycle.
• Set AI-native development standards, evaluation, observability, and validated SDLC processes.
• Mentor engineers through design reviews, code reviews, and hands-on guidance.

Skills

Full-stack software engineering

Multi-agent AI-native apps

Frontier model apps

Knowledge engineering

Evaluation & reliability

AI-assisted development

Platform & infrastructure

Education

Bachelor's degree + 7+ years

Master's degree + 5+ years

PhD + 3+ years

Tools

Python

.NET

PostgreSQL

Elasticsearch

Neo4j

MCP

AWS/Azure/GCP

Job description

General Description:

We are seeking a Sr. Principal Software and AI Engineer to serve as the senior technical authority for AI-powered applications across drug development, with a primary focus on protocol generation and clinical trial execution. In this hands-on senior technical leadership role, you will help shape the R&D AI strategy and set technical direction for the engineering team, while building critical components yourself and setting best practices for AI-native development within a disciplined, validated SDLC. You will architect and ship production-grade agentic applications and platforms, set standards for evaluation, observability, and GxP compliance, and raise the bar for engineers through design reviews and mentorship.

Essential Functions of the Job:

• Build AI and Agentic Applications: Architect, build, and deploy AI and agentic powered applications that accelerate protocol generation and clinical trial execution, from study design through operational delivery.

• Collaborate Broadly: Partner with clinicians, medical writers, statisticians, data scientists, clinical operations, and product teams to embed AI into regulated clinical development workflows.

• Shape Architecture: Define scalable, reliable platform architecture for multi-agent orchestration, model and tool integration, and the full LLMOps lifecycle.

• Set Standards: Establish best practices for AI-native development, evaluation, testing, observability, and continuous performance monitoring within a validated SDLC.

• Drive Innovation: Assess frontier and open-weight models, agent frameworks, and tooling, and make sound build, buy, and model sourcing decisions.

• Ensure Compliance: Uphold GxP, data privacy, security, and responsible AI standards, with traceability, auditability, and human oversight built into every system.

Supervisory Responsibilities:

• Act as tech lead with full ownership of product development, accountable for technical direction, delivery, and quality from concept through production.

• Lead project execution, setting priorities, scope, and timelines for the AI engineering team.

• Mentor AI and software engineers through design and code reviews, reference implementations, and hands‑on guidance.

• Lead cross-functional technical workstreams with clinical, medical writing, biostatistics, and clinical operations partners.

Foundational Background

• Education: Bachelors with 7+ years, Masters with 5+ years or PhD with 3+ years

• Experience: Software and AI/ML engineering experience, including experience as a tech lead or principal engineer owning large-scale AI products end to end. Experience in the pharmaceutical or life sciences industry is strongly preferred.

• Track Record: Proven success shipping production-grade AI and agentic applications that deliver measurable scientific or business impact, ideally in a regulated environment.

Core Technical Expertise

• Full-Stack Software Engineering: A strong software engineer first. Deep backend expertise in Python (preferred) and/or .NET, with a track record of architecting and building enterprise applications end to end across frontend, APIs, databases, and deployment. Hands‑on experience with relational, search, and graph data stores such as PostgreSQL, Elasticsearch, and Neo4j. Sound judgment in system design, data modeling, and production operations.

• Multi-Agent, AI-Native Applications: Deep, hands‑on experience architecting and shipping multi-agent applications to production, with strong command of agent harness design, context engineering, orchestration, tool integration (including MCP), and human-in-the-loop controls.

• Frontier Model Application: Strong judgment in selecting and applying frontier and open-weight models, using structured outputs, guardrails, and validation to ensure stable, robust model behavior. Experience with fine‑tuning or post‑training is a plus.

• Knowledge Engineering: Proven ability to design and manage enterprise knowledge architecture, including ontology design, knowledge graphs, and retrieval, to make domain knowledge structured, governed, and usable by AI systems.

• Evaluation and Reliability: Proven ability to build multi-layered evaluation, from expert benchmarks and rule‑based checks to human review and model-based grading, backed by production monitoring.

• AI‑Assisted Development: Fluency with AI coding tools and practices, applied within a disciplined SDLC with rigorous testing, code review, and CI/CD.

• Platform and Infrastructure: Strong knowledge of LLMOps, secure cloud deployment (AWS, Azure, or GCP), and observability.

Clinical Development Domain

• Protocol and Trial Execution: Experience with clinical protocol development, study design, or clinical trial operations. Familiarity with ICH M11 structured protocols, CDISC standards, or USDM is a strong plus.

• Regulated AI: Working knowledge of GxP, computer system validation, and emerging regulatory guidance on AI in drug development.

Leadership and Collaboration

• Proven ability to act as tech lead, owning product direction and delivery while mentoring senior engineers.

• Strong partnership with clinicians, medical writers, statisticians, and clinical operations, translating complex AI concepts for research, regulatory, and executive audiences.

• Deep commitment to data privacy, security, and responsible AI in development and deployment.

Travel: 10%

All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability or protected veteran status.