Staff / Principal Software Engineer

Genbio; Palo Alto (CA); On-site; USD 180,000 - 260,000; Full time

Job summary

GenBio AI is building the Virtual Cell World Model, a persistent, multimodal AI system for predicting, simulating, and programming cellular behavior. We seek a Staff to Principal-level Software Engineer to develop the user-facing platform for computational biologists, experimental scientists, and pharmaceutical researchers.

This is a senior individual contributor role working with AI researchers and product teams to deliver scalable backend services, APIs, and robust data processing for

Qualifications

• 8+ years of industry experience at Staff/Principal level building production web services and scalable APIs.
• Mastery of clean architecture and modular system design for maintainable, high-performance code.
• Hands-on experience integrating large-scale AI/ML inference systems into production environments.
• Proven ability to solve ambiguous, systems-level problems from concept to execution.
• Outstanding cross-functional communication to bridge engineering, AI research, and product teams.

Responsibilities

• Act as a senior technical leader to build the software platform for programmable biology and production-grade backend services and APIs.
• Design clean interfaces connecting frontend applications, business logic, extensive biological data, and AI inference engines.
• Architect and develop scalable systems for complex simulations, experiment management, and workflow orchestration.
• Improve platform performance and reliability via efficient architecture, caching, asynchronous execution, and distributed infrastructure.
• Collaborate with AI researchers to translate foundation models into user-facing scientific products.
• Work across frontend, backend, infrastructure, and ML teams to deliver intuitive computational experiences for biologists and pharma researchers.

Skills

Backend systems

APIs

Distributed systems

AI integration

Leadership

Job description

GenBio AI is building the Virtual Cell World Model - a persistent, multimodal AI system that predicts, simulates, and ultimately programs cellular behavior. Rather than producing isolated predictions, the Virtual Cell enables scientists to query cellular states, perform virtual perturbations, and design new biological interventions within a unified computational world. Together with AIDO Foundry, our AI-native engineering framework for automating Virtual Cell development, we are building the software infrastructure for the next generation of AI-driven drug discovery.

We are seeking an experienced Staff to Principal-level Software Engineer to build the user-facing platform that brings these capabilities to computational biologists, experimental scientists, and pharmaceutical researchers. This is a senior individual contributor role for engineers who enjoy solving challenging systems problems while working closely with AI researchers and product teams.

Key Responsibilities

• Act as a senior technical leader to build the software platform for programmable biology, developing production-grade backend services and APIs for our Virtual Cell products.
• Design clean, robust interfaces that seamlessly connect frontend applications, core business logic, massive biological databases, and state-of-the-art AI inference engines.
• Architect and develop highly scalable systems for complex biological simulations, experiment management, workflow orchestration, and the processing of multimodal biological data.
• Drive continuous improvements in platform performance and reliability through highly efficient architecture design, strategic caching, asynchronous execution, and optimized distributed infrastructure.
• Collaborate closely with AI researchers to translate cutting-edge foundation models into reliable, user-facing scientific products that enable virtual perturbations and hypothesis generation.
• Work cross-functionally across frontend, backend, infrastructure, and machine learning teams to deliver deeply intuitive computational experiences for biologists, experimental scientists, and pharmaceutical researchers.

Qualifications

• Extensive industry experience (typically 8+ years) operating at a Staff or Principal level, with a proven track record of building production web services, scalable APIs, and complex distributed backend systems.
• Exceptional software engineering fundamentals, demonstrating a mastery of clean architecture, modular system design, and the ability to write highly maintainable, performant code.
• Deep, hands-on experience integrating large-scale AI, LLMs, or machine learning inference systems into highly available production environments.
• Proven ability to solve challenging, ambiguous systems problems from the ground up, moving from concept to scalable execution.
• Outstanding cross-functional communication and leadership skills, with the ability to bridge the gap between deeply technical engineering teams, AI researchers, and scientific product teams.

Domain Knowledge

• Domain knowledge or prior experience working with computational biology, genomics, transcriptomics, protein/molecular structures, healthcare, or scientific software.
• Familiarity with building tools for scientific simulation, automated laboratory experiment management, or complex workflow orchestration.
• Experience building unified computational frameworks (similar to our AIDO Foundry) that accelerate the development and deployment of AI-native platforms.

Join us as we embark on this journey to redefine the future of biology and medicine.

We are an equal opportunity employer. We celebrate diversity and are committed to creating an inclusive environment for all employees. GenBio AI participates in the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s E-Verify program to confirm the employment eligibility of all newly hired employees. For more information on E-Verify, please visit www.e-verify.gov.