Staff / Principal Software Engineer

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

Job summary

GenBio AI is building a pioneering platform to simulate and program cellular behavior with AI-driven tools for scientists and researchers in biomedicine. We seek a Staff to Principal-level Software Engineer to lead the user-facing platform and scale backend services, interfaces, and data workflows.

You will work closely with AI researchers and product teams to translate advances in foundation models into reliable, user-centric biology software, delivering robust, scalable systems for the Virtual

Qualifications

• 8+ years in software engineering at staff or principal level.
• Proven track record of production-grade web services and scalable APIs.
• Hands-on experience with large-scale AI/LMM integration.
• Strong cross-functional leadership and communication.

Responsibilities

• Lead on building the software platform for programmable biology, with production-grade backend services and APIs.
• Design interfaces connecting frontend apps, core logic, vast biological data, and AI inference engines.
• Architect scalable systems for simulations, experiment management, and workflow orchestration.
• Collaborate with AI researchers to deploy foundation models into user-facing scientific tools.

Skills

Staff/Principal experience

Distributed systems

Backend services

API design

AI integration

Tools

Docker

Kubernetes

REST/GraphQL APIs

Cloud platforms

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.

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.

Preferred Qualifications:

• 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.

We may use artificial intelligence (AI) tools to support parts of the hiring process, such as reviewing applications, analyzing resumes, and assessing responses and identifying potential inconsistencies or verification signals in application materials based on available information. These tools assist our recruitment team but do not replace human judgment. Final hiring decisions are ultimately made by humans. If you would like more information about how your data is processed, please contact us.