Scientific AI Engineer

Harvard University • Boston, MA

5d • Onsite

About The Position

The Scientific AI Engineer will work in the context of the ImmGen consortium at Harvard Medical School, collaborating with its computational team and immunologists to design and implement an AI agent for scientific data analysis. The agent will use ImmGen data and external databases to answer scientists’ natural-language questions with data-grounded visualizations and context.

The engineer will integrate ImmGen’s existing data resources and analytical capabilities with an AI-powered interface. The role focuses on exposing, adapting, orchestrating, and extending existing tools so AI agents can access them reliably through natural-language interaction, using MCP strategies. The position does not involve acquiring or managing ImmGen data or rebuilding existing analytical tools.

This is a two-year term position beginning on the date of hire, with possible extension depending on performance and continued funding. The position is fully on-site, and all duties must be performed at a Harvard or Harvard-designated location.

Requirements

• Minimum of five years’ post-secondary education or relevant work experience.
• Strong Python programming skills and experience with scientific computing libraries such as pandas, NumPy, SciPy, scikit-learn, Scanpy, Bioconductor, or equivalent tools.
• Strong software-engineering skills, including experience with APIs, data schemas, testing, version control, logging, documentation, and reproducible workflows.
• Experience integrating software with existing scientific data platforms, analytical pipelines, web services, or computational tools.
• Hands-on experience with LLM applications, including tool/function calling, retrieval-augmented generation, structured outputs, agent orchestration, or natural-language-to-SQL/code systems.

Nice To Haves

• Advanced degree or equivalent professional experience in computational biology, bioinformatics, genomics, or a related field.

Responsibilities

• Work with ImmGen scientists and data analysts to understand existing datasets, metadata, documentation, tools, APIs, and access mechanisms.
• Adapt and wrap existing ImmGen data so it can be reliably invoked by an LLM-based agent using public analytical and visualization tools.
• Collaborate with scientists to define supported use cases, desired answer formats, and appropriate scientific language and graphics.
• Map researcher questions to appropriate ImmGen resources and analytical workflows.
• Develop software interfaces, APIs, schemas, computational guardrails, and orchestration logic to connect the agent to existing ImmGen infrastructure.
• Implement safeguards against hallucinated results, invalid comparisons, inappropriate statistical interpretations, and unsupported biological claims.
• Ensure the agent does not automatically initiate unduly expensive computations.

Benefits

• Generous paid time off, including parental leave
• Medical, dental, and vision health insurance coverage starting on day one
• Retirement plans with university contributions
• Wellbeing and mental health resources
• Support for families and caregivers
• Professional development opportunities, including tuition assistance and reimbursement
• Commuter benefits, discounts, and campus perks

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Mid Level
• Education Level: No Education Listed