Software Engineer, Biomolecular Structure Software

Astera Institute • Emerybille, CA

23h • Onsite

About The Position

Astera Institute’s Prism project seeks a full-time, on-site software engineer to lead the design and development of software tools for working with biomolecular structures and experimental data used in structure determination, in a machine-learning-friendly way. The role involves API design, architecture, and package implementation, as well as refactoring existing software to use the new tools. The engineer will work with Prism and external scientists to define requirements, establish appropriate APIs, identify reusable libraries, and ensure calculations on structures and data are correct. Implementation will primarily use Python, with C/C++ libraries and CUDA GPU kernels as needed for performance. The position reports to the Machine Learning Team Lead and is based at Astera’s Emeryville, California location. Some travel, approximately 10%, may be required for in-person collaboration.

Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science or a related field.
• At least 5 years of work experience.
• Experience building new software packages from the ground up.
• A track record of building software for critical scientific applications.
• Experience collaborating with scientists from diverse backgrounds.
• Experience working with machine-learning pipelines and data preparation; training machine-learning models is not required.

Nice To Haves

• Experience with structural biology data.

Responsibilities

• Review existing APIs and codebases to identify constraints and needs.
• Review requirements, translate them into a final API, and build consensus within Prism and externally around that API.
• Work with scientists to define requirements.
• Work with Prism and external scientists to identify where existing software libraries can be used and what must be built new.
• Work with Prism and external scientists to ensure the correctness of calculations performed on structures and data.
• Write Python code to implement software, and possibly C/C++ libraries and CUDA GPU kernels for high performance.
• Lead design, architecture, and development of the software package and refactor existing software to use the new tools.

Benefits

• Top-tier health insurance plans with 99% of premiums covered by Astera for employees and dependents.
• Daily lunch, plus a well-stocked fridge and pantry.
• Licenses for frontier AI tools and software.
• 403(b) retirement plans.
• Flexible paid time off.
• Paid parental leave.
• Commuter benefits.
• Health and dependent care flexible spending accounts.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Senior