Sr. Principal Software and AI Engineer

BeiGene

8d • $137,400 - $182,400

About The Position

BeOne is 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. This hands-on technical leadership role will help shape R&D AI strategy and set engineering direction while building critical components and establishing best practices for AI-native development within a disciplined, validated SDLC.

The engineer will architect and ship production-grade agentic applications and platforms, establish standards for evaluation, observability, and GxP compliance, and support engineer development through design reviews and mentorship. The role owns product development and technical delivery from concept through production and partners broadly with clinical and technical teams. Travel is 10%.

Requirements

• Bachelor's degree with 7+ years of experience, master's degree with 5+ years, or PhD with 3+ years.
• Software and AI/ML engineering experience, including experience as a tech lead or principal engineer owning large-scale AI products end to end.
• Proven success shipping production-grade AI and agentic applications that deliver measurable scientific or business impact.
• Strong software engineering background, with deep backend expertise in Python (preferred) and/or .NET and experience building enterprise applications across frontend, APIs, databases, and deployment.
• Hands-on experience with relational, search, and graph data stores such as PostgreSQL, Elasticsearch, and Neo4j.
• Experience architecting and shipping multi-agent applications to production, including agent harness design, context engineering, orchestration, tool integration including MCP, and human-in-the-loop controls.
• Strong judgment selecting and applying frontier and open-weight models, including use of structured outputs, guardrails, and validation.
• Ability to design and manage enterprise knowledge architecture, including ontology design, knowledge graphs, and retrieval.
• Ability to build multilayered evaluations using expert benchmarks, rule-based checks, human review, and model-based grading, supported by production monitoring.
• Fluency with AI coding tools and practices, applied within a disciplined SDLC with rigorous testing, code review, and CI/CD.
• Strong knowledge of LLMOps, secure cloud deployment on AWS, Azure, or GCP, and observability.
• Proven ability to act as a tech lead, owning product direction and delivery while mentoring senior engineers.
• Ability to partner with clinical and operational stakeholders and communicate complex AI concepts to research, regulatory, and executive audiences.
• Commitment to data privacy, security, and responsible AI in development and deployment.

Nice To Haves

• Experience in the pharmaceutical or life sciences industry.
• Experience shipping AI applications in a regulated environment.
• Experience with fine-tuning or post-training models.
• Experience with clinical protocol development, study design, or clinical trial operations.
• Familiarity with ICH M11 structured protocols, CDISC standards, or USDM.
• Working knowledge of GxP, computer system validation, and emerging regulatory guidance on AI in drug development.

Responsibilities

• Architect, build, and deploy AI- and agentic-powered applications that accelerate protocol generation and clinical trial execution from study design through operational delivery.
• Partner with clinicians, medical writers, statisticians, data scientists, clinical operations, and product teams to embed AI in regulated clinical development workflows.
• Define scalable and reliable platform architecture for multi-agent orchestration, model and tool integration, and the full LLMOps lifecycle.
• Establish best practices for AI-native development, evaluation, testing, observability, and continuous performance monitoring within a validated SDLC.
• Assess frontier and open-weight models, agent frameworks, and tooling, and make build, buy, and model sourcing decisions.
• Uphold GxP, data privacy, security, and responsible AI standards, incorporating traceability, auditability, and human oversight into systems.
• Own product development and technical direction, delivery, and quality from concept through production.
• Lead project execution by 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.

Benefits

• Medical, dental, and vision coverage.
• 401(k).
• FSA/HSA.
• Life insurance.
• Paid time off.
• Wellness benefits.
• Eligible employees may receive discretionary equity awards.
• Employees may voluntarily participate in the Employee Stock Purchase Plan.
• Non-Commercial roles are eligible to participate in the annual bonus plan; Commercial roles are eligible for an incentive compensation plan.

What This Job Offers

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