Research Scientist

About Chai Discovery

Chai Discovery is an applied research lab working on the future of medicine. Our product is a design suite for molecules, built on our frontier models. We help scientists develop drugs with engineering precision, unlocking better medicines for humanity.

Our founders have been at the forefront of this field since its inception. We have raised $230m from Thrive, General Catalyst, OpenAI, Dimension and other tier-one investors. We partner with global life sciences companies like Eli Lilly, who have made multi-year, eight-figure annual revenue commitments to our platform.

We are known for talent density, rigorous research and pace of execution.

About the role

As an AI Research Scientist, you will conduct groundbreaking research on computational modeling for biological applications. Chai's models are moving beyond protein structure prediction into real-world therapeutic engineering. This is a chance to push the frontier of AI drug design, working alongside a craft-obsessed team of micro-pessimists and macro-optimists.

About you

We’re seeking an AI Leader with rigorous research experience and desire to push the limits of what’s possible in therapeutic design and a restless drive to solve real-world problems and iterate quickly. You should have:

Significant research experience:

• Ph.D. or equivalent research experience in Machine Learning, Computational Biology, Bioinformatics, Computational Chemistry, or a related field

• Strong publication or project record in top ML or life-science venues (NeurIPS, ICML, Nature Methods, PLoS CB, J. Chem. Inf. Model., etc.)

Technical skills:

• Proficient in Python and deep-learning frameworks

• Experience training and evaluating large models on protein, antibody, or small-molecule data, or demonstrably transferable ML expertise

Experimental design & analysis:

• Able to translate open-ended scientific questions into tractable modeling experiments

• Skilled at wrangling large biological or chemical datasets, computing meaningful metrics, and visualizing results for diverse audiences

Collaboration & communication:

• Enjoy working in cross-functional teams, aligning with wet-lab scientists, software engineers, and product leads

• Clear communicator who can distill complex findings into next-step recommendations for both technical and non-technical stakeholders

Mindset:

• Curious, ambitious, and comfortable iterating quickly on v0 ideas

• Motivated by turning breakthrough research into real-world therapeutic impact

We offer

The opportunity to work at the frontier of AI, with world-class people, on a mission that matters. We protect & promote a culture of high velocity and ownership. We offer highly competitive compensation.