AI Research Scientist

Chai Discovery builds frontier AI models to design molecules and transform how new cures are found. We are a craft-obsessed team setting out to re-architect drug discovery and save lives.

The Chai founding team brought together leading researchers in this space and top silicon valley operators. Our founders led seminal accomplishments at top AI-for-biology programs and labs, co-invented protein language modeling, built state-of-the-art folding algorithms, and sold AI adopted by top-10 pharma companies. We are backed by top-tier investors, including OpenAI, Thrive Capital, Dimension, Conviction, Lachy Groom, Amplify, and many more.

As an AI Scientist, you will conduct groundbreaking research on computational modeling for biological applications, developing innovative AI methods that advance Chai Discovery’s drug discovery capabilities.

At Chai, we’re entering a pivotal stage. After years of foundational R&D, our models are moving beyond protein structure prediction and into real-world therapeutic engineering. We're now tasking our AI models on a broad spectrum of drug development challenges, at an exciting scale of wet-lab validation.

This is not a typical role — it’s a chance to push the boundaries of drug discovery by building some of the most advanced AI drug design models ever built.

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

• Frontier technology: work on the technologies that promises to fundamentally change how new therapeutics are created.

• World-class people: work with world-renowned leaders in the AI x Biology ecosystem.

• Velocity and ownership: we move incredibly fast and liberally distribute ownership, which means continuous learning and career growth opportunities are guaranteed.

• Strong culture and mission: we foster a supportive culture that is mission-driven and high-energy.

• Highly competitive compensation: we attract the best talent and compensate them accordingly.