Forward Deployed AI Engineer

PicnicHealth is simplifying clinical research with AI, making it faster and cheaper to get new treatments to patients. We're bringing a patient-centered, AI-first approach to a $100b market otherwise dominated by old-school, services-driven incumbents. We're creating a streamlined operating system for clinical research, built on top of our AI for medical record data in trials and a personal health app that keeps patients engaged in their healthcare.

The Opportunity

We believe AI will fundamentally transform how clinical research is done. PicnicHealth is already proving this. Our AI processes medical records, engages patients, and powers study operations in ways that were impossible a few years ago. But we're just getting started, and the gap between what AI can do and what our teams actually use day-to-day is where the biggest leverage is.

We have an AI team building powerful capabilities, and a Study Delivery team of scientists, biostatisticians, project managers, and patient recruitment specialists doing complex, high-stakes work. The Forward Deployed AI Engineer bridges that gap. You'll sit within our AI team, allowing you to leverage their expertise to develop faster and more effectively. Day-to-day, you’ll be embedded with Study Delivery, learning their workflows, understanding their pain points, and implementing immediate solutions using whatever gets the job done: internal AI tools, off-the-shelf software, scrappy one-off scripts, or adding new features directly to our platform.

But this isn't just about quick fixes. You'll also inform the Product roadmap, to make sure we're building the right tools and infrastructure to enable Study Delivery on a longer time horizon. You're the feedback loop, translating operational reality into engineering priorities.

What You'll Do

• Embed with Study Delivery to deeply understand how studies are created, launched, and run, becoming the technical expert who knows both the platform and the operational workflows
• Identify and implement AI-powered automation for repetitive, manual processes, using our in-house AI capabilities as well as off-the-shelf LLMs
• Ship product features in our operator portal, solving real problems you've observed firsthand while embedded with the team
• Create tooling and scripts that solve immediate operational pain points, whether that's a Retool dashboard or a lightweight one-off AI agent
• Enable non-engineering teams to adopt AI tools in their own workflows, from setting up AI-assisted coding environments to training teams on new capabilities
• Act as the connective tissue between Study Delivery and the broader engineering and product organization, surfacing the highest-impact problems and ensuring that roadmaps reflect real operational needs

What you'll bring:

• Thriving in ambiguous environments where you need to find the right problems to solve, not just the right solutions, often by observing workflows firsthand rather than waiting for requests
• Being energized by working directly with non-technical teams and building things that transform their operations 
• Moving fast and iterating, favoring working solutions over perfect architectures
• 3+ years of experience writing production software, with strong fundamentals in both Python and TypeScript
• Comfort working across the stack, from React frontends to backend services, databases, and infrastructure
• Experience building with LLMs or AI APIs, whether that's agents, RAG, prompt engineering, or integrating models into real workflows

Nice to haves:

• Experience in life sciences, clinical research, or healthcare
• Experience at startups, ideally on a founding team or early stage
• Familiarity with clinical trial workflows, EMR data, or regulatory processes
• Experience building internal tools or automation for operations teams

We expect all team members to be motivated to be amazing in their roles and, ultimately, to move the PicnicHealth mission forward.

What is clinical research and why will PicnicHealth win?

Clinical research is the industry responsible for conducting studies to evaluate the effectiveness of drugs and treatments. Better trials lead to faster, more cost-effective drug development, ultimately resulting in more and improved treatments for patients. However, the process remains highly inefficient. Trials are a major bottleneck in drug development, and the promising advancements in biotech cannot translate to real patient impact unless clinical research becomes faster and more efficient

The industry runs on outdated technology and manual processes. Research sites (hospitals, academic centers, doctors' offices) are overburdened and under-resourced. Contract research organizations (CROs), the organizations that traditionally run clinical trials for life sciences companies, typically throw hundreds-of-thousands of man-hours wrangling sites and cobbling together vendor software. 

PicnicHealth has built technology that uniquely positions us to run faster, cheaper, and more flexible studies while removing burden from sites:

• PicnicAI (trained on 350M+ clinician annotations over 100k+ patient records) is the only system that can effectively access and structure all participant EMR data trials need
• Our AI health assistant (NPS of 76 in 2024) guides participants through study activities and enables most to be done at home
• We're an integrated solution — virtual site, CRO, and software platform — with AI built in from the ground up, initially focusing on non-interventional research.  

Perks & Benefits @PicnicHealth

At PicnicHealth you get to solve real problems with real solutions, great tech, and great people. We look to attract and retain exceptional performers through a mission that matters, a culture that allows team members to do their best work and be their real selves, and through competitive compensation and benefits packages aligned to the market and our Core Values.

We're a remote first company, with teammates spread across the US. We support in-person gatherings, including co-working spaces and multi-day onsites, to build connections and move forward strategic initiatives. Expect to travel 2-4 times a year. For our team members in the Bay Area, who prefer to work in person, we can offer a hybrid set up to work from the SF office on a flexible schedule.

Target Base Salary Range: $160K – $190K

The base salary PicnicHealth offers may vary depending upon the ultimate scope and responsibilities of the position and on the candidate's job-related knowledge, skills, and experience. The total package will include equity, in addition to a full range of medical and/or other benefits, depending on the position offered. Pay and benefits are subject to change at any time, consistent with the terms of any applicable compensation or benefit plans.

You also get:

• Comprehensive benefits including above market Health, Dental, Vision
• Family friendly environment
• Flexible time off
• 401k plan
• Free PicnicHealth account
• Equipment and internet funds for home office set up
• Wellness Stipend

Equal Opportunity Statement

PicnicHealth is committed to promoting an inclusive work environment free of discrimination and harassment. We value a diverse and balanced team where everyone can belong.