Research Engineer I II/III (AI / Machine Learning)

About the role

The Jain Lab develops new approaches to understand how oxygen, metabolism, and vitamins regulate physiology and disease. We combine CRISPR screens, multi-omics, imaging, computational biology, and animal models to answer fundamental biological questions and develop new therapies.

Responsibilities

• Design and build systems for ingesting literature, datasets, electronic lab notebooks, Slack discussions, meeting transcripts, code repositories, protocols, etc. into a "lab knowledge repository" (data layer) optimized for search & retrieval of information by AI agents.
• Develop agentic AI systems that reason across the lab knowledge repository, and use external tools to perform multi-step scientific workflows tailored to the lab's focus and ways of working.
• Build always-on AI agents that proactively review new papers, meetings transcripts, etc. and make connections, suggest hypotheses & experiments, identify flaws or gaps, and help with interpretation.
• Collaborate closely with experimental scientists to rapidly prototype and deploy AI tools.
• Evaluate new & emerging AI tools for biomedical research and incorporate state-of-the-art methods into the lab.

Requirements

• BS or MS in Computer Science, AI, Machine Learning, Computational Biology, Bioengineering, or a related quantitative discipline.
• 0–2 years of research or industry experience (outstanding undergraduate applicants encouraged).
• Strong Python programming skills.
• Strong knowledge of best practices for AI-assisted coding with tools like Claude Code, Codex, OpenCode, etc.
• Strong knowledge of agentic AI fundamentals such as MCP servers/tool calling loops, embeddings & vector databases, Skills & context engineering, and related technologies.
• Experience building projects with LLMs and agentic AI frameworks such as Langchain/Langgraph, OpenAI/Gemini/Claude SDK, etc.
• Experience with cloud infrastructure (GCP, AWS, Azure), Docker, Git, and modern software engineering practices.
• Interest in biology and enthusiasm for learning molecular biology and biomedical research.
• Excellent communication and collaboration skills.

Preferred

• Coursework or research experience in molecular biology, genetics, computational biology, or bioinformatics.
• Experience with biological datasets (RNA-seq, CRISPR screens, imaging, proteomics, metabolomics).
• Experience developing AI agents that interact with APIs, databases, or external tools.
• GitHub, open-source contributions, or substantial personal AI projects.