Full-Time
Forward Deployed Engineer
Multiple Teams
Posted on 6/30/2025
Chai Discovery
11-50 employees
AI foundation models for molecular interactions
No salary listed
San Francisco, CA, USA
In Person
 Software Engineering (2) |
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- Degree in Computer Science, Bioinformatics, or a related field
- Proficient in Python and one additional scripting language (Bash, Go, or similar)
- 2+ years in solutions engineering, technical account management, or similar customer-facing role
- Able to translate between bench scientists, IT administrators, and Chai’s internal ML engineers
- Strong written and verbal communication; confident running remote trainings and on-site workshops
- Experience gathering requirements, scoping integrations, and delivering on tight timelines
- Skilled at debugging data-integration issues and performance bottlenecks in live environments
- Track record of documenting best practices and driving product feedback into the engineering roadmap
- Bias for action—comfortable owning ambiguous problems end-to-end
- Thrive in a fast-moving startup, adapting priorities as customer needs evolve
- Willingness to travel occasionally for key deployments or partner meetings
- Be the technical face of Chai Discovery for biopharma partners
- Embed with customer teams and be the conduit between their scientific workflows and Chai technology
- Stand up systems and push through anything that blocks adoption
- Ensure that every model shipped generates real value at the bench and in silico
- Task AI models on a broad spectrum of drug development challenges
- Engage in wet-lab validation
- Familiarity with bioinformatics pipelines
Chai Discovery develops AI foundation models that predict how biochemical molecules interact. Its flagship model, Chai 1, is a multimodal system that forecasts structures and interactions for proteins, small molecules, DNA, RNA, and covalent modifications. The model is accessible for free via a web interface, enabling academics and industry teams to explore drug discovery ideas and hypotheses, with revenue from commercial licensing and pharma partnerships. Chai’s goal is to speed up biotech R&D by providing accessible AI predictions that guide experiments and design.
Company Size
11-50
Company Stage
Series B
Total Funding
$230M
Headquarters
San Francisco, California
Founded
2024
Simplify's Take
What believers are saying
- Eli Lilly collaboration accelerates biologics discovery with Chai platform.
- $130M Series B in December 2025 values Chai at $1.3B unicorn.
- OpenAI backing and team from Meta FAIR fuel rapid model advances.
What critics are saying
- Eli Lilly internalizes custom model post-collaboration, ends payments in 2027.
- OpenAI launches superior biotech model, commoditizes Chai-1 in 2027.
- Chai-2 fails Lilly validation in Q2 2026, halts pharma expansions.
What makes Chai Discovery unique
- Chai-2 achieves 16-20% zero-shot antibody hit rates across 52 antigens.
- Chai-1 predicts structures without MSAs, exceeding AlphaFold3 in docking.
- Custom AI models built for Eli Lilly using proprietary data.
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Benefits
Health Insurance
Company Equity
Professional Development Budget
Wellness Program
Growth & Insights and Company News
6 month growth
↑ 3%1 year growth
↑ 3%2 year growth
↑ 0%55 US AI startups that secured $100M+ in funding in 2025. The AI industry began 2025 on a strong note, building on the momentum established in 2024, where 49 startups in the U.S. secured funding rounds exceeding $100 million. Notably, three companies attracted multiple mega-rounds, and seven achieved funding of $1 billion or more. In 2025, although fewer companies surpassed the $1 billion threshold, there was a remarkable increase in the number of firms securing multiple rounds of financing - eight in total, including Anthropic, which raised two rounds exceeding $1 billion. Significant early signs for 2026 emerged when Elon Musk's xAI announced a staggering $20 billion Series E round, and Sam Altman's Merge Labs raised a $250 million seed round led by OpenAI. Here are some highlights from the significant funding activity in 2025: December highlights. * Mythic raised $125 million, enhancing their AI computing technology. * Chai Discovery secured $130 million to further develop AI models for biotech. * Fal gathered $140 million, tripling their valuation to over $4.5 billion. * Unconventional AI raised a significant $475 million seed round. * 7AI, specializing in AI for cybersecurity, raised $130 million. November highlights. * Genspark joined the unicorn club with a $275 million Series B round. * Luma AI raised $900 million, positioning them at a $4 billion valuation. * Anysphere saw a record-setting $2.3 billion funding round. October highlights. * Fireworks AI raised $250 million, while Uniphore collected $260 million in a Series F round. * Sierra, a customer service AI platform, received $350 million, valuing the company at over $10 billion. September highlights. * Cognition AI raised $400 million, reaching a valuation of $10.2 billion. * Anthropic raised a massive $13 billion Series F funding round. This funding landscape demonstrates the astonishing trajectory of AI startups, as they adapt and innovate across various sectors, from healthcare to media. The pace and scale of investment signal a robust future for AI, with diverse applications that are increasingly becoming central to numerous industries. For more details, you can explore the original piece here. Post navigation.
AI industry continues to surge with multi-billion dollar investments in 2025. The AI industry continued its growth trend into 2025, building on a strong 2024 where 49 startups raised at least $100 million. Significant funding rounds included Anthropic, which raised two rounds exceeding $1 billion, and Elon Musk's xAI, which announced a $20 billion Series E round. Key developments include: * Anthropic and other startups achieving 'mega-rounds,' reflecting increased multiple funding instances compared to 2024. * Sam Altman's Merge Labs securing a $250 million seed round, with OpenAI leading the investment. * Enthusiasm for AI continues as several companies, including Luma AI ($900 million) and Anysphere ($2.3 billion), achieved high valuations. Recent notable investments by U.S. AI companies include: * In December, Mythic, with its power-efficient AI compute, raised $125 million, Chai Discovery announced a $130 million round, and Unconventional AI landed a $475 million seed round. * In November, Genspark closed a $275 million Series B round, and Luma AI secured $900 million. * Notably, OpenAI raised $40 billion in March, marking a milestone in AI investment. Overall, the industry boasts vibrant investment activity across sectors such as biotech, healthcare, and cybersecurity, demonstrating extensive applications and future potential for AI technology.
Chai Discovery announces collaboration with Eli Lilly and Company to accelerate biologics discovery. Chai Discovery's AI platform, including purpose-built custom models, will be deployed to accelerate the discovery of next-generation therapeutics SAN FRANCISCO-(BUSINESS WIRE)-Chai Discovery, the AI company building a computer-aided design suite for molecules, today announced a collaboration with Eli Lilly and Company (Lilly) to accelerate biologics discovery using artificial intelligence. Under the collaboration, Lilly will deploy Chai's frontier AI platform to design novel biologic therapeutics for multiple targets. In addition, Chai will develop a purpose-built AI model, exclusively for use by Lilly, trained on large-scale proprietary Lilly data and tailored to Lilly's discovery workflows. The collaboration follows a period during which a set of Chai's model designs were evaluated by Lilly. "Our collaboration with Lilly brings together the strengths of both organizations, combining Chai's expertise in building frontier models with Lilly's ability to deploy technology to accelerate their efforts to make a positive impact on the lives of patients. Beyond providing access to our core models, training custom models trained on Lilly's data presents the opportunity to expand the boundaries of AI-enabled early-stage drug discovery and development," said Josh Meier, CEO of Chai Discovery. Chai-2 is the first zero-shot antibody design platform to achieve double-digit experimental hit rates and design molecules with drug-like properties, enabling discovery processes to be completed in weeks that previously required months. This collaboration comes on the heels of Chai Discovery's Series B funding round co-led by Oak HC/FT and General Catalyst in December 2025, valuing the company at $1.3 billion. Chai has raised nearly $230M to date. "Drug discovery is one of the areas that stands to benefit most from AI transformation, and Chai is the leader in building frontier models to reshape the category," said Annie Lamont, Co-Founder & Managing Partner at Oak HC/FT. "Chai's partnership with Lilly brings together two of the most innovative market leaders in their respective fields and is a clear signal that novel medicines may be designed on a computer during this generation." About Chai Discovery Chai Discovery builds frontier artificial intelligence to predict and reprogram the interactions between biochemical molecules, the fundamental building blocks of life. Its mission is to transform biology from science into engineering. The team hails from pioneering research and applied AI companies such as OpenAI, Meta FAIR, Stripe, and Google X, and is backed by top investors including OpenAI, Thrive Capital, Menlo Ventures, and Dimension. To learn more about Chai Discovery, visit https://www.chaidiscovery.com/
Chai is building foundation models for drug discovery, specifically to predict interactions between molecules so they could be reprogramed for cures.
Chai Discovery becomes newest AI unicorn, raising $130M Series B at $1.3B valuation. Senior biopharma correspondent. Chai Discovery has closed a $130 million Series B at a $1.3 billion valuation, continuing a furious fundraising pace since being founded Get free access to a limited number of articles, plus choose newsletters to get straight to your inbox.