Software Engineer, Lab Platform

About Arc Institute

Arc Institute is an independent nonprofit research organization at the interface of artificial intelligence and biology, working to accelerate scientific progress and understand the root causes of complex diseases. Founded in 2021 and based in Palo Alto, Arc partners with Stanford University, UC Berkeley, and UC San Francisco.

Unlike academia, our scientists have long-term funding and industry-like resources. Unlike industry, they're free to pursue high-risk, long-term research without commercial pressures. Arc's Technology Centers and Core Investigator labs work side by side, integrating experimental and computational biology under one roof to tackle problems neither could solve alone.

Our two Institute Initiatives reflect this model in action:

• Virtual Cell Initiative: Building a full-stack virtual cell model to identify disease mechanisms and nominate drug targets,  accelerating the path from biological insight to clinical trials.
• Alzheimer's Disease Initiative: Mapping the genes, pathways, and environmental factors behind Alzheimer's disease to develop drug candidates that address root causes.

More than 300 Arconauts work together at our Palo Alto headquarters, backed by substantial long-term philanthropic funding.

About the position

You'll join Arc's Infrastructure Engineering team and own support and operations for our laboratory information management system (LIMS). Arc's scientists record their samples and experiments there, including the variables they change from one experiment to the next. That record is business intelligence for the lab: it's how scientists learn which conditions improve an assay, and it also feeds the pipelines that process lab data automatically. You'll run the request queue, make schema changes, train users and maintain the checks on data as it's entered, and you'll turn the requests that keep coming back into automation. You don't need LIMS experience: strong Python and SQL and an interest in lab data matter more, and we'll teach you the platform. You'll start under our lab platform Tech Lead, who will review your work and mentor you.

Why this position could be the best job you’ve ever had

• Your work reaches the lab within a week, and it shows up in results: the experiment records you keep accurate are how labs find what makes their assays perform better.
• You'll learn how a research institute turns lab work into data, with a Tech Lead whose goal is to hand you more of the system as you grow.

About you

• You finish what you own, and you fix what's broken without being asked.
• You're curious about the biology and the mission. You want to know what a guide or a 10x Flex run is.
• You go to the scientists. You sit down with them, learn how they run and record their experiments, and understand what they need before you propose a fix.
• You're careful and thoughtful. You want more scope and you'll take it on before you have every skill it needs, and you double-check changes other teams depend on.
• You see which requests need a general solution, and you balance that work with the rest of the queue.

In this position you will

• Run the request queue for Arc's lab data systems, from questions and fixes to schema changes, which you'll ship through our change workflow so other teams' pipelines don't break.
• Support the templates scientists record experiments with, and the command-line tools that pull their data for analysis.
• Run training sessions for scientists, and write the docs they come back to.
• Build and maintain the checks that catch errors in data as scientists enter it, so bad records don't reach analysis or pipelines.
• Help carry out the refactor of the team and permission structure in our LIMS, which decides who can see and edit what.
• Turn the requests that keep coming back into automation, and choose the approach that fits the problem: a script, a scheduled job, a template change or an AI agent. Write the runbook, add the checks and retire the manual step; changes go through the team's code review.
• By the end of your first year you will
• Build tools that make screen and experiment metadata queryable across systems for computational biologists and lab teams.
• Run the request queue and ship schema changes on your own, with the Tech Lead reviewing designs instead of each change.
• Own a part of the lab platform from design through support.

Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree with 0-2 years of relevant experience, or an advanced degree.
• You write solid Python and SQL, and you're comfortable working with REST APIs.
• You debug problems in systems you didn't build, working from the code, logs and data.
• You use AI coding tools day to day or are ready to learn, you check what they produce, and you're careful with sensitive research data.
• You explain technical things clearly to scientists, and you write docs and training that people use.
• You ask for help early and take feedback well.
• You've owned a piece of work from start to finish, in school, an internship or a job, and you stayed responsible for it after it shipped.
• Work onsite in our Palo Alto office at least 3 days a week.

Preferred Qualifications

• You've used a LIMS or ELN, such as Benchling, or you've worked with lab data like samples and sequencing metadata.
• You've automated a repeated manual task with scripts, bots or agents.
• You've worked on CI pipelines, tests or repo templates.
• You've supported the users of a tool, on a help desk, as a TA or on an on-call rotation.

The base salary range for this position is $118,000 to $146,000. These amounts reflect the range of base salary that the Institute reasonably would expect to pay a new hire or internal candidate for this position. The actual base compensation paid to any individual for this position may vary depending on factors such as experience, market conditions, education/training, skill level, and whether the compensation is internally equitable, and does not include bonuses, commissions, differential pay, other forms of compensation, or benefits. This position is also eligible to receive an annual discretionary bonus, with the amount dependent on individual and institute performance factors.

In addition to the Base Salary and Annual Bonus above, you will be eligible to participate in the Institute’s Compound Cash Grant Program (the “CCGP”). The CCGP is a program designed to offer multi-year cash grants providing for a fixed dollar amount paid out in semi-annual installments to reward employees for staying and contributing to the Institute. As soon as reasonably practical after your start date, you will receive a grant letter describing the terms of your award under the CCGP.