Backend Software Engineer

About Chemify

Chemify is creating a future where the access to important molecules, drugs and new materials currently unimaginable are instantly accessible radically increasing the speed of innovation, quality of life, and reach of humanity. The company is building the infrastructure to digitize chemistry to design, make, and discover new molecules with the desired function and properties instantly and on-demand. Chemify has built a platform that combines purpose-built programming languages, robotics, AI, and the world’s largest and continuously growing database of chemical programs to accelerate chemical discovery to new, transformative heights.

Chemify is supported bysome of the best investors from Silicon Valley and across the world, includingTriatomic Capital, BlueYard ventures, DCVC, Founders Fund, and others.

Job Purpose

The Software Engineer will mainly work in the web applications stack, focusing on backend and interacting with the frontend and the laboratory automation software regularly. They will have the opportunity to collaborate very closely with Chemists, Cheminformaticians, hardware engineers, operations experts, management, and other software engineers to quickly design, develop, launch, and maintain complex software systems within Chemify’s world-class infrastructure dedicated to Chemistry.

The successful candidate will have backend or full stack experience writing production-ready code within a professional environment yet remaining extremely motivated to contribute aggressively to the development of a hyper-growth, silicon-valley style start-up by delivering high-quality code at a high-pace.

Additionally, the Software Engineer will have a service mentality to understand the needs of the chemists and the business and will use it to build high-quality solutions significantly improving short- and long-term performance of the company’s laboratory. As an early-stage start-up employee, the Software Engineer will have the opportunity to work very closely with many stakeholders, including experienced software architects, to quickly advance the most sophisticated big-data and AI platform for chemistry; while experiencing the rapid pace of personal and professional growth offered at a technology platform company. The ideal candidate will be a smart, enthusiastic, energetic, and ambitious individual excited to wear many hats and contribute to the overall success of the company in a variety of capacity as the needs evolve.

Key Responsibilities

• Engage cross-functionally with multiple teams (chemistry, hardware, cheminformatics, software engineering) to understand the company’s vision, framework, and challenges
• Assess company priorities and focus on high-priority tasks for business success
• Scope and validate requirements for delivering new software capabilities for chemists and the company
• Create and deliver robust backend software solutions
• Be one of the leaders of the implementation of new features in the software ecosystem
• Collaborate with other software engineers to define short- and long-term technology roadmaps
• Support and resolve software issues for chemists, scientists, and technicians
• Participate in designing software systems and subsystems from scratch
• Take on increasing responsibilities during company transformation
• Perform additional tasks as required by the company

Requirements

• Proficiency in Python is mandatory, knowledge of container and cloud technologies (Docker and AWS) are essential
• Working knowledge of CI/CD
• Experience at developing services (RESTful API) including strong authentication (using JWT, 3rd party identity provider, etc), ORM and SQL or NoSQL (document oriented) databases
• Experience in building software which scales
• Testing Experience – Unit Testing, Integration Testing and E2E Testing (PyTest)
• Basic experience in IaC (e.g. Terraform) is a plus
• Be able to write clean + maintainable code with attention to performance and security, but also be able to ship quickly + scrappily when the occasion calls for it
• Excellent cross-team communication skills for collaboration
• Must have Undergraduate degree in Computer Science, Computer Engineering, or equivalent technical topic, or strong relevant experience
• At least 3 years of experience writing production-grade, high-quality code in industry
• At least 2 years of experience in a highly collaborative work environment, industry or otherwise
• A track record participating in the scoping, design, and building of complex software systems
• Strong work ethic and positive predisposition to learn quickly and apply learnings
• Excitement at the opportunity to participate in the growth of a world-changing company from the early stages
• Good written and oral communications skills
• Interest in chemistry is a plus
• Experience in an early-stage start-up is a plus