Software Engineer Lab Platform
Independent nonprofit research institute building AI-and-biology tools and conducting biomedical research on complex diseases.
Maintainer signals as of 9/25/2026
About Arc Institute
Arc Institute is a Palo Alto-based independent nonprofit founded in 2021. It supports long-term biomedical research and develops experimental, computational, and machine-learning technologies, including virtual-cell and genomic foundation models, in partnership with Stanford University, UC Berkeley, and UCSF.
Skills
Candidate Availability
Required and preferred rules are kept separate and reflect the wording in the original posting.
About the Role
You will support and operate laboratory information management systems, handling requests, fixes, schema changes, templates, and data-access tools. You will train scientists, write documentation, build data-quality checks, automate repeated work, and contribute to LIMS permissions and platform improvements.
Requirements
- Bachelor’s degree with 0–2 years of relevant experience, or an advanced degree.
- Python
- SQL
- REST API
- Debugging systems using code, logs, and data.
- AI coding tools
- Handling sensitive research data.
- Technical communication with scientists.
- Documentation and training.
- Ownership of work from start to finish.
- Work onsite in the Palo Alto office at least 3 days per week.
Responsibilities
- Run the request queue for laboratory data systems, including questions, fixes, and schema changes.
- Support experiment templates and command-line tools used to retrieve data for analysis.
- Train scientists and write supporting documentation.
- Build and maintain data-quality checks that prevent erroneous records from reaching analysis pipelines.
- Help refactor LIMS team and permission structures.
- Automate recurring requests using scripts, scheduled jobs, template changes, or AI agents.
- Write runbooks, add checks, retire manual steps, and submit changes for code review.
- Build tools that make screen and experiment metadata queryable across systems.
- Own parts of the lab platform from design through support.
Benefits
- Annual discretionary bonus eligibility.
- Participation in the Compound Cash Grant Program, with multi-year cash grants paid in semi-annual installments.