Staff Software Engineer H/F - Aqemia

About AQEMIA
AQEMIA is a drug invention company dedicated to creating entirely new medicines to address major unmet medical needs.At the core of our mission is QEMI, our proprietary molecule-invention platform, which uniquely combines cutting-edge science with advanced technology. Powered by physics-based modeling, statistical mechanics, and generative AI, QEMI allows our teams to design novel drug candidates from first principles.
What makes AQEMIA different is our commitment to true innovation: our research is dedicated to the invention of new molecular entities, not the refinement of existing ones. We focus on inventing never-before-seen molecules, without relying on experimental data, and advancing them into a growing pipeline of proprietary programs and strategic partnerships with leading pharmaceutical companies.
Our most advanced preclinical programs are currently inin vivo optimization, targeting diseases still waiting for effective treatments, offering our teams the opportunity to work on science that can make a real difference in people's lives.
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About our Team
AQEMIA brings together a diverse, multidisciplinary team of 65+ professionals based in Paris and London. Our scientists and engineers, including chemists, physicists, machine learning experts, and software engineers, work side by side to push the boundaries of early-stage drug discovery.
This close collaboration across disciplines is central to our approach, enabling us to tackle complex scientific challenges from first principles and translate cutting-edge ideas into novel therapeutic candidates. At AQEMIA, team members are encouraged to contribute their expertise, learn from one another, and play an active role in shaping the future of drug invention.

The role

We are hiring a Staff Software Engineer to join the Compute team to own and scale the systems that power Aqemia's scientific platform. As our research grows in complexity and scale, this role exists to ensure our compute infrastructure, workflows, and developer tooling enable - not limit - scientific progress.

You will bring strong software engineering rigor into a highly scientific environment, working closely with physicists, AI researchers, and engineers to industrialize workflows and improve reliability at scale. This role offers a unique opportunity to shape the foundations of how cutting-edge science is executed in production.

Success in this role means scientists can run complex models and workflows faster, more reliably, and at greater scale, with infra and tooling that empower, not limit them.

Responsibilities

- Design, build, and operate scalable compute systems supporting training, inference, and scientific workloads
- Improve the reliability, robustness, and performance of production systems used across research and platform teams
- Develop internal tooling to streamline model and workflow lifecycle (build, test, deploy, run).
- Drive architectural decisions across compute and data systems in collaboration with engineering and research teams
- Improve developer experience for scientists by reducing friction in running and scaling experiments
- Establish and promote best practices in system design, observability, and AI-assisted / spec-driven development
- Contribute to raising the engineering bar across teams through mentorship and technical leadership

Qualifications

- 10+ years of experience in software engineering with demonstrated impact at the staff level or equivalent
- Strong experience building and operating production systems at scale
- Deep expertise in distributed systems or compute-heavy environments
- Strong hands-on experience in system architecture and design
- Fluent in Python and across the AWS / Postgres / SnowFlake / orchestration stack; comfortable on both sides of the code/infra boundary
- Serious hands-on experience with LLM-assisted engineering and spec-driven development - you've gone past tooling and built workflow and team practice around it
- Strong ownership mindset with the ability to operate across teams and communicate effectively

NicetoHave

- Experience with large-scale compute platforms or infrastructure
- Exposure to ML infrastructure or model execution environments
- Experience with PyTorch, CUDA, or running custom models in production
- Experience designing or operating workflow orchestration systems
- Track record of optimizing systems for cost-efficiency at scale

Why Join Us
At AQEMIA, we are driven by a bold mission: transforming the way drugs are discovered. Here, engineers don't just build software, they help discover real drugs.
You'll work at the intersection of AI, physics and chemistry, transforming bold scientific ideas into robust, production-grade tools that accelerate discovery.
DeepTech Mission : Build the platform that powers AI-driven drug discovery, combining quantum-inspired physics with generative modelsReal-World Impact : Every feature shipped helps scientists prioritize molecules and design better candidates, fasterModern Stack & Challenges : Python, FastAPI, Airflow, Snowflake, Kubernetes, ML workflows, scientific infra, data engineering at scaleHigh Ownership, High Impact : Engineers contribute to architecture, tooling, and scientific decision-makingInterdisciplinary Team : Collaborate with chemists, physicists, ML researchers, and product teamsPrime Locations : Central Paris or London offices, with 2 remote days/weekStrategic Traction : Backed by $100M in funding and a $140M partnership with Sanofi
Join us if you're excited to shape the future of AI-driven drug discovery, and want your code to change the course of real diseases.We may use artificial intelligence (AI) tools to support parts of the hiring process, such as reviewing applications, analyzing resumes, or assessing responses. These tools assist our recruitment team but do not replace human judgment. Final hiring decisions are ultimately made by humans. If you would like more information about how your data is processed, please contact us.

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