---
title: 'Full Stack Software Engineer, Lab Platform (LIMS) at insitro'
canonical: 'https://feeny.ai/job/full-stack-software-engineer-lab-platform-lims-insitro-south-san-francisco-q1n6e6kjbmsx'
type: 'job'
last_seen: '2026-11-10'
---

# Full Stack Software Engineer, Lab Platform (LIMS) at insitro

- **Company:** insitro
- **Location:** South San Francisco, CA
- **Employment:** full-time
- **Posted:** 2026-09-21
- **Last confirmed live:** 2026-11-10
- **Apply:** https://jobs.ashbyhq.com/insitro/0bff19c6-e165-4be7-a32a-6beeffb51ffa

## Job description

The Opportunity insitro is a physical AI company dedicated to unlocking causal human biology and accelerating the delivery of better medicines to patients. Our unique Virtual Human™ platform identifies novel, high-impact genetic intervention points, which our TherML™ platform translates into therapeutics—whether small molecules, biologics, or oligos. With multiple programs in metabolic disease and neuroscience advancing toward the clinic, and our first IND submission slated for the second half of this year, we are at a pivotal inflection point. To enable that mission, we need a software layer that ties together the scientific, automation, and machine learning platforms — that's our Lab Platform: a harness for science, built as an agentic workflow system that lets scientists drive the lab through an agent. Our bar is that everything in the lab should be agentically accessible (any action a scientist can take, an agent can take), agentically legible (agents understand what the data means in insitro's context, not just how to fetch it), and humanly verifiable (a scientist can always check what an agent did and why). This is real robotics, workflow automation, and applied agent tooling — and your users are in the building with you. You'll work across the stack — front end, backend, and the integrations that reach into instruments, Benchling, and agent runtimes — partnering closely with our machine learning, automation, and biology teams. Based in South San Francisco, this role reports directly to Senior Manager, Software Engineering and offers an in-person hybrid schedule of three days per week. We'll bring you up to speed in the domain of drug development and back your ideas with real trust and mentorship along the way.

## Responsibilities

Full-Stack Ownership

- Ship Across the Stack: Build the React and TypeScript frontends scientists use every day, the Python services behind them, and integrations that reach instruments, Benchling, and agent runtimes
- Own It End to End: Take a feature from the first conversation with a scientist through the data model and UI to the alert that fires when it breaks
- Do the Normal SWE Things: Write code, review design docs, talk to users, and do code reviews that actually make the codebase better

Agentic Tooling & Experimentation

- Chase User Appreciation: Ship things that make scientists say "OMG, this is amazing, thank you so much."
- Figure Out What's Actually Useful: Test agentic tooling ideas through prototypes, real users, and short iterative loops rather than betting on theory
- Move the Needle: Contribute work that meaningfully advances insitro's mission and the pace of drug development

Cross-Functional Partnership

- Go Watch the Work: Spend time in the lab observing the workflow before you change it
- Partner Broadly: Collaborate closely with machine learning, automation, and biology teams to build tools people actually use
- Keep Humans in the Loop: Design for provenance and verifiability, so a scientist can always check what an agent did and why

## About You

## Experience & Qualifications

- Tenure: 2–4+ years of experience as a professional software engineer
- Engineering Fundamentals: Working knowledge of AWS or GCP, relational databases, and standard practices like version control and code review

Core Competencies

- Product Instinct: You think like a product person — you want to know who the user is, what they're actually trying to do, and you have opinions about what to build
- Curious About the Science: You don't need a biology background, but you want to learn the domain rather than treat it as someone else's problem
- Comfortable in the Gray Area: You can reason clearly about the tradeoffs between quality and speed
- Fits the Team: You're up for writing design docs, having opinions in code review, and yes, goofing around on Slack.

## Preferred Qualifications

- Domain Experience: Experience with LIMS, lab automation, or another life sciences domain
- Agent/LLM Experience: Experience building with LLMs or agent frameworks — tool and skill design, evaluation, or getting a model to behave reliably against real systems
- Stack Familiarity: Experience with Django, FastAPI, SQLAlchemy, React, TypeScript, PostgreSQL, Docker, or AWS

## Compensation & Benefits at insitro

Our target starting salary for successful US-based applicants for this role is $111,000 - $140,000. To determine starting pay, we consider multiple job-related factors including a candidate's skills, education and experience, market demand, business needs, and internal parity. We may also adjust this range in the future based on market data. This role is eligible for participation in our Annual Performance Bonus Plan (based on company targets by role level and annual company performance) and our Equity Incentive Plan, subject to the terms of those plans and associated policies.

In addition, insitro also provides our employees:

- 401(k) plan with employer matching for contributions
- Excellent medical, dental, and vision coverage as well as mental health and well-being support
- Open, flexible vacation policy
- Paid parental leave of at least 16 weeks to support parents who give birth, and 10 weeks for a new parent (inclusive of birth, adoption, fostering, etc)
- Quarterly budget for books and online courses for self-development
- New hire stipend for home office setup
- Monthly cell phone & internet stipend
- Access to free onsite baristas and daily lunch for employees who are either onsite or hybrid
- Access to a free commuter bus network that provides transport to and from our South San Francisco HQ from locations all around the Bay Area

insitro is an equal opportunity employer. All applicants will be considered for employment without attention to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, veteran or disability status. We believe diversity, equity, and inclusion need to be at the foundation of our culture. We work hard to bring together diverse teams–grounded in a wide range of expertise and life experiences–and work even harder to ensure those teams thrive in inclusive, growth-oriented environments supported by equitable company and team practices. All candidates can expect equitable treatment, respect, and fairness throughout the interview process. #LI-Hybrid Please be aware of recruitment scams: we never request payments, all recruitment communications are from @[insitro.com](http://insitro.com), and if in doubt, contact us at info@insitro.com.

## About insitro

insitro is a drug discovery and development company using machine learning (ML) and data at scale to decode biology for transformative medicines. At the core of insitro’s approach is the convergence of in-house generated multi-modal cellular data and high-content phenotypic human cohort data. We rely on these data to develop ML-driven, predictive disease models that uncover underlying biologic state and elucidate critical drivers of disease. These powerful models rely on extensive biological and computational infrastructure and allow insitro to advance novel targets and patient biomarkers, design therapeutics and inform clinical strategy. insitro is advancing a wholly owned and partnered pipeline of insights and therapeutics in neuroscience and metabolism. Since launching in 2018, insitro has raised over $700 million from top tech, biotech and crossover investors, and from collaborations with pharmaceutical partners. For more information on insitro, please visit [www.insitro.com](http://www.insitro.com).

## About insitro

## Company Overview
- **One-liner**: insitro is a drug discovery company using machine learning, high-throughput biology, and human genetics to build causal models of disease and accelerate the development of transformative medicines.
- **Entity Type**: Private (Series C)
- **Headquarters**: South San Francisco, California, United States
- **Founded**: 2018
- **Founders**: Daphne Koller (CEO)

## Core Business
- **Primary industry**: Biotechnology Research; AI-driven drug discovery
- **Target customers**: B2B (pharma partnerships) and self-originated pipeline – therapeutic areas including metabolism (MASH, lipogenesis), oncology, and neuroscience
- **Mission/purpose**: “Bring better drugs faster to the patients who can benefit most” by decoding the complexities of biology with ML and data at scale

## Products & Services
- **Insitro Platform**: An industrialized ML platform that integrates in vitro cellular data (produced in automated labs) with human clinical and genetic data to identify causal disease drivers and design optimal therapeutic interventions.
- **Virtual Human™**: A genetically anchored causal AI engine that models how disease begins, progresses, and can be resolved.
- **TherML™ AI Platform**: An AI system for designing optimal small molecule medicines.
- **Pipeline Programs**: Wholly-owned and partnered programs in metabolism (e.g., CTRO-1013 for MASH), oncology (ADC biology), and neuroscience.

## Market Standing
- **Valuation**: Not publicly disclosed
- **Key Metric – Total Funding**: $743M (per LinkedIn) to >$750M (per company press release); includes Series A ($100M, 2018; $100M, 2019), Series B ($143M, 2020), Series C ($400M, 2021)
- **Annual Revenue**: $20.3M (LinkedIn estimate; also reported ~$140M in total collaboration revenue to date from partnerships with BMS, Lilly, and Gilead)
- **Notable Investors/Partners**: a16z, ARCH, BlackRock, Casdin, CPP Investments, Foresite Capital, GV, SoftBank, Temasek, Third Rock Ventures, T. Rowe Price. Partners include Bristol Myers Squibb, Eli Lilly, Gilead.
- **Growth Signals**: Headcount decreased ~20.6% YoY to ~211 employees; however active job postings increased 400% YoY (10 postings). The lead MASH candidate CTRO-1013 is expected to enter first-in-human clinical trials in 2026. New data presented at ADA 2025 shows anti-fibrotic signals.

## Competitive Advantages
- **Causal biology focus**: Integrates human genetics, multi-modal cellular data, and clinical imaging to identify causal intervention points – distinguishes from purely correlative AI models.
- **Industrialized learning loop**: Each program generates data that improves the platform’s predictive models, enabling faster scaling across therapeutic areas.
- **World-class team and investors**: Led by AI pioneer Daphne Koller with backing from top-tier tech and healthcare investors.
- **Revenue‑generating partnerships**: Validated by large pharma collaborations (BMS, Lilly, Gilead) bringing in ~$140M.

## Strategic Focus
- **Advancing pipeline to clinic**: CTRO-1013 (IRS1 inhibitor for MASH) is the lead wholly-owned program entering human trials in 2026. Additional programs in metabolism, oncology, and neuroscience are progressing.
- **Deepening platform capabilities**: Continued investment in automation, multi-modal data generation (imaging, genomics, proteomics), and ML model refinement across all biology scales.
- **Expanding partnerships**: Leveraging platform to support partner drug discovery while retaining wholly-owned programs.

## Why Work Here
- **Culture**: Cross-disciplinary environment where life scientists, data scientists, engineers, and drug hunters collaborate on first-in-class drug discovery problems.
- **Work model**: Roles primarily based in South San Francisco, CA and Krakow, Poland; specific remote/hybrid policy not publicly detailed.
- **Notable perks**: Not explicitly listed, but the company emphasizes a “unique culture” focused on scientific breakthroughs and scaling data-driven medicine.
- **Employer ratings**: Mixed (2.7/5 on LinkedIn from 31 reviews). Compensation scores higher (3.6/5) while culture (2.6/5) and career development (2.7/5) are areas of concern.
- **Engineering/ML culture**: Strong focus on applying state-of-the-art ML (including generative AI, causal inference, imaging analysis) to real biological problems. Open roles span ML science, software engineering (scientific pipelines), and computational biology.
- **Growth trajectory**: Despite recent headcount reductions, the near-term clinical milestone (CTRO-1013 Phase 1) and increased hiring point to a potential inflection point.

## Sources
1. [insitro.com – Company site](https://www.insitro.com/)
2. [insitro.com – Platform page](https://www.insitro.com/platform/)
3. [LinkedIn – Insitro company page](https://www.linkedin.com/company/insitro)
4. [CBInsights – Insitro company profile](https://www.cbinsights.com/company/insitro)
5. [Greenhouse – Insitro careers page](https://boards.greenhouse.io/insitro)

## Other roles at insitro

- [Lead/ Senior Machine Learning Scientist, Integrative Phenotyping](https://feeny.ai/job/lead-senior-machine-learning-scientist-integrative-phenotyping-insitro-south-hscncem9jg0s) — South San Francisco, CA
- [Vice President, FP&A & Financial Transformation](https://feeny.ai/job/vice-president-fp-a-financial-transformation-insitro-south-san-francisco-cdp49byy462j) — South San Francisco, CA
- [Vice President, Regulatory Affairs](https://feeny.ai/job/vice-president-regulatory-affairs-insitro-south-san-francisco-ap5d1em1hqjk) — South San Francisco, CA
- [Director, Financial Reporting & Technical Accounting](https://feeny.ai/job/director-financial-reporting-technical-accounting-insitro-south-san-francisco-gynm79dbmdwn) — South San Francisco, CA
- [Senior Manager / Director, Statistical Genetics](https://feeny.ai/job/senior-manager-director-statistical-genetics-insitro-south-san-francisco-f30j4ng5z3q5) — South San Francisco, CA
- [Associate Scientist III, Cardiac Modeling](https://feeny.ai/job/associate-scientist-iii-cardiac-modeling-insitro-south-san-francisco-xfsc4xtkj93z) — South San Francisco, CA
- [Senior Director, Quality Assurance](https://feeny.ai/job/senior-director-quality-assurance-insitro-south-san-francisco-9enwbdgv2t0y) — South San Francisco, CA
- [Senior Data Scientist, CompBio](https://feeny.ai/job/senior-data-scientist-compbio-insitro-south-san-francisco-324575g11esn) — South San Francisco, CA
- [Senior/ Staff Software Engineer, Imaging](https://feeny.ai/job/senior-staff-software-engineer-imaging-insitro-south-san-francisco-50jmxgaczv65) — South San Francisco, CA
- [Lead/ Senior Automation Engineer](https://feeny.ai/job/lead-senior-automation-engineer-insitro-south-san-francisco-t9h19jmmdez2) — South San Francisco, CA