---
title: 'Scientist, Protein Design at Chai Discovery'
canonical: 'https://feeny.ai/job/scientist-protein-design-chai-discovery-san-francisco-11g6bx8mhvx5'
type: 'job'
last_seen: '2026-09-07'
---

# Scientist, Protein Design at Chai Discovery

- **Company:** Chai Discovery
- **Location:** San Francisco, CA
- **Employment:** full-time
- **Posted:** 2026-08-29
- **Last confirmed live:** 2026-09-07
- **Apply:** https://jobs.ashbyhq.com/chaidiscovery/9cc94a28-cac9-48a4-a44c-685a870b6288

## Job description

## ABOUT CHAI DISCOVERY

Chai builds the design suite for molecules. We train frontier models that learn the underlying foundations of biochemical structure and interaction, so scientists can move faster and pursue targets that other methods cannot reach.

AI is reinventing life sciences the same way it reinvented software engineering, and Chai is at the forefront of this shift. Leading pharmaceutical companies like Eli Lilly https://endpoints.news/eli-lilly-chai-discovery-sign-ai-software-deal/, Pfizer https://www.forbes.com/sites/amyfeldman/2026/06/04/why-pfizer-and-eli-lilly-are-betting-on-this-13-billion-ai-drug-discovery-startup/, and Novartis https://www.chaidiscovery.com/news/novartis-partnership are adopting our platform to power their drug discovery programs.

We value diverse perspectives and are ready to find greatness in unexpected places.

## ABOUT THE ROLE

We are building out our science team and looking to make a few key hires to anchor the effort, operating at the frontiers of both drug discovery and AI research.

You will be an advisor to some of the most important drug programs of our time, helping solve disease at scale. You will become an expert in our partners' scientific and therapeutic problems. You will operate as a power user who knows all the ins and outs of our technology, ensuring that our partners deploy our platform to maximum effect.

You will be our eyes & ears on the ground, translating our partner's hardest asks into internal efforts, scoping and driving projects to tackle novel challenges alongside our research and engineering teams. Your findings will guide the future of our product, our models, and our approach.

It will be a lot of fun, a lot of work, and extraordinarily rewarding.

## ABOUT YOU

We index on ravenous curiosity, outlier aptitude and collaboration smarts. You operate with urgency, have well-honed communication skills, and probably can't sleep if something isn't right.

We value academic research and drug discovery industry experience in antibody engineering, protein design, and computational methods. We are more than willing to bet on rising stars. Low-ego, high-EQ, and performance under pressure are what we're looking for.

## WE OFFER

The opportunity to work at the vanguard of AI research and frontier biology, with world-class people, on a mission that matters. We protect & promote a culture of high velocity and ownership. We compensate our team accordingly.

## About Chai Discovery

## Company Overview
- **One-liner**: Chai Discovery builds frontier AI models to predict and reprogram the interactions between biochemical molecules, focusing on de novo antibody design for drug discovery.
- **Entity Type**: Private (Series B)
- **Headquarters**: San Francisco, California, United States
- **Founded**: 2024
- **Founders**: Joshua Meier, Jack Dent, Matthew McPartlon, Jacques Boitreaud

## Core Business
- **Primary industry**: AI-powered drug discovery and biotechnology
- **Target customers**: B2B — Large pharmaceutical and biotech companies (e.g., Eli Lilly)
- **Mission or purpose statement**: "Transforming biology from a scientific practice into an engineering discipline" [chaidiscovery.com](https://www.chaidiscovery.com/)

## Products & Services
- **Chai-2**: A frontier AI model designed for de novo antibody design. It can design antibodies against challenging targets with atomic precision, moving past simple binding toward real therapeutic viability. The company describes it as a "computer-aided design suite" for molecules. [techcrunch.com](https://techcrunch.com/2026/01/16/from-openais-offices-to-a-deal-with-eli-lilly-how-chai-discovery-became-one-of-the-flashiest-names-in-ai-drug-development/), [chaidiscovery.com](https://www.chaidiscovery.com/)

## Market Standing
- **Valuation/Market Cap**: $1.3 billion (as of December 2025 Series B) [linkedin.com](https://www.linkedin.com/company/chaidiscovery)
- **Key Metric**: Total funding of $231.0M across 6 rounds. Key rounds include: Seed ($30M, led by OpenAI and Thrive Capital, 2024), Series A ($70M, 2025), and Series B ($130M, led by General Catalyst and Oak HC/FT, Dec 2025). [linkedin.com](https://www.linkedin.com/company/chaidiscovery)
- **Notable Investors/Partners**: OpenAI, Thrive Capital, General Catalyst, Oak HC/FT, Amazon Web Services (non-equity assistance). Strategic partnership with **Eli Lilly** (announced Jan 2026) for drug development. [techcrunch.com](https://techcrunch.com/2026/01/16/from-openais-offices-to-a-deal-with-eli-lilly-how-chai-discovery-became-one-of-the-flashiest-names-in-ai-drug-development/)
- **Growth Signals**: Named to Endpoints News "11 most promising biotech companies of 2025" [linkedin.com](https://www.linkedin.com/company/chaidiscovery). Headcount grew **169.2% YoY** (approx. 27 employees) [linkedin.com](https://www.linkedin.com/company/chaidiscovery). LinkedIn followers grew **508.7% yearly** [linkedin.com](https://www.linkedin.com/company/chaidiscovery). The Eli Lilly deal is a major validation of the technology by a top-tier pharma company.

## Competitive Advantages
- **Custom, homegrown AI architecture**: Every line of code is proprietary; they do not fine-tune off-the-shelf LLMs, giving them a unique technical moat. [techcrunch.com](https://techcrunch.com/2026/01/16/from-openais-offices-to-a-deal-with-eli-lilly-how-chai-discovery-became-one-of-the-flashiest-names-in-ai-drug-development/)
- **Deep ties to OpenAI**: Founders built the company out of OpenAI's offices, with Sam Altman as an early supporter and OpenAI as a seed investor, providing significant credibility and talent access. [techcrunch.com](https://techcrunch.com/2026/01/16/from-openais-offices-to-a-deal-with-eli-lilly-how-chai-discovery-became-one-of-the-flashiest-names-in-ai-drug-development/)
- **Founder expertise**: Co-founder Joshua Meier previously developed ESM1, the first transformer protein-language model, at Facebook (Meta) and worked at Generate:Biomedicines, giving the team deep domain expertise. [techcrunch.com](https://techcrunch.com/2026/01/16/from-openais-offices-to-a-deal-with-eli-lilly-how-chai-discovery-became-one-of-the-flashiest-names-in-ai-drug-development/)
- **Early market traction**: Has already secured a partnership with Eli Lilly, a top-10 global pharma company, indicating strong commercial viability ahead of many competitors. [techcrunch.com](https://techcrunch.com/2026/01/16/from-openais-offices-to-a-deal-with-eli-lilly-how-chai-discovery-became-one-of-the-flashiest-names-in-ai-drug-development/)

## Strategic Focus
- **Deploy AI in real-world drug discovery**: The company's immediate priority is to embed its models into the workflows of pharma partners like Eli Lilly to accelerate the development of novel therapeutics.
- **Unlock new classes of medicines**: By enabling atomic-precision design of antibodies, Chai aims to target historically "undruggable" biological pathways.
- **Scale the platform**: Continue to improve the Chai-2 model and expand its capabilities, with a goal of seeing first-in-class medicines enter clinical trials by the end of 2027. [techcrunch.com](https://techcrunch.com/2026/01/16/from-openais-offices-to-a-deal-with-eli-lilly-how-chai-discovery-became-one-of-the-flashiest-names-in-ai-drug-development/)

## Why Work Here
- **Culture**: Highly interdisciplinary, blending computer science, engineering, biology, chemistry, and physics. The company values deep technical talent and a "heads down" approach to pushing the frontier of AI. [chaidiscovery.com](https://www.chaidiscovery.com/careers)
- **Work policy**: In-person in **San Francisco, California** (HQ at 235 Pine St, Suite 1300). [linkedin.com](https://www.linkedin.com/company/chaidiscovery)
- **Notable perks/engineering culture**: Working at a well-funded, high-valuation startup with direct ties to OpenAI and a clear path to impact in a cutting-edge field. The team is small (~27 people) but growing fast, offering significant ownership and responsibility. Talent sources include Stripe, CERN, and Generate:Biomedicines, indicating a high-caliber peer group. [linkedin.com](https://www.linkedin.com/company/chaidiscovery)

## Sources
1. [Chai Discovery Website](https://www.chaidiscovery.com/)
2. [Chai Discovery Careers Page](https://jobs.ashbyhq.com/chaidiscovery)
3. [TechCrunch - How Chai Discovery became one of the flashiest names in AI drug development](https://techcrunch.com/2026/01/16/from-openais-offices-to-a-deal-with-eli-lilly-how-chai-discovery-became-one-of-the-flashiest-names-in-ai-drug-development/)
4. [LinkedIn - Chai Discovery Company Page](https://www.linkedin.com/company/chaidiscovery)

## Other roles at Chai Discovery

- [First Finance Hire](https://feeny.ai/job/first-finance-hire-chai-discovery-san-francisco-h4sy4s08eqwy) — San Francisco, CA
- [Internship](https://feeny.ai/job/internship-chai-discovery-san-francisco-web8x5z637y7) — San Francisco, CA
- [Security Lead](https://feeny.ai/job/security-lead-chai-discovery-san-francisco-ff3e5ja76ac2) — San Francisco, CA
- [Data Ops](https://feeny.ai/job/data-ops-chai-discovery-san-francisco-tt1g0j189zc0) — San Francisco, CA
- [Research Scientist](https://feeny.ai/job/research-scientist-chai-discovery-san-francisco-x8yhz96d2xxn) — San Francisco, CA
- [Forward-Deployed Scientist](https://feeny.ai/job/forward-deployed-scientist-chai-discovery-san-francisco-gmjhzbwc2zg3) — San Francisco, CA
- [Engagement Management](https://feeny.ai/job/engagement-management-chai-discovery-san-francisco-acqdvmn9f6qy) — San Francisco, CA
- [Business Development](https://feeny.ai/job/business-development-chai-discovery-san-francisco-5yy85rvtqh62) — San Francisco, CA
- [Antibody Engineering](https://feeny.ai/job/antibody-engineering-chai-discovery-san-francisco-781hbfm2bd46) — San Francisco, CA
- [Talent](https://feeny.ai/job/talent-chai-discovery-san-francisco-pdhh1fnjkwwx) — San Francisco, CA