Bioptimus
Technical Lead, Product
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Bioptimus is building the first universal AI foundation model for biology to fuel breakthrough discoveries and accelerate innovation in biomedicine. With more than $75M in funding, Bioptimus is a fast-growing start-up headquartered in Paris, incorporated in October 2023. Backed by leading international venture capitalists, our world-class team of scientists and engineers is redefining the frontiers of AI and life sciences.
Technical Lead, Product
This is a remote role. We’re headquartered in Paris, but the position can be performed remotely outside of Paris.
About the role
We are looking for a Technical Lead to build the product that puts our foundation models for biology into the hands of scientists and engineers. From the back-end services that serve our models, to the APIs that compose them into capabilities, to the feature-level interfaces that bring them to users—you will own features end to end and turn cutting-edge research into reliable, well-crafted products. You'll work in close partnership with our Product Engineers.
This is a senior builder's role at the intersection of AI and biology. You'll work across the stack and across teams, set technical direction on the surfaces you own, mentor other engineers, and partner closely with R&D to ship software that makes our models usable and dependable.
This is a technical (individual-contributor) leadership role — you lead by shipping complex features yourself, setting the technical bar through ownership, implementation, architecture, standards and mentoring through code reviews and pairing rather than direct reports. As the Product team grows, there's a path to take on people management if that's a direction you want; it is not a requirement of the role.
What you'll be doing
As a Technical Lead, you will have ownership over the following:
Product Development (End to End):
- Design, build, test, and ship features spanning back-end services and front-end interfaces for our B2B biology products.
- Take features from idea to production and own them in operation, balancing speed with quality and maintainability.
Back-End & Services:
- Design and maintain robust, scalable services and APIs (REST, gRPC) that compose our packaged models into product capabilities.
- Build data workflows and work fluently with our core stack (Python, SQL, and related technologies).
Building on the SDK & Model Packages:
- Build product on top of the SDK and model packages produced by our Product Engineers, and feed back what the product layer needs from those interfaces.
Technical Leadership:
- Set engineering patterns and standards for the surfaces you own, lead design on ambiguous, cross-cutting problems, and mentor other engineers through code review and pairing.
AI-Assisted Development:
- Use agentic coding tools (e.g., opencode, Claude) to accelerate delivery, and help shape how our team adopts AI-native development workflows.
Cross-Functional Collaboration:
- Work closely with Product Engineers and platform/infra engineers to align what we build with real scientific and customer needs.
What you'll bring
The successful candidate is a seasoned, technically versatile engineer who ships high-quality software and raises the bar for those around them; they thrive in fast-paced environments and bring clarity to ambiguous problems.
Technical Proficiency:
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- Advanced Python Proficiency: Several years of experience writing clean, well-tested, maintainable Python in production, with a track record of owning features end to end.
- Full-Stack Capability: Strong across back-end services and comfortable with modern front-end development (JavaScript/TypeScript with a modern framework such as React, Vue, or similar).
- Data & Storage: Solid working knowledge of SQL and designing sensible data workflows.
- Cloud Deployment Expertise: Hands-on experience deploying applications and ML models in the cloud (AWS strongly preferred; GCP/Azure a plus) using containers (Docker, Kubernetes).
- Software Engineering Fundamentals: Strong grasp of core computer science principles, data structures, and modern CI/CD workflows.
Solution Design & Leadership:
- Software Design & Architecture: Excellent grasp of object-oriented and functional design principles, with the ability to reason about and explain trade-offs between performance, simplicity, and modularity.
- Setting Direction: Demonstrated experience setting technical patterns, leading design on cross-cutting work, and mentoring other engineers.
- APIs & Integration: Experience designing and integrating APIs (e.g., REST, gRPC) to ship complex applications.
- AI-Native Tooling: Comfortable working with agentic coding tools (e.g., opencode, Claude) as part of your day-to-day workflow.
Communication & Collaboration:
- Clear Communication: You can explain technical concepts to diverse audiences (from PhD scientists to DevOps engineers) with clarity and empathy.
- Team-First Attitude: Independent, curious, and detail-oriented; thrives in a dynamic environment; and is fun to work with.
Education:
- MSc or equivalent experience in Computer Science or a related technical field.
Languages:
- Full professional fluency in English is required for this role.
How to stand out?
These are not required, but would be a plus:
- Direct experience working in Pharma, Biotech, or Healthcare.
- Experience building developer-facing products or platforms used by external customers.
- Experience leading a team or technically owning a significant product area.
- Deep experience with the AWS ecosystem and ML-relevant services (SageMaker, EC2, S3, IAM, RDS).
- Familiarity with deep-learning frameworks like PyTorch or JAX, and AI ecosystem libraries such as Hugging Face Transformers.
- Experience with the lifecycle of AI models, including deployment, hosting, and optimization for low-latency inference.
- Experience building data-rich or scientific visualizations in the front-end.
- Experience contributing to and/or maintaining open-source projects.
- Experience in a startup or innovative environment, showing adaptability, proactiveness, and eagerness to take on varied responsibilities.
The candidate journey
To be considered, please submit your CV in English. We believe in a transparent and collaborative interview process. Here is what you can expect after submitting your application:
Screening: Once you have applied, the hiring team will review your application to determine if your work experience and skills align with the necessary proficiency of this position.
Interview Process: You will be invited to a series of interviews. The core stages are outlined below; the order may be adapted and additional conversations may be included to ensure a comprehensive evaluation.
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- Hiring Manager (30 min): A call to discuss your background, motivation, and expertise, including a deep dive into your technical skills and experience with coding and cloud environments.
- Case Study (45min): Ahead of this interview we'll share a take-home case study drawn from real product-engineering work. You'll present and discuss your proposed solution & approach with the team — no live coding.
- System Design (45min): A structured, interviewee-led live exercise focused on product delivery and technical decision-making (no prior preparation or materials required). You will be given a product/engineering scenario (e.g., designing a feature or capability on top of our models).
- Culture Fit (30 min): A conversation with a small group of team members to discuss your broader motivations and alignment with the company's vision, and for you to ask any final questions.
Offer: Following the interviews, our hiring team will make a final decision and be in touch with the outcome. An offer is contingent upon the successful completion of a reference check.
On-boarding: Once you have accepted and signed your offer, we will be in touch to begin on-boarding you to Bioptimus.
Why This is a Unique Opportunity
- Reporting to the Head of Product, a senior, high-ownership role shaping how our foundation models are built into products and accessed by customers, helping realize our vision of integrating state-of-the-art AI into Drug Discovery and Healthcare.
- A unique opportunity to apply your software engineering expertise to benefit patients through our Foundation Models for Biology, directly contributing to our mission to understand biology and create lasting impact for patients living with disease.
- In addition to a competitive compensation package, you will have a meaningful stake in the company's future, ensuring your contributions are aligned with our long-term value and success.
- Flexible work arrangements, including remote options, allowing you to maintain work-life balance while making an impact.
- Significant opportunities for professional growth and leadership development in a rapidly evolving field at the intersection of AI and biology.
Please note: This role is open in multiple locations, including remote positions. To help our team, please apply to the location where you are primarily based or would prefer to work.
And benefit from:
- A collaborative and mission-driven work environment.
- Competitive salary and equity package.
- Flexible work arrangements, including remote options.
- Opportunities for professional growth and leadership development.
- Shape the future of biology and AI by contributing to groundbreaking work.
We believe that the unique contributions of all Bioptimists create our success. To ensure that our culture continues to incorporate everyone’s perspectives and experience, we never discriminate based on race, religion, national origin, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, age, or marital, or disability status. Decisions related to hiring are made fairly, and we provide equal employment opportunities to all qualified candidates. We take responsibility for always striving to create an inclusive environment that makes every employee and candidate feel welcome.
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