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Agent guide: [/agents.md](https://www.wearedevelopers.com/agents.md). --- # Staff Software Engineer, TuneLab - **Company:** Eli Lilly and Company - **Location:** San Francisco, CA, United States - **Experience:** Expert - **Salary:** $177,000.0 - $270,600.0 - **Contract:** Permanent contract - **Skills:** Artificial Intelligence, Application Layers, Software as a Service, Cloud Computing, Code Review, Cursor (Graphical User Interface Elements), Database Schema, Software Engineering, Large Language Models, Backend, Information Technology, Build Tools, Front End Software Development, Api Design - **Published:** June 13, 2026 - **Apply:** https://lilly.wd5.myworkdayjobs.com/LLY/job/US-San-Francisco-CA/Staff-Software-Engineer--TuneLab_R-106677 ## About the Role * Education: Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or a related field. * 8+ years of software engineering experience, with a track record of shipping SaaS products used by real customers. * Demonstrated experience operating as a senior or staff IC on a small team-not just as a senior IC on a large one. * Qualified applicants must be authorized to work in the United States on a full-time basis. Lilly will not provide support for or sponsor work authorization or visas for this role, including but not limited to F-1 CPT, F-1 OPT, F-1 STEM OPT, J-1, H-1B, TN, O-1, E-3, H-1B1, or L-1., * Strong full-stack fundamentals. You're comfortable owning a feature from database schema to UI and have an opinion about each layer. * Solid API design and integration experience. You know how to build systems that connect things cleanly. * Real frontend craft: you can design and ship interfaces that feel right, not just functional. You sweat the empty states and the error states. * Cloud experience and comfort with modern deployment practices. * Enough familiarity with AI/ML to make good integration decisions. You don't need to be a data scientist, but you need to understand what you're wrapping and why it matters. * Always learning. You want the why behind an ask, not just the what, and you don't let momentum decide a solution for you. * Hands-on experience building LLM-powered features. You understand the practical challenges: reliability, evals, context management, and when not to use AI. * Comfortable with AI-assisted development tools (Cursor, Claude Code, etc.). You know how to get the most out of them. Product instincts, * Experience in life sciences, pharma, or health tech. * Background building B2B SaaS products. * Prior experience at a startup, or as an early engineer in an internal startup within a larger company. * Experience as a technical co-founder or one of the first engineers on a product that found users. ## Description TuneLab has powerful underlying AI models and point solutions. The job now is to turn them into something a biotech startup can actually use: a coherent workflow, a clean product experience, and a SaaS offering that scales. You won't start from zero. There are working point solutions, trained models, and internal infrastructure to build on. Federated learning is a meaningful part of the work - letting biotech customers use Lilly's models without their data leaving their environment. Plenty else is yours to create from scratch. We're looking for a Staff Software Engineer to be one of the founding engineers on this team. This is an IC role with real scope. You'll own product end-to-end, set the technical direction, and make the architecture calls that decide how fast a small team can move. There's no tech lead above you to defer to and no architecture council to escalate to. You're the senior engineer in the room. You'll work shoulder-to-shoulder with product, design, data science, and report to the TuneLab Engineering Manager., Build the product * Own product surfaces end-to-end-frontend, backend, data, integrations-whatever the problem requires. You don't hand off; you ship. * Architect and build the application layer that wraps Lilly's AI models into reliable, cohesive workflows for biotech customers. Make a set of point solutions feel like a product. * Make pragmatic technology decisions. Optimize for speed and quality. Pick boring tools when they work and reach for novel only when it pays. * Stay deep in the code. This is a build role, not a review role. * Set the engineering bar from scratch-code review, testing, release process, on-call. What you build becomes the team norm. Lift the team * Mentor other engineers as the team grows. Make them better at the job, not just better at this codebase. * Partner with the Engineering Manager on hiring. You're an interviewer and a recruiter-you sell the role and you hold the bar. * Pressure-test the roadmap with the PM and design lead. You have product taste and you use it. You'll push back when a spec is wrong and find the simpler way to ship. * Spot the things nobody owns and either pick them up or assign them clearly. The team's gaps are your problem. Operate effectively inside a large company * Navigate enterprise infrastructure, security, and compliance requirements without disrupting development progress. * Work with Lilly IT and internal platform teams to leverage existing capabilities rather than rebuild them. * Represent engineering in conversations with external biotech partners when it matters. You can speak credibly to a CTO on the other side., * You think about the user, not just the system. You've built software that external customers actually paid for and relied on. * You've simplified complex backend capabilities into clean, usable product experiences. * You ask "what problem are we solving?" before "how do we build it?" * You can hold your own with a PM on what we should build, not just how to build it. * Focused on delivering business value, not just shipping features. You'll work directly with internal stakeholders and customers when it helps the team. Startup mentality * You've worked in environments where the roadmap wasn't fully defined and the team was small, and you thrived. * Self-sufficient. You unblock yourself and figure things out. * You create structure and process when needed, but you know when to skip it. * You take ownership broadly. If something isn't working, you fix it rather than wait for someone else to. * Startup experience matters here more than big-tech tenure. How you lead * You lead with judgment. You don't need a manager title to set direction. * Low ego, high standards. You'll learn from a more junior engineer who knows the area better, and you'll push back firmly when you don't agree. * You communicate clearly across technical and non-technical audiences. ## Related Videos - [API Design - Getting Started](https://www.wearedevelopers.com/videos/33-api-design-getting-started) - [Developing the Backend with Stefan Lingler, CTO at Shpock](https://www.wearedevelopers.com/videos/100360-developing-the-backend-with-stefan-lingler-cto-at-shpock) - [Are Code Reviews Worth It? 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