Note: The job is a remote job and is open to candidates in USA. Lilly is a global healthcare leader headquartered in Indianapolis, Indiana, committed to making life better for people worldwide. They are seeking a Staff Software Engineer for TuneLab to build a scalable SaaS product that integrates advanced AI/ML models for biotech companies, ensuring a smooth workflow and user experience.
Responsibilities
- 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
- 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
- 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
Skills
- 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
- 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
- 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
- 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
- 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
Benefits
- Company bonus (depending, in part, on company and individual performance)
- Eligibility to participate in a company-sponsored 401(k)
- Pension
- Vacation benefits
- Eligibility for medical, dental, vision and prescription drug benefits
- Flexible benefits (e.g., healthcare and/or dependent day care flexible spending accounts)
- Life insurance and death benefits
- Certain time off and leave of absence benefits
- Well-being benefits (e.g., employee assistance program, fitness benefits, and employee clubs and activities)
Company Overview