Algorithms, Scheduling, and Optimization Engineer
Hi! We’re Radix. We’re building the next revolution of scientific tools so scientists can spend more time doing what they do best: science. Right now, scientists with PhDs and years of experience spend literal hours every day copying and pasting data in Excel and manually pipetting. We think this is a problem and we’d rather they got that time back so they could put more time into important scientific discoveries like curing cancer, alzheimers, and even rare genetic conditions. Radix brings to biology a framework and a set of tools much like the tools for CAD/CAM/CAE or VLSI Design.
The biggest roadblocks biologists face today aren’t scientific, they’re operational. They’re about the sheer scale and complexity of making labs work properly. Increasing combinatorial complexity, choppy data flows, awkward equipment integration and poor software compatibility are all holding scientists–and discovery–back. We’re solving these problems and doing it by making a compiler, operating system, and programming language for the computer architecture of the modern biology lab.
We’re a diverse and merry band of nerds, hackers, and cat affectionados. If you work for us, you won't be the only woman, non-binary or trans person, POC, Latino/a/x, non-US citizen, wearer of silly hats, or cat! A key commonality is that we love working with our smart, passionate teammates and customers and that we’re dedicated to improving biologists’ day to day, especially when it means solving hard problems in CS. We also like mechanical keyboards and interesting programming languages a lot. More than is remotely reasonable.
We’re making progress every day towards dramatically improving scientists day to day. Our products delight our clients who are able to do much more with the help of our software and are able to stop doing the boring mechanics that they hate. We strive to make practical, pragmatic steps towards useful solutions that’ll let our customers. Sounds like the sort of team you’d like to be a part of?
In this position, you’ll work every day to make our code and our customers' operations more performant. You’ll work on the systems that need to schedule 100,000 tasks at once in a few seconds. You’ll work to figure out ways to optimize protocols and processes. This work entails a lot of math and theory. You’ll frequently read papers in order to figure out how to implement the functionality you’re working on. Then you’ll implement your findings in Scala and watch the results dramatically improve the day to day operations for biologists. While it sounds like a lot, it's a process–one that uses a lot of thinking and math.
Key skills:
These are not requirements. If you think you have adjacent skills, have done a few of the things listed, or would enjoy similar work, please apply!
● Constraint-based solver integration (SMT/heuristic/MIP)
● NP-complete problem solver
● Comfortable with metaheuristic implementation
● Enjoy reading technical research papers, learning from them, and
implementing them–sometimes with modification
● Experience with functional programming (Scala, Ocaml, Haskell, Erlang, Elixer)
or a strong desire and demonstrated capacity to learn
● Experience with GNU/Linux (we do all our work in Linux) and Git for versioncontrol
● Keen to learn and make biologists’ work lives better
Nice to have:
● Comfort with or interest in actor systems (we use Akka)
● Have done some things in a bio lab or think this sounds cool
● Human factors, user centered, or general design exposure
● Have thoughts and feelings about programming languages
Radix is an exciting work environment. We care about each other. We’re also LGBTQ+, polyamory, kink, gender, minority, and most other things supporting. We're an enthusiastic 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.
