Senior Software Engineer, Semantic Scholar

Hybrid: Individuals in this role are expected to live in the Greater Seattle area and are encouraged to spend 1-3 days per week on-site in our Seattle offices.

Compensation Range: $140,230 - $213,150

Who You Are:

You're a seasoned backend developer that has experience building systems at scale as well as working on teams that move fast.

Who We Are:

Semantic Scholar is a Research and Product Development team within the Allen Institute for AI. We provide free, AI-driven search and discovery tools, and open resources for the global research community. We work closely with other teams within Ai2 (e.g. AllenNLP, ReOps, etc.) on impactful company-wide initiatives, particularly OLMo.

Your Next Challenge:

The essential functions include, but are not limited to the following:

1. Develop efficient and scalable data processing pipelines, particularly unstructured data.
2. Engage in the entire software development lifecycle; from ideation and design to implementation and testing to deployment and operational support.
3. Scale our systems in a cost effective and sustainable manner and be a driving force behind continuous improvements in reliability and automation.
4. Generate impact and team velocity through efforts in but not limited to: software design and feature development, platform and framework development (e.g. machine learning experimentation capabilities), capacity planning, and deployment tooling and infrastructure.
5. Help set and maintain best practices in how we measure, monitor, and respond to system availability, latency, and general application health.
6. Mentor less-senior engineers on the team in both technical and non-technical skills.

What You'll Need:

Minimum qualifications:

1. BS degree in Computer Science or related technical field where software development is a key component, or equivalent industry experience.
2. 5+ years of experience building high quality software and services.
3. Experience in algorithm design, data structures, complexity and risk analysis, and software architecture.
4. Experience in one or more of the following (or similar) languages: Javascript, Typescript, Python, Java, Scala.

Preferred qualifications:

1. Experience designing, scaling and troubleshooting large-scale distributed systems.
2. Experience creating, evaluating, scaling and operating production machine learning models.
3. Experience with AWS (or similar) cloud development.
4. Experience with patents or scholarly documents.
5. Heightened sense of ownership for the performance and stability of services that provide value to millions of users.
6. Ability to think systematically about improving the process of developing and supporting software and the skills to translate these concerns into outcomes for our users and team.
7. Growth mindset: a desire to stretch the definition of the role and find additional ways to provide impact in a small team.

Physical Demands and Work Environment:

The physical demands described here are representative of those that must be met by a team member to successfully perform the essential functions of this position. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the functions.

1. Must be able to remain in a stationary position for long periods of time.
2. The ability to communicate information and ideas so others will understand. Must be able to exchange accurate information in these situations.
3. The ability to observe details at close range.
4. Can work under deadlines.

A Little More About Ai2:

Ai2 is a Seattle based non-profit AI research institute founded in 2014 by the late Paul Allen. Our mission is building breakthrough AI to solve the world's biggest problems. We develop foundational AI research and innovation to deliver real-world impact through large-scale open models, data, robotics, conservation, and beyond.

In addition to Ai2's core mission, we also aim to contribute to humanity through our treatment of each member of the Ai2 Team. Some highlights are:

1. We are a learning organization - because everything Ai2 does is ground-breaking, we are learning every day. Similarly, through weekly Ai2 Academy lectures, a wide variety of world-class AI experts as guest speakers, and our commitment to your personal ongoing education, Ai2 is a place where you will have opportunities to continue learning alongside your coworkers.
2. We value diversity - We seek to hire, support, and promote people from all genders, ethnicities, and all levels of experience regardless of age. We particularly encourage applications from women, non-binary individuals, people of color, members of the LGBTQA+ community, and people with disabilities of any kind.
3. We value inclusion - We understand the value that people's individual experiences and perspectives can bring to an organization, and we are building a culture in which all voices are heard, respected and considered.
4. We emphasize a healthy work/life balance - we believe our team members are happiest and most productive when their work/life balance is optimized. While we value powerful research results which drive our mission forward, we also value dinner with family, weekend time, and vacation time. We offer generous paid vacation and sick leave as well as family leave.
5. We are collaborative and transparent - we consider ourselves a team, all moving with a common purpose. We are quick to cheer our successes, and even quicker to share and jointly problem solve our failures.
6. We are in Seattle - and our office is on the water! We have mountains, we have lakes, we have four seasons, we bike to work, we have a vibrant theater scene, and we have so much else. We even have kayaks for you to paddle right outside our front door. We welcome interest from applicants from outside of the United States.
7. We are friendly - chances are you will like every one of the 200+ (and growing) people who work here. We do.

Ai2 is proud to be an Equal Opportunity employer. We do not discriminate based upon race, religion, color, national origin, sex (including pregnancy, childbirth, or related medical conditions), sexual orientation, gender, gender identity, gender expression, transgender status, sexual stereotypes, age, status as a protected veteran, status as an individual with a disability, or other applicable legally protected characteristics. You may view the related Know Your Rights compliance poster and the Pay Transparency Nondiscrimination Provision by clicking on their corresponding links.

This employer participates in E-Verify and will provide the federal government with your Form I-9 information to confirm that you are authorized to work in the U.S. If E-Verify cannot confirm that you are authorized to work, this employer is required to give you written instructions and an opportunity to contact the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) or Social Security Administration (SSA) so you can begin to resolve the issue before the employer can take any action against you, including terminating your employment. Employers can only use E-Verify once you have accepted a job offer and completed the Form I-9.

We are committed to providing reasonable accommodations to employees and applicants with disabilities to the full extent required by the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). If you feel you need a reasonable accommodation pursuant to the ADA, you are encouraged to contact us at

Benefits:

1. Team members and their families are covered by medical, dental, vision, basic life insurance, basic accidental death and dismemberment insurance, short-term disability, long-term disability, and an employee assistance program.
2. Team members are able to enroll in our voluntary life insurance program, our voluntary accidental death and dismemberment program, our health savings account plan, our healthcare reimbursement arrangement plan, and our health care and dependent care flexible spending account plans.
3. Team members are able to enroll in our company's 401k plan.
4. Team members will receive $125 per month to assist with commuting or internet expenses and will also receive $200 per month for fitness and wellbeing expenses.
5. Team members will also receive up to ten sick days per year, up to seven personal days per year, up to 20 vacation days per year and twelve paid holidays throughout the calendar year.
6. Team members will be able to receive annual bonuses and can participate in the long-term incentive plan.