Intern, Software Engineering

About the role

Profluent is the frontier AI lab for biology. Profluent builds powerful foundation models for all of life's molecules, unlocking solutions that transform medicine, agriculture, and beyond. Founded in 2022 and headquartered in Emeryville, CA, Profluent is backed by leading investors including Altimeter Capital, Bezos Expeditions, Spark Capital, Insight Partners, Air Street Capital, AIX Ventures, and Convergent Ventures and has raised over $150M to date.

We’re looking for a Software Engineering Intern to help build the tools and data systems behind Profluent’s AI-driven protein design cycle. Our models propose new proteins, scientists test them, and experimental results inform what we design next. Your work will help connect those steps and make the resulting data useful for both scientists and machine learning teams.

This is an opportunity to take a focused software project from idea to a tool that scientists use in their research. For example, you might build a tool for exploring protein designs or an interactive dashboard that helps researchers make sense of screening results. You’ll get feedback from the scientists using your work and present what you built at the end of the internship.

Responsibilities

- Design and build software that helps scientists explore protein designs, plan experiments, or visualize results

- Develop intuitive user interfaces and the APIs and data services that support them

- Collaborate with scientists, engineers, and machine learning researchers to understand their needs and improve your work through feedback

- Write well-tested code, document your work, and present your project to the team

Qualifications

- Current MS or PhD student or recent graduate in Bioinformatics, Computational Biology, Machine Learning, Computer Science, Statistics, or a related quantitative field.

- Strong programming skills in Python and familiarity with AI-assisted tools for writing, testing, and debugging software

- Experience with one or more of the following: web applications, data visualization, APIs, databases, or scientific computing

- Curiosity about AI and biology, strong problem-solving skills, and the ability to work independently and collaboratively; prior biology experience is not required

Internship Details

- Typical duration: 12 weeks, with flexible start dates

- Hybrid: 2–3 days on-site per week at our Emeryville, CA headquarters

- Opportunity to ship your work and make a lasting impact on how Profluent designs and tests proteins

What We Offer at Profluent

- Work on meaningful software projects at the frontier of AI and biology

- Mentorship from experienced software engineers and close collaboration with scientists and machine learning researchers

- A dynamic, mission-driven environment with the resources of a fast-growing, well-funded startup

- Competitive internship compensation