Software Engineer, Data/AI

About the role

Imagine if you had the skills, knowledge, and teammates to both understand the root of the world's most pressing problems and build the technologies and companies best positioned to solve them. RA Capital has done exactly that for more than two decades, backing bold ideas in medicines to further human health and now expanding into Planetary Health to improve how efficiently we utilize the world's precious resources.

RA Capital is among the leading providers of capital and services to the most promising innovators in the world. We invest flexibly-seed to IPO and beyond, anywhere in the world-with $10 B+ under management and a culture that prizes curiosity, rigor, and collaborative debate. We are investors who not only fund companies but get elbow deep in building them.

From helping them recruit talent to helping them recruit patients for their studies to helping match them to strategic partners and even going to Washington to win reforms, RA Capital's large team has people with nearly every relevant expertise one might need to turn an idea into a cure that actually helps people.

If you live for first-principles problem-solving with great colleagues, thrive on complexity, and want to do meaningful work that ripples across industries and ecosystems, you'll feel at home at RA Capital. Here, questions are welcomed, ideas are tested, and victories are shared. Even our lawyers are creative and engaging. And don't get us started on our compliance team's wicked sense of humor; nothing about what we do is boring.

Are you ready to bring your creativity, discipline and collaborative spirit to help us invent the future? Join us and you'll collaborate daily with investors, founders, physicians, biologists, engineers, economists, and reform advocates who think in systems and act with urgency.

Join us to invent a happier, healthier, more productive future - and have fun doing it.

About the Role

We are seeking an early-career software engineer to help build and operate AI-enabled data platforms and intelligent data workflows for healthcare data.

This role goes beyond traditional ETL. You will build healthcare data pipelines as well as AI-driven workflows and data applications that connect large language models with enterprise data and tools. This includes developing governed data access layers where LLMs translate user intent into structured queries and building agentic workflows that retrieve information, invoke tools, orchestrate multi-step tasks, and support self-service analytics, discovery, and decision-making.

Responsibilities

• Design and maintain scalable, production-grade data pipelines for healthcare datasets, including claims and provider data.
• Build and optimize data models to support analytical and AI-driven workloads.
• Develop high-quality Python and SQL code for data standardization, reconciliation, validation, and application workflows.
• Build AI-powered data applications and agentic workflows that connect LLMs with enterprise data and internal tools, retrieve information, execute multi-step tasks, and automate data and research processes with appropriate guardrails.
• Build and improve AI-native data access frameworks, including LLM-to-SQL and LLM-to-GraphQL patterns and reusable interfaces for structured data access.
• Build backend services, APIs, and reusable software components that power data and AI applications.
• Develop evaluation and testing frameworks to measure the accuracy, reliability, and performance of LLM-powered and agentic workflows.
• Write automated tests and contribute to CI/CD, deployment, and production support for data and AI systems.
• Collaborate with AI/ML engineers, healthcare data vendors, and internal stakeholders to translate user needs into production-ready data and AI solutions.
• Implement monitoring, observability, and governance for data pipelines and AI workflows.
• Document data architectures, AI-enabled workflows, and production systems.

Key Skills and Experience

• Strong software engineering fundamentals and an interest in building production systems.
• Strong foundation in data engineering and data modeling.
• Proficiency in Python and SQL; experience with Spark and Databricks is preferred.
• Experience building or integrating APIs, services, or workflow-oriented applications.
• Hands-on experience with, or a strong interest in, LLM-powered applications, AI agents, or agentic workflows.
• Familiarity with LLM tool use, structured outputs, orchestration patterns, GraphQL, or other API-based data access methods.
• Experience working with healthcare or other regulated datasets is a plus.
• Strong communication, ownership, and collaboration skills.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree or higher in Computer Science, Software Engineering, Data Science, or a related technical field, or equivalent practical experience. A master's degree is preferred.
• Up to three years of experience in software engineering, data engineering, or a related role.
• Must be based in the Boston area and available to work a hybrid schedule from our Boston office. Relocation assistance is not provided.
• Must be authorized to work in the United States without current or future sponsorship.

Compensation

RA Capital Management is committed to fair and equitable compensation practices. Pay for this position will be based on experience, skills, qualifications, and current market conditions.

In addition to base salary (listed below), employees may be eligible for performance-based bonuses and a comprehensive benefits package that includes health insurance, retirement contributions, and paid time off.

Total Rewards

We take pride in offering a comprehensive employee benefits program as a key part of overall compensation. Our Total Rewards include:

• Employer-paid monthly premiums for health, dental, and vision coverage
• Wellness benefits and programs to support physical and mental well-being
• Resources and perks that enhance work-life balance and financial security

• We're dedicated to helping our employees thrive professionally and personally.
• Massachusetts base pay range $120,000—$180,000 USD