Staff Software Engineer

Develop Health is on a mission to use AI to radically accelerate access to life-saving medications. By automating complex, manual healthcare processes—like benefit verification and prior authorization— we've been growing rapidly and over the past couple of years have helped over 3.6 million patients!

We’re partnering with some of the largest pharmacy benefit managers and payers in the nation, revolutionizing how healthcare interactions occur by eliminating human delays and inefficiencies. Our small, elite team of founders and engineers have previously launched and exited successful healthcare startups including Rupa Health and Canvas Medical. We are now scaling rapidly following a major funding round.

We're looking for a Staff Software Engineer who wants to set the direction for AI products that do real work in healthcare, and still write a lot of the code. You'll lead projects that span systems, from the experience prescribers see to the services and AI behind it, get people aligned on the approach, and see it through to adoption. Success here looks like the whole team shipping faster and more reliably, not just you.

Some of what you'd lead, from setting the direction to seeing it adopted:

• One routing model for every insurer. Today, where a request goes depends on rules scattered across the system. You’ll design a single model that works across every channel and move every flow onto it, so prescribers can hit send and trust it lands in the right place.

• AI that does the work inside the prescriber’s tools. You’ll set the technical direction for the AI that reads clinical notes and works through insurance rules, and shape how prescribers experience it, so requests move forward without pulling them away from patients.

• The workflow engine behind every request. Requests move between our AI, our operations team, prescribers, and insurers over days or weeks. You’ll decide whether to evolve or replace the engine that coordinates it, so nothing stalls and everyone can see where a request stands.

• Coverage answers at the moment of prescription. You’ll set the direction for the models and data that predict cost and requirements, and bring those answers into the prescriber’s workflow before they hit send.

• How we build with AI. We move fast with coding agents. You'll raise the bar, set standard and drive adoption of cutting edge agentic coding across the engineering team.

• At least 8 years building and shipping production software, including setting the technical direction for a system multiple teams depend on and seeing it through to adoption.

• You decide which problems are worth solving. You work with users and stakeholders to frame broad goals, negotiate scope, and push back when a requirement works against the outcome.

• You design for where the product is going, not just the next feature. You weigh alternatives and failure modes across systems, know when an existing design needs to be replaced, and still reach for the simplest path there.

• You raise the bar for the whole team. You spot the failures that keep coming back, fix the patterns behind them, and mentor engineers into owning bigger work.

• You push coding agents to their limits, hold their code to the same bar as your own, and turn what you learn into practices the whole team uses.

Healthcare experience. We'll teach you the domain. You also don't need a PM background, experience building for planet-scale traffic, or management experience.

We start simple and add complexity when we have a reason to. We care a lot about getting things right, because a dropped request here means a patient waits longer for their medication, and we handle protected health information every day. Engineers own their work from the first customer conversation through launch and after. The people who do well here push hard, take feedback well, and ask a lot of questions.

• 250K–300K base plus meaningful early-stage equity

• Medical, dental, and vision. We pay 100% of your premiums and 50% for dependents

• 401(k) with a 4% match

• Up to 12 weeks of fully paid parental leave, starting from your first day

• Flexible PTO and all major holidays

• A high-end workstation and budget for the AI tools you want to use

• A $5K relocation bonus

Visa sponsorship will be considered on a case-by-case basis. As an early-stage company, our ability to provide immigration support depends on the role, applicable immigration requirements, anticipated costs, and timing. Support is subject to review by immigration counsel and company approval. At this time we do not support new H1-B visas for candidates outside the United States.

There are three steps: a recruiter call, an engineering skills screen built around a realistic problem instead of trivia, and an onsite at one of our Bay Area offices. The whole process usually takes about two weeks, and we'll get back to you within a day after each step.

Develop Health is an equal opportunity employer and welcomes applicants of every background.