Software Developer

Caltech is a world-renowned science and engineering institute that marshals some of the world's brightest minds and most innovative tools to address fundamental scientific questions. We thrive on finding and cultivating talented people who are passionate about what they do. Join us and be a part of the diverse Caltech community.

Job Summary

We’re hiring a software developer to help build and maintain MathDB.

https://mathdb.com/

MathDB is a large-scale community database of definitions, theorems, conjectures and open problems in mathematics, tracking the latest breakthroughs, and providing a new platform for research and collaboration. Mathematical knowledge is growing at an extraordinary pace. New results, methods and questions are arriving faster than the literature can absorb them, making it increasingly difficult to keep track of what is known, what remains open and how developments fit together. We need a shared database that grows with the subject: a living resource that the mathematical community can continually expand, correct and refine. Much of mathematical knowledge is scattered across papers, books, lecture notes and informal conversations. We aim to bring this knowledge together in a knowledge graph, connecting definitions, theorems, conjectures and open problems through implications, equivalences, examples and shared ideas. Making these relationships explicit can reveal connections that are otherwise easy to miss, help researchers navigate unfamiliar areas and accelerate the discovery of new mathematics. Formalization offers another way to make mathematical knowledge precise, reliable and reusable. We are integrating Lean formalizations and automatic proof verification into MathDB, connecting mathematical statements and their explanations with proofs that can be checked by a computer. Our goal is to make it easier to contribute formal proofs, inspect their assumptions and build on verified results, while keeping the relationship between a formal statement and its mathematical meaning clear.

We’re looking for someone who has experience building web apps and AI agents, and who can join our effort in building and maintaining web apps, mobile apps, backend servers, databases and Lean formalization pipelines for MathDB.

Essential Job Duties

• Assist in the development and maintenance of interactive web and mobile applications for MathDB.
• Support the development and maintenance of backend servers for MathDB.
• Assist in the development and maintenance of MathDB's backend database infrastructure.
• Support the development and maintenance of Lean formalization pipelines for MathDB.

Basic Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Mathematics, or a related field.
• Experience developing interactive web and mobile applications.
• Strong attention to detail in application design, performance, responsiveness, visual presentation, and user interface/user experience (UI/UX).
• Ability to work independently, adapt quickly, and incorporate feedback through an iterative development process.
• Experience with version control, software testing, and software engineering best practices.

Preferred Qualifications

• Master's degree in Computer Science, Mathematics, or a related field.
• Demonstrated experience developing and delivering polished, production-ready software products beyond the prototype stage.
• Familiarity with cloud computing, containerization, and orchestration technologies.
• Strong interest in mathematical research.
• Excellent communication skills and ability to collaborate effectively with users and colleagues.
• Familiarity with Lean formalization.

Required Documents

• Resume.