Senior ML Scientist, AI for Protein Engineering

Lila Sciences
San Francisco
Workplace: OnsiteFull timeUSD 268,000 - 358,000 annuallyFunction: Research & Scientific (R&D)Education: phdSkills: ["Deep ML judgment","Independent research execution","Collaboration","Communication"]

Build and lead applied machine learning workflows for protein engineering campaigns, taking designs from specification through experimental learning. Develop de novo generation, property prediction, candidate selection, and active learning methods, then integrate them into robust software and autonomous reasoning models. Translate therapeutic and biological questions into ML problem definitions and evaluation plans, collaborate with experimental scientists to learn from successes and failures, and establish rigorous generalization evaluation frameworks.

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Lila Sciences
Lila Sciences
5 days ago

Senior ML Scientist, AI for Protein Engineering

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Last checked: 15 hours agoStatus: Live

Job Summary

Build and lead applied machine learning workflows for protein engineering campaigns, taking designs from specification through experimental learning. Develop de novo generation, property prediction, candidate selection, and active learning methods, then integrate them into robust software and autonomous reasoning models. Translate therapeutic and biological questions into ML problem definitions and evaluation plans, collaborate with experimental scientists to learn from successes and failures, and establish rigorous generalization evaluation frameworks.
Location: San Francisco
Workplace: Onsite
Employment Type: Full time
Job Function: Research & Scientific (R&D)
Seniority: Mid level

Key Responsibilities

  • •Own applied ML workflows for protein engineering campaigns from design specification through experimental learning.
  • •Develop and adapt methods for de novo generation, property prediction (sequence/structure based), candidate selection, and active learning; integrate into robust software and reasoning models.
  • •Translate therapeutic and biological questions into well-defined ML problems, model outputs, and evaluation plans.
  • •Partner with experimental scientists to interpret why designs succeed or fail and convert insights into better models and design principles.
  • •Build rigorous evaluation frameworks for model generalization on challenging protein design problems.

Pay and Benefits

Salary: USD 268,000 - 358,000 annually
Equity and Bonus:Equity
Perks:Health InsuranceDentalVisionPaid Parental

Key Requirements

  • •PhD in Computational Biology, Computer Science, Machine Learning, Biophysics, Bioengineering, or a related quantitative field.
  • •Strong track record applying machine learning to protein design, biologics engineering, or related biomolecular design problems (industry experience preferred).
  • •Deep ML expertise with hands-on experience adapting/developing modern AI methods rather than only using them off the shelf.
  • •Intuition for therapeutic biologics design, including sequence, structure, function, developability, and experimental validation considerations.
  • •Ability to drive applied research independently from problem definition through experimental validation and iteration.
Experience:Computational biologyProtein engineeringBiologicsTherapeutic designActive learningWet-lab validation
Education:PhD / Doctorate
Skills:Deep ML judgmentIndependent research executionCollaborationCommunication
Languages:English
Tech Stack:Diffusion modelsFlow matchingProtein language modelsMachine learningActive learningGenerative modelsProtein engineering models

Company Brief

Lila Sciences
Develops AI-driven platforms to accelerate drug discovery and biological research by integrating machine learning with chemical and biological data to predict molecular properties, streamline candidate selection, and enable faster therapeutic development.
Industry: Biotech
Company Size: Small (11 to 50 employees)
Growth: Early Stage Startup
Funding: Seed
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