Senior Data Scientist

Direct message the job poster from Next Phase Recruitment

I’m supporting an innovative client at the forefront of chemistry, robotics, and AI who is looking to hire a Senior AI/ML Data Scientist to help advance their small‑molecule discovery and computer‑aided drug design (CADD) capabilities.

This is an opportunity to join a cutting‑edge multidisciplinary team and play a key role in building and deploying state‑of‑the‑art models that directly accelerate drug discovery. Open to candidates within the UK/EU/US!

As Senior Data Scientist, you will:

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• Develop and optimise advanced generative models (Transformers, GNNs, Diffusion Models) for molecular design and prediction tasks.
  
• Build scalable pipelines for processing large chemical/biological datasets and training high‑performance models.
  
• Apply modern AI/ML techniques to challenges such as ADMET/QSAR prediction, reaction prediction, binding affinity, and synthetic route design.
  
• Work closely with computational chemists, medicinal chemists, and engineers to integrate AI results into real discovery workflows.
  
• Design robust experiments to ensure model quality, synthesizability, novelty, and accuracy.
  
• Clearly communicate insights and recommendations across technical and non‑technical teams.
  
• Stay up to date with AI for drug discovery, multimodal models, and emerging research.
  

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• MSc/PhD plus 5+ years of experience in Machine Learning, Computer Science, Computational Chemistry/Biology, or related fields.
  
• Strong proficiency in Python and deep learning frameworks (PyTorch or TensorFlow).
  
• Deep understanding of modern ML architectures: Transformers, GNNs, VAEs/GANs/Diffusion Models.
  
• Experience leading complex ML projects end‑to‑end in a scientific context.
  
• Track record working with molecular data (SMILES, 3D structures) and biological datasets (protein sequences, assay data).
  
• Familiarity with efficient training methods (LoRA, quantization, distillation) and GPU/distributed environments.
  
• Experience with ML for protein structures or small‑molecule interactions is highly valuable.
  
• Strong communication, problem‑solving abilities, and a collaborative mindset.
  

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• Cheminformatics tools such as RDKit
  
• RAG systems and vector databases (FAISS, Pinecone, Milvus, Redis)
  
• Protein language models (ESM, ProtBERT) or structure prediction approaches
  
• SQL/NoSQL databases
  
• Open‑source contributions or project portfolio
  

Mid‑Senior level

Full‑time

Information Technology

Biotechnology Research, Pharmaceutical Manufacturing, and Research Services