I

iLoF

AI-powered photonics platform for drug discovery

Engineering Lead - Multiple Teams

Full-TimeUpdated on 10/23/2026
No salary listed
Senior
Bachelor's, Master's, PhD
London, UK
In PersonBased in London; collaborates daily with teams in the UK and abroad.
Engineering ManagementEngineering Leadership

About the job

Requirements
  • A bachelor's or master's degree in Nanoscience, Biomedical Engineering, Optical Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Physics Engineering, or a related field is required; a PhD is a plus.
  • At least 6 years of experience leading engineering or product development, ideally in medical devices, diagnostics, or life-science instrumentation.
  • A proven track record building and managing multidisciplinary teams across hardware, software, data science, and life sciences.
  • Ability to collaborate with clinical scientists, assay developers, and healthcare partners.
  • Deep expertise in at least one core engineering area and broad fluency across optics and photonics.
  • Familiarity with ISO 13485, IVDR, and UKCA in product development.
  • Startup experience, including learning from failure and recovery cycles, is strongly preferred.
Responsibilities
  • Provide hands-on technical direction and manage day-to-day engineering operations, ensuring engineering goals align with company strategy and the product roadmap.
  • Assemble, mentor, and lead a multidisciplinary group across hardware, software, optics and photonics, systems, and data.
  • Serve as the principal technical liaison with scientists and assay developers, translating clinical and biological needs into robust engineering solutions.
  • Bridge UK and international sites by standardizing practices, promoting knowledge sharing, and aligning priorities.
  • Drive programs from concept through verification and validation; define milestones, allocate resources, manage risks and issues, and deliver reliable systems on time.
  • Use first-hand startup experience to inform pragmatic decisions and lead through iteration cycles and setbacks with a calm, data-driven approach.
  • Ensure engineering practices support ISO 13485, ISO 15189, IVDR, and UKCA expectations; partner with QA/RA on design controls and documentation.
Desired Qualifications
  • Exposure to ISO 15189 is desirable.
  • AI and machine learning exposure is a strong plus.

About the company

iLoF combines artificial intelligence with photonics to speed up personalized drug discovery by turning light signals from small, non-invasive blood samples into optical fingerprints stored in a cloud library. The platform collects light signals, creates fingerprints, uploads them to the cloud, and uses AI to extract data and identify biomarkers to guide patient stratification for trials. It differentiates itself by linking non-invasive optical fingerprints with a cloud-based data library and offering a data-access subscription and end-to-end service for pharma, enabling scalable biomarker discovery and patient grouping. Its goal is to shorten drug development timelines and trial screening costs by providing AI-driven, non-invasive biomarker insights for more patient-centric studies.

Company Size

11-50

Company Stage

Early VC

Total Funding

$13M

Headquarters

London, United Kingdom

Founded

2019

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Simplify's Take

What believers are saying

  • March 2026 funding added €200,000 from Webit, alongside M12, Lunar, Quiet, and Hamamatsu.
  • iLoF said 2025 revenue grew over 40%, signaling buyer pull.
  • The company hired for optical systems, data science, and QA/RA on September 9, 2026.

What critics are saying

  • March 2026 financing was only €200,000, too small for global commercialization.
  • iLoF depends on Alzheimer’s studies and pharma pilots; one failed Bio-Hermes readout hurts sales.
  • If Bluepharma and Bio-Hermes stall, iLoF stays a grant-funded research vendor.

What makes iLoF unique

  • iLoF’s Optomics pairs photonics with AI, turning blood samples into disease fingerprints.
  • Bluepharma chose iLoF in March 2026 to deploy Optomics across development and manufacturing.
  • AstraZeneca, Johnson & Johnson, and Bio-Hermes-002 anchor iLoF’s clinical credibility.

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Benefits

  • Health Insurance
  • Flexible Work Hours
  • Remote Work Options
  • Company Social Events
  • Performance Bonus
  • Stock Options

Growth & Insights and Company News

6 month growth

-2%

1 year growth

0%

2 year growth

0%
SeeNews
Mar 9th, 2026
Bulgarian VC Webit invests $226,000 in UK deeptech firm iLoF

Bulgarian venture capital firm Webit Investment Network has invested €200,000 in UK-based deeptech company iLoF through a simple agreement for future equity instrument. The investment joins existing backers including Microsoft Ventures, Lunar Ventures, Quiet Capital, Hamamatsu and EIT Health. iLoF develops a deeptech platform combining photonics and AI to analyse biological samples, creating molecular fingerprints for pre-clinical analytics, biopharma and clinical applications. The company works with AstraZeneca, Johnson & Johnson and Hamamatsu Medical Centers, with revenues growing over 40% in 2025 versus 2024. The investment expands Webit's healthcare and biotechnology vertical and complements its existing position in French medical device company InHeart.

PR Newswire
Mar 4th, 2026
iLoF partners with Bluepharma to deploy AI-powered OptomicsÂŽ platform across pharmaceutical value chain

iLoF, a company pioneering Optomics, an AI-powered photonics platform for drug development, has announced a strategic collaboration with Portuguese pharmaceutical firm Bluepharma. The partnership will integrate Optomics across the pharmaceutical value chain, exploring opportunities in drug development, research and manufacturing. Under the agreement, Optomics will be deployed in real-world settings to evaluate the platform against regulatory and quality standards. The collaboration aims to enhance Bluepharma's capability to develop complex formulations with greater speed and accuracy whilst addressing critical bottlenecks in drug development processes. The announcement follows iLoF's recent $1.5 million clinical research contract to deploy Optomics across over 30 Alzheimer's disease study sites in the US, Canada and UK, and a strategic partnership with Hamamatsu Photonics Japan.

EIT Health
Apr 25th, 2023
EIT Health-backed start-ups garner big investments - EIT Health

A million each for iLoF and Restorative Neurotechnologies

EU-Startups
Nov 4th, 2022
Eit Jumpstarter: Switching Mindsets And Pushing Entrepreneurs To Market

Editor’s Note: This post has been created in collaboration and with financial support from EIT Jumpstarter as a Media Partner. If you’re also interested in partnering with us, just reach out. The EIT Jumpstarter Grand Final event is a pre-accelerator programme that helps European innovators and entrepreneurs build a viable business model around their innovative idea. We got an inside look at the programme from Dora Marosvolgyi, the woman leading the EIT Community’s Strategic Innovation Projects

InvestPorto
Aug 2nd, 2022
Ilof Intelligent Lab On Fiber will increase headcount by 20 on Jan 1st 23'.

To develop "effective therapies for millions of patients around the world", iLof will need to hire 20 more people by 2023 and is looking for profiles in physics, data science, biology and product management.