Scientist/Senior Scientist

Company Summary

Lila Sciences is a privately held, early-stage technology company pioneering the application of artificial intelligence to transform every aspect of the scientific method. Lila is backed by Flagship Pioneering, which brings the courage, long-term vision, and resources needed to realize unreasonable results. Join our mission-driven team and contribute to the future of science.

Our Life Sciences effort is leveraging AI and high-throughput automation for valuable therapeutic discovery and development across biological modalities.

At Lila, we are uniquely cross-functional and collaborative. We are actively reimagining the way teams work together and communicate. Therefore, we seek individuals with an inclusive mindset and a diversity of thought. Our teams thrive in unstructured and creative environments. All voices are heard because we know that experience comes in many forms, skills are transferable, and passion goes a long way.

If this sounds like an environment you’d love to work in, even if you only have some of the experience listed below, please apply.

The Role

Lila Sciences is seeking an experienced, creative, and talented (Senior) Machine Learning Scientist, Biomolecule Design to join our team. You will be part of an agile, cross-functional team responsible for generating protein, RNA or DNA sequences, updating models with experimental data, and integrating ML models into the data pipelines for our labs. Together with biologists, bioinformaticians, software developers, and automation engineers, you will work toward modeling biological sequences across a variety of valuable therapeutic applications.

The ideal candidate has a machine learning background with biotech industry experience building generative ML models, pre-processing pipelines, and comprehensive benchmarks to support biological sequence design.

Candidates should have experience and interest in:

• Designing, training and fine-tuning deep learning models to engineer proteins, RNA or DNA.
• Implementing rigorous testing, documentation, and model benchmarking.
• Incorporating these models into AI-enabled toolchains for the biology lab.
• Collaborating with cross-functional teams to translate ML model predictions into evaluated sequences by the wet lab.

Qualifications:

1. PhD in applied mathematics, computer science, physics, computational biology or other quantitative disciplines.
2. Proven track record in developing deep learning models.
3. Experience with large language models (e.g. autoregressive LLMs) for biological sequences.
4. Expertise in at least one ML framework (PyTorch/TensorFlow/Jax) and robust experience in the Python data science ecosystem.
5. Experience in training and deploying ML models on distributed computing services 

Working at Lila, you would have access to advanced technology in the areas of:

• AI experimental design and simulation
• Automated liquid handling and instrumentation
• Generative molecular design

More About Flagship Pioneering

Flagship Pioneering is a platform innovation company that invents and builds platform companies, each with the potential for multiple products that transform human health or sustainability. Since its launch in 2000, Flagship has originated and fostered more than 100 scientific ventures, resulting in more than $90 billion in aggregate value. Many of the companies Flagship has founded have addressed humanity’s most urgent challenges: vaccinating billions of people against COVID-19, curing intractable diseases, improving human health, preempting illness, and feeding the world by improving the resiliency and sustainability of agriculture.  Flagship has been recognized twice on FORTUNE’s “Change the World” list, an annual ranking of companies that have made a positive social and environmental impact through activities that are part of their core business strategies, and has been twice named to Fast Company’s annual list of the World’s Most Innovative Companies. Learn more about Flagship at www.flagshippioneering.com.

Flagship Pioneering and our ecosystem companies are committed to equal employment opportunity regardless of race, color, ancestry, religion, sex, national origin, sexual orientation, age, citizenship, marital status, disability, gender identity or Veteran status.

Recruitment & Staffing Agencies: Flagship Pioneering and its affiliated Flagship Lab companies (collectively, “FSP”) do not accept unsolicited resumes from any source other than candidates. The submission of unsolicited resumes by recruitment or staffing agencies to FSP or its employees is strictly prohibited unless contacted directly by Flagship Pioneering’s internal Talent Acquisition team. Any resume submitted by an agency in the absence of a signed agreement will automatically become the property of FSP, and FSP will not owe any referral or other fees with respect thereto.