We are always looking for exceptional engineers interested in building the future of AI-enabled drug development, predictive biology, and computational safety infrastructure. If you are excited about working at the intersection of AI, biotech, translational medicine, and scalable scientific systems, we would love to hear from you.

About the Role

Absentia Labs is building AI-driven mechanistic toxicology and translational safety infrastructure designed to improve how biological risk and organ-level toxicity are understood earlier in drug development. Our platform integrates large-scale biological, chemical, and experimental datasets to support predictive, human-relevant safety assessment and New Approach Methodologies (NAMs).

We are looking for highly motivated engineers with broad backgrounds who are excited to solve technically challenging problems in AI, biology, infrastructure, and scientific computing. This is a general application for candidates who may fit current or future engineering needs as the company grows.

Areas of interest may include:

Machine learning and AI infrastructure
Computational biology and bioinformatics
Backend and distributed systems
Data engineering and data platforms
Scientific software engineering
Full-stack product engineering
Cloud infrastructure and MLOps
Applied AI research
Visualization and scientific interfaces

What We Look For

Strong technical fundamentals and problem-solving ability
Interest in mission-driven work within biotechnology and healthcare
Ability to operate in fast-moving, ambiguous startup environments
Curiosity, ownership, and willingness to learn across disciplines
Experience building scalable systems, models, or products
Strong communication and collaboration skills

Nice to Have

Experience in biotech, healthcare, life sciences, or scientific computing
Familiarity with machine learning workflows or biological datasets
Startup or early-stage company experience
Interest in translational medicine, toxicology, or computational drug development

Location

Hybrid and remote-friendly depending on role. Preference for candidates open to working closely with the founding team in Boston.

Why Absentia Labs

Work on scientifically meaningful problems with real-world impact
Help shape a foundational platform at the intersection of AI and biology
Collaborate with pharmaceutical, academic, and regulatory stakeholders
Early-stage ownership and opportunity for outsized impact
Mission-driven team focused on improving translational safety and reducing unnecessary animal testing

About the company

Absentia Labs builds an AI-driven, organism-wide modeling platform that helps biotech and pharmaceutical teams assess drug safety and translational risk early in development. Its core AI-native engine combines biological, chemical, and assay data to simulate how a drug behaves in the body across whole organs, predicting efficacy and safety issues before preclinical tests. By focusing on organ-specific risks like liver, heart, and kidney liabilities, the platform aims to identify problem candidates early and guide which drugs to advance. This approach is designed to reduce late-stage failures and speed up the process of bringing medicines to the clinic, offering a more ethical and cost-effective alternative to traditional animal testing. Absentia Labs positions itself as the intelligence layer for molecular medicine, working with universities and biopharma partners to standardize and accelerate drug discovery and development.

Company Size

N/A

Company Stage

N/A

Total Funding

N/A

Headquarters

Somerville, Massachusetts

Founded

2024

Simplify's Take

What believers are saying

Absentia won FDA precisionFDA hepatotoxicity challenge in July 2026.
ISTAND recognition opens regulatory conversations with pharma using AI safety evidence.
If qualified, developers can reuse the model across IND packages without revalidating it.

What critics are saying

FDA acceptance at Letter of Intent is only the first qualification stage.
Digital Liver Model covers DILI only; efficacy and renal predictions remain unproven.
Insilico, Recursion, and pharma internal teams intensify competition before 2028 procurement cycles.

What makes Absentia Labs unique

Absentia Labs became the first AI DDT accepted into FDA ISTAND in July 2026.
Its Digital Liver Model combines mechanistic biology, assay data, and response histories.
The platform targets organism-wide safety prediction, starting with liver, cardiac, and kidney liabilities.

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Benefits

Flexible Work Hours

Hybrid Work Options

Remote Work Options

Company Equity

Company News

Associated Press

Jul 7th, 2026

Absentia Labs' AI liver model becomes first artificial intelligence drug development tool accepted into FDA qualification program

Absentia Labs, a Boston-based biotech startup founded in 2024, has become the first company to have an AI-driven drug development tool accepted into the FDA's qualification programme. The company's Digital Liver Model, designed to predict drug-induced liver injury, entered the FDA's ISTAND pathway—a historic milestone for AI-based safety assessment tools. The startup was co-founded by MIT-trained scientists Farhan Khodaee and Rohola Zandie, alongside Robert Betancort. Their AI platform combines mechanistic biology with drug-response data to help pharmaceutical companies assess liver injury risk before human trials begin. Drug-induced liver injury is a leading cause of clinical trial failure. Absentia's model addresses gaps in traditional animal testing by capturing the complexity of human liver response, including metabolism, genetics and immune factors.

Absentia Labs

Member of the Technical Staff

About the job