Staff ML Research Scientist

Overview

Job Description

Responsibilities

• - Pioneer Novel Architectures: Drive the research and development of next-generation deep learning models for protein-ligand co-folding and affinity prediction.
• - Architect Product Integration: Bridge from research to commercial utility by equipping SandboxAQ’s software products with advanced predictive capabilities.
• - Orchestrate Technical Strategy: Bring novel ideas and the content of scientific papers into the ideation, training, and benchmarking of complex models, ensuring they are optimized for large-scale, real-world drug discovery applications.
• - Champion Scientific Excellence: Act as a technical beacon for the team, representing SandboxAQ scientifically and shaping its vision externally and internally.
• - Scale High-Performing Teams: Mentor junior researchers and collaborate across engineering and product teams to foster a culture of technical rigor and rapid iteration.

Required Skills

• - World-Class Domain Expertise: PhD in Computer Science, Computational Chemistry, or a related field, with specific focus on structure-based deep learned affinity modelling a plus.
• - Proven Industrial Impact: At least 4 years of post-PhD experience, including experience in a professional industry setting, with a track record of delivering scientific impact that translates to product.
• - Frontier Technical Skills: Direct, hands-on experience developing and executing leading-edge co-folding and/or affinity prediction models, from proof of concept to productionized workflows.
• - Domain-Specific Excellence: Proven excellence in co-folding and/or affinity prediction, as demonstrated by participation in industrial projects and/or academic publications.
• - Professional Engineering Fluency: Experience functioning within a professional software team, including proficiency in Python and modern ML frameworks (PyTorch/JAX) at scale.

Benefits

• - Competitive base salary, performance-based incentives or bonuses (where applicable), and equity participation.
• - Comprehensive medical, dental, and vision coverage for employees and dependents with generous employer premium contributions.
• - Retirement savings with company matching.
• - Paid parental leave, and inclusive family-building benefits.
• - Flexible paid time off, company-wide seasonal breaks, and support for flexible work arrangements that enable sustainable performance.
• - Opportunities for continuous learning and growth through on-the-job development, cross-functional collaboration, and access to internal learning and development programs.